Classics and Disability Studies
Classics has yet to engage with disability studies in a way comparable with other areas of identity politics, such as gender, sexuality and ethnicity. This pilot project, led by Dr Ellen Adams and funded by the Wellcome Trust and the King's London Challenge Fund (2017-19), explores the potential of such an engagement.
Key research outputs/events to date:
‘Access all senses: “looking” at art using a visual language or as a visually-impaired person.’
This event was curated in the Courtauld Gallery in April 2018. It involved audio describers and deaf art tour leaders (with BSL interpreters), who demonstrated audio description and sign language as alternative modes of communication for art. This will be followed up by similar events in the British Museum and the V&A.
‘The Forgotten Other: Disability Studies and the Classical Body.’
This international conference drew together scholars from Classics and disability studies under bridging themes, such as ‘bioethics’ and ‘cultural representations’.
Visit the dedicated Museum Access Network for Sensory Impairments website for more information.
The Art of Making in Antiquity: Stoneworking in the Roman World
The Art of Making in Antiquity: Stoneworking in the Roman World was a two-year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust between 2011 and 2013. The Principle Investigator was Dr Will Wootton (Department of Classics) and the Co-Investigator John Bradley (Department of Digital Humanities), working with Dr Ben Russell, Dr Emma Libonati, Dr Michele Pasin and Brian Maher.
The website combines images with commentary, traditional essays on stoneworking and videos of carving in action. Together they bring the making process to life and are intended to engage a diverse audience.The key output was a dedicated website where visitors can explore the tools, materials and processes used in the making of Roman stone monuments.
Centred on the photographic archive of Peter Rockwell, the online resource enhances our understanding of the physical nature of stoneworking and investigates the relationship between the surviving objects, the techniques of production and the practices of their makers.