Understanding Disability Throughout History

Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir is a Professor of Disability Studies at the School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland. She received her doctorate in disability studies from the University of Sheffield in 2005. She is the Principle Investigator for the Disability before Disability project funded by the Icelandic Research Fund. James G. Rice is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2007. He is currently the Lead Researcher in the project "Disability, immigration and multigeneration: intersecting factors in child protection cases," funded by the University of Iceland's research fund.

Foreword. Introduction. 1. Disability in Medieval Iceland: Some Methodological Concerns. 2. Beneath the Surface: Disability in Archaeological and Osteobiographical Contexts. 3. One Story, One Person: The Importance of Micro/Bio Research for Disability Studies. 4. The Peculiar Attitude of the People – The Life and Social Conditions of One "Feebleminded" Girl in the Early 20th century. 5. From a Life with a Different Body to a Recreated Folklore of Accentuated Difference: Sigríður Benediksdóttir vs. Stutta-Sigga. 6. Dis-/abling Absence: Absencepresence as Matters that Matter. 7. Health, Healing, and the Social Body in Medieval Iceland. 8. Physical Impairment and The Spatial Dimensions of Everyday Life in Rural Households in Pre-Industrial Iceland. 9. Guðmundur Bergþórsson as Creator and Creation: A Folk Narrative Study of a 17th Century Disabled Poet. 10. Fictive Osteobiographical Narrative – The Missing Puzzle Pieces. Afterword.