Byzantine Disability: Leeds IMC 2026

Byzantine Disability, I: Religion and Representation

Abstract: This panel examines how disability was imagined, narrated, and visualised across Byzantine homiletics, religious poetry, and iconography. Philagathos of Cerami’s sermons frame impairment within divine economy, as both consequence and medium of spiritual refinement. Theodore Prodromos’ Tetrasticha depict biblical disabilities not as deficiencies but as narrative events of faith, integrating them into salvation history. Late Byzantine iconography of Christ’s miracles reveals the tension between portraying bodily infirmity and offering visual hope of healing. Together, these contributions illustrate the religious framework that shaped Byzantine interpretations and representations of disability.

Session: 1001

Organisers: Maroula Perisanidi, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds and Maria Alessia Rossi, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

Moderator: Maroula Perisanidi, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

1001-a: Disability, Sickness, and Divine Providence in Philagathos of Cerami's Homiletic Corpus, 12th Century (Language: English) Mircea Duluș, Institutul de Studii Sud-Est Europene, Academia Română, București

1001-b: The Poetics of Disability in Theodore Prodromos' Tetrasticha on the Old and New Testament (Language: English) Lilli Hölzlhammer, Institut für Byzantinistik, Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversität München / Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi, Uppsala universitet

1001-c: Being Healed by Christ: Depictions of Disability in Late Byzantine Art (Language: English) Maria Alessia Rossi, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

Byzantine Disability, II: Sight and Blindness

This panel focuses on Byzantine approaches to blindness and low vision, tracing their representations in urban violence, animal symbolism, and art. The first paper examines the gouging out of eyes as an act both cruel and potentially redemptive, situated within the context of urban spaces. The second investigates interpretations of the mole, believed to be blind from birth, to consider how animal blindness informed discourses on human disability. The third challenges assumptions about the inaccessibility of Byzantine art for blind audiences, proposing tactile strategies and rethinking visuality through both historical and practical lenses.

Session: 1101

Organisers: Maroula Perisanidi, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds and Maria Alessia Rossi, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

Moderator: Maria Alessia Rossi, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

1101-a: Justice, Penance, and the Blinded Prisoner in Byzantine Rome (Language: English) Gregor Kalas, School of Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

1101-b: The Blind Mole: Animals, Vision, and Disability in Byzantium (Language: English) Maroula Perisanidi, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

1101-c: Between Sight and Vision: Some Reflections on Strategies to Make Byzantine Art Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired People (Language: English) Flavia Vanni, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, Newcastle University