Special Event: Birkbeck, London, “Touching the Book: Embossed Literature for Blind People in the Nineteenth Century,” curated by Dr. Heather Tilley

New exhibition about nineteenth-century blindness open at Birkbeck, London.

We're very pleased to announce that a new, free exhibition has opened in the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck's School of Arts, Central London. Touching the Book: Embossed Literature for Blind People in the Nineteenth Century is curated by Dr Heather Tilley, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Birkbeck’s Department of English and Humanities, and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through their Sharing Heritage programme.

The exhibition explores the history of embossed reading and writing practices for blind and partially-sighted people prior to the adoption of braille in nineteenth-century Britain and Europe. It contains important examples of nineteenth-century embossed books, writing devices, journals, pamphlets and portraits from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the Wellcome Library, and private collections.  This was a period in which a number of raised alphabets were invented and taught in blind schools and teaching societies throughout Europe, characterized either by their resemblance to the Roman alphabet and legible to the eye or their use of an arbitrary, symbolic code, such as braille.

The exhibition traces debates between those alphabets that were best-suited to the eye vs those best-suited to the finger and explores how nineteenth-century blind and partially sighted people, including Thomas Rhodes Armitage (a founding member of RNIB) and communities campaigned to have ownership of embossed writing systems. Visitors will also be able to access further information and share responses to the exhibition on the exhibition’s website (http://blogs.bbk.ac.uk/touchingthebook/).

Touching the Book: Embossed Literature for Blind People in the Nineteenth Century. Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

18 July to 30 October 2013. Please visit the exhibition website for more information on opening hours.

The curator will deliver regular tours of the exhibition.

Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies (7/30-8/1/2012)

Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies presents

Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies

30th July-1st August 2012

Leeds Trinity University College


The nineteenth century was the period during which disability was conceptualised, categorised, and defined. The industrial revolution, advances in medicine, the emergence of philanthropy and the growth of asylums all played their part in creating what today’s society describes as the medical model of disability. Disability can be traced through many forms: in material culture and literary genres; scientific, medical and official inquiries; art; architecture; the history of disabled charities; disabled people’s experiences; the legacy inherited by disabled people today of the taxonomies and categories of disability – the ‘handicapped’; the ‘deaf and dumb’; the ‘feeble minded’; the blind; the ‘imbecile’ the ‘idiot’ and the ‘cretin’ – the legacy of the relationship between the body, the visual, the scientific and the literary text; the intersection of disability, theories of evolution, the emergence of the disciplines of statistics, social sciences and anthropology, eugenics and degeneration.  This conference seeks to address conceptualisations of disability in the Victorian period and their legacy(ies); the ways in which we can draw disabled voices and testimonies together to construct ‘the long view’, the intersection of disability studies and Victorian studies, and the conceptual, disciplinary, and pedagogical issues that arise as a consequence of this research.

Themes will include:      

• Resistance/conformity: subversion, transgression, agency and constraint.    
• The visibility and invisibility of disability: beggars, street sellers, hawkers, freak shows and circuses.    
• Victorian institutions: charities, asylums, schools and clubs.    
• Normalising practices: definitions, constructions, categories and taxonomies.    
• Victorian technologies: assistive and medical.    
• The emergence of specialisms: from audiology to psychiatry.    
• Disability as a moral force for improvement: theology and spiritual enlightenment/development, literature and the school of pain.    
• The formation of Victorian identities: nation, empire, ‘race’.    
• Disability and the fear of loss: national efficiency, eugenics and ‘degeneration’.    
• Medical and cultural histories: medical illustration and advertising, the relationship between the literary, the medical and the scientific text.    
• Acts: Victorian social policy and legal frameworks.    
• Work: employment, employability, the regulated employment and non-employment of disabled people    
• The spaces of disability: art, architecture, environment.    
• Pedagogy: teaching about disability and the disabled in the Victorian period.    
• Representing disability to non-specialist audiences: heritage interpretations, public histories, dictionaries.

This is an interdisciplinary conference, grounded in Victorian Studies, for which the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, being established since 1994 and home of the Journal of Victorian Culture, has a longstanding and influential reputation. Within Victorian Studies, and the humanities more broadly, disability studies has emerging significance (e.g. Martha Stoddard Holmes, Fictions of Affliction (2006), Julia Miele Rodas, rev. essay, ‘Mainstreaming Disability Studies?', Victorian Literature and Culture 36.1 (2006), and the Special Issue on 'Victorian Disability' for the Victorian Review (Fall 2009)). The aim of the conference is to bring these two interdisciplinary fields together.

As the history of disability has tended so far to focus on social constructions of disability, in part a reflection of the available sources, a key aim of the conference is to offer a new direction by addressing the experiences or testimonies of those who are disabled and by considering the long-term impact of such social constructions, in order to construct ‘the long view’.   Confirmed Keynote Speakers include:  Joanne Woiak, Ph.D., Disability Studies Program, University of Washington; Professor Martha Stoddard Holmes, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Literature and Writing Studies, Cal State University San Marcos, USA, 'Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture'; Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of National Fairground Archive, National Fairground Archive (Western Bank Library) University of Sheffield.

