Visible Disabilities in Premodern Europe
Uncovering Stories of Disability Across Time
VISIT OUR EXHIBIT AT THE MCMANUS!
Opening 26 June 2026
Working together to make past individuals with disabilities visible
Visible Disabilities is an international pilot project investigating the lives of people with physical impairments in medieval Europe. Our team integrates bioarchaeology, historical analysis, biomechanical modelling, and lived experience to investigate how individuals with significant physical impairments lived, moved, worked, and were treated within their communities.
This proof-of-concept project sits at the intersection of disability studies, medieval history, biomechanics, and the bioarchaeology of personhood - a growing field concerned with the evidence for the intersecting identities of past individuals. The project is co-led by Alejandra Aranceta Garza (Dundee), Alison Beach (St Andrews), Anita Radini (UCD), and Alice Toso (Bonn), with individuals with disabilities integrated at every level of the project.
Some of the research-in-progress reflected in History in our Bones has been funded by grants from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Beach's ongoing AHRC-funded project, Word of Mouth: Embodied Stories of Medieval Women at Work (TeamNun), is dedicated to recovering the stories of premodern religious women by combining historical research with the most recent advances in archaeological science.
TeamNun has already uncovered evidence of a number of individuals buried in monastic cemeteries who both played a role in the work life of their community and lived with significant physical impairments. The evidence provided by these individuals further challenges received narratives of burden, and about the exclusion of disabled individuals from premodern religious communities.
Seed funding for the Visible Disabilities pilot project has been provided by a Leadership Initiative for Tailored Support (LIFTS) and a St Andrews Interdisciplinary Research Support (STAIRS) award from the University of St Andrews Office of Research Innovation Services (RIS). These grants have supported exhibits at the St Andrews Wardlaw Museum Research Studio (April-May 2025) and the McManus Museum & Gallery in Dundee (June 2026-January 2027). Other funding has come from related projects, including Anita Radini's 2023 Dan David Prize for the Study of Human History and Alejandra Aranceta Garza's ongoing research on stroke recovery funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC EP/W033526/1).
We are currently seeking funding to expand this pilot study to include both more individual case studies and population-level investigation of disability in wider premodern communities.
