Past eventFri., May 1, 2026, 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.–Sat., May 2, 2026, 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
General: $50; Society of Fellows, Members & Readers: $30 (students and research fellows free) Optional lunch: $20 (each day)
Haaga Hall
With origins in the 1970s and 1980s, the flourishing of disability-focused research in Anglophone literature and culture has established rich fields of inquiry that now span the humanities. Scholars of France and Francophone literature and culture have turned more recently to exploring the experiential and affective dimensions of disability. Deeply entwined with questions of embodiment and feeling is the matter of care—tending and being tended to, care for oneself, and care for others. Gathering an interdisciplinary group of scholars who work transculturally and transhistorically, this conference aims to offer a capacious exploration of premodern embodiment, disability, affect, and care in Francophone literature, history, medicine, art history, disability studies, and critical theory.
Funding provided by The Dibner Research Fellow & Exhibition Endowment.
For questions about this event, email researchconference@huntington.org or call (626) 405-3432.
Top image: Book of Hours, use of Rome [France], 1500-1513. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Schedule is tentative and subject to change.
8:30 a.m. | Registration and coffee
9 a.m. | Welcome and introduction
9:15 a.m. | Session 1: Translation and Voice: Disability, (Ad)vocacy, Community
10:45 a.m. | Break
11 a.m. | Session 2: Animal/Animation: Metamorphosis and Bodily Care
12:30 p.m. | Lunch
2 p.m. | Session 3: On Constraint, Care, and Agency
9:30 a.m. | Registration and coffee
10 a.m. | Day 2 intro: Alani Hicks-Bartlett (Brown University) & Cynthia Nazarian (Northwestern University)
10:15 a.m. | Session 4: Bodily Management: Social/Political/Personal
11:45 a.m. | Lunch
1 p.m. | Session 5: Vulnerability and Power
2:30 p.m. | Concluding Discussion: Disability, Affect, and Care: Connections and Future Directions