Over fifty papers have been accepted for this three-day international event. There is also opportunity to visit the Thackray Medical Museum, for an object-handling session, and I am pleased to inform you that the programme for the above conference has now been published on our webpage:  http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/NEWS_EVENTS/DISABILITY-VICTORIANS/Pages/ConferenceProgramme.aspx

If you anticipate that the conference registration fee might cause you financial hardship, please contact the organisers.  Prof Karen Sayer, DPhil, F. R. His. S.  Professor of Social and Cultural History Director of Programme: History Department of Humanities Leeds Trinity University College Brownberrie Lane Leeds LS18 5HD Tel: 0113 2837212

CFP: Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies (7/30-8/1/2012)

Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies:

Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies

30th July-1st August 2012; Leeds Trinity University College
Second Call for Papers

The nineteenth century was the period during which disability was conceptualised, categorised, and defined. The industrial revolution, advances in medicine, the emergence of philanthropy and the growth of asylums all played their part in creating what today's society describes as the medical model of disability.

Disability can be traced through many forms: in material culture and literary genres; scientific, medical and official inquiries; art; architecture; the history of disabled charities; disabled people's experiences; the legacy inherited by disabled people today of the taxonomies and categories of disability - the 'handicapped'; the 'deaf and dumb'; the 'feeble minded'; the blind; the 'imbecile' the 'idiot' and the 'cretin' -- the legacy of the relationship between the body, the visual, the scientific and the literary text; the intersection of disability, theories of evolution, the emergence of the disciplines of statistics, social sciences and anthropology, eugenics and degeneration.

This conference seeks to address conceptualisations of disability in the Victorian period and their legacy(ies); the ways in which we can draw disabled voices and testimonies together to construct 'the long view', the intersection of disability studies and Victorian studies, and the conceptual, disciplinary, and pedagogical issues that arise as a consequence of this research. Proposals for papers, panels, posters and other forms of presentation (e.g. creative writing and performance) are invited that open up new lines of research and inquiry relating to any aspect of Disability in the Victorian period.

Possible themes might include:

• Resistance/conformity: subversion, transgression, agency and constraint.
• The visibility and invisibility of disability: beggars, street sellers, hawkers, freak shows and circuses.
• Victorian institutions: charities, asylums, schools and clubs.
• Normalising practices: definitions, constructions, categories and taxonomies.
• Victorian technologies: assistive and medical.
• The emergence of specialisms: from audiology to psychiatry.
• Disability as a moral force for improvement: theology and spiritual enlightenment/development, literature and the school of pain.
• The formation of Victorian identities: nation, empire, 'race'. Disability and the fear of loss: national efficiency, eugenics and 'degeneration'.
• Medical and cultural histories: medical illustration and advertising, the relationship between the literary, the medical and the scientific text.
• Acts: Victorian social policy and legal frameworks.
• Work: employment, employability, the regulated employment and non-employment of disabled people
• The spaces of disability: art, architecture, environment.
• Pedagogy: teaching about disability and the disabled in the Victorian period.
• Representing disability to non-specialist audiences: heritage interpretations, public histories, dictionaries.

Those with an involvement in disability, either through direct experience, or work, teaching etc., and papers that adopt an interdisciplinary or comparative frame, shifting across the normal boundaries of history, literary studies, the history of medicine, the history and philosophy of science, art history, etc. are especially sought, but studies with a narrower focus seeking to challenge Victorian legacies in this field are also welcome.

Panels will consist of 20-minute presentations grounded in work submitted electronically in advance of the event. These pieces will be made available in advance, on a website dedicated to the event. Work may subsequently be considered for publication.

Please send a short biographical note together with your proposal. Prospective panel organisers should also send the panelists' names, paper titles, and a short biographical note for each panelist and their contact details.

Proposals, or enquiries relating to these, should be sent to Prof Karen Sayer k.sayer@leedstrinity.ac.uk

The deadline for the submission of proposals for individual 20-minute papers or presentations (200-250 words), and proposals for panel sessions (no longer than 500 words), is 31st August, 2011.

Confirmed Speakers include:
Joanne Woiak, Ph.D., Disability Studies Program, University of Washington; Professor Martha Stoddard Holmes, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Literature and Writing Studies, Cal State University San Marcos, USA, 'Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture'; Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of National Fairground Archive, National Fairground Archive (Western Bank Library) University of Sheffield. Mat Fraser, Actor, writer, MC, and Disability Artist, 'Freak to Clique' (invited to attend and perform)

Participants also already include independent researchers in the field, charities including coHearentVision, and those working with heritage providers/within public history, as well as those holding academic posts.

General enquiries to:
Joy Hamblin, Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University College, Brownberrie Lane, Leeds, LS18 5HD j.hamblin@leedstrinity.ac.uk; tel. 0113 2837305