Episode 1: Welcome to the Accessible Medievalist!

The welcome episode of the Accessible Medievalist! Check out more on the web site! 

Mentioned in Episode: Dr. Dayanna Knight 

Credits: 

Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Clip - The Adventures of Robin Hood from MovieSoundClips

Transcript

Episode 1: Welcome to the Accessible Medievalist!

In 1984, a four-year-old girl in mid-America, rural southern Illinois watched the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood for the first time. (Clip from film: "Welcome to Sherwood, my lady.") And a life-long love affair was born - with Errol Flynn, of course, but also with everything medieval! That was the exact moment I became a medievalist. Of course, I didn’t get qualified officially until more than a couple of decades later when I received my Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at the University of Connecticut. Now, I am Dr. Kisha Tracy, a professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts in the United States, and I am the “medievalist” of the Accessible Medievalist.

So what about the Accessible part? During graduate school, I was introduced to disability studies by a friend and colleague, and something clicked. It brought together some of my personal and professional interests in a way that I find very fulfilling. The issues of accessibility are particularly important to my students as well as scholars with disabilities. This field of research has led me both into topics of study but also areas of advocacy. 

The word “accessible” can have many meanings, such as: "easily used or accessed by people with disabilities: adapted for use by people with disabilities" but also "capable of being understood or appreciated." As the Accessible Medievalist, I will focus on medieval disabilities, both physical and invisible, telling stories and providing resources for those of you interested in this topic. While that will be our main emphasis, I’m also interested in opening up the study of the Middle Ages in general, making it more significant - and accessible - to everyone. 

The next natural question is why? Why talk about medieval disabilities and the Middle Ages as a whole? One of my favorite memes says “Dark Ages? More like Awesome Ages!” The Middle Ages are an amazing, wonderful, bizarre, complex, colorful world that often gets misunderstood or misrepresented.  

“Historical trauma” is the concept of collective trauma experienced over time and across generations by a group of people from the same community or who share the same identity. People with disabilities are a community that has experienced such trauma. The study and sharing of disability heritage attempts to help restore historical well-being. 

Whenever I ask an audience I’m speaking to or a class of students what they think of when I say “medieval disability,” invariably the answers are almost always negative: the plague, leprosy, abandonment, abuse, even death. A lot of that has to do with the “Dark Ages” myth - something we’ll talk about more in a later episode - if I know me, probably several times. But the representations of disability in medieval-esque media are usually pretty gruesome and generally play up the idea of disability stigma in the Middle Ages - and in such a way that it feels distant from us, as if that stigma is something in the past, not something that is still all too real for modern people. The full story of medieval disability is so much more interesting! And one that takes us all around the globe.

And that’s where the Accessible Medievalist comes in. I want to tell those stories, share the heritage of people with disabilities in the Middle Ages, talk about how different disabilities were perceived and managed, and perhaps help undo the erasure and stigma that people with disabilities regularly face. This will be the home for my work on medieval disabilities as well as the broader significance of the Middle Ages.

In addition to regular podcast episodes, the Accessible Medievalist project will feature publicly accessible resources I have developed or facilitated on Why Study the Middle Ages? and the Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized, including presentations, radio show episodes, articles, and more. The Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized was given the 2024 Disability History Association Research for Justice and Equity Award - something I’m very proud of! It will host self-paced workshops on Disability and Accessibility, Gender and Sexuality, and Diversity and (Dis)Connection. These will be debuted in the next few weeks. There will also be resources for teachers, eventually from K-16, on each of these topics and others. Future podcast episodes will feature all kinds of stories and, later on, I’ll have some guests in to chat with me. Personally, it’s going to be a blast! At least for me, and I hope for you!

Before I wrap up this welcome episode, I want to acknowledge Dr. Dayanna Knight, who created the Accessible Medievalist logo. She is a medievalist and an artist you can find at https://www.dayannaknight.com/. The green and gold colors of the logo are an acknowledgement of Fitchburg State University, my professional home. The sketched castle in the background represents the Middle Ages more broadly, its front entrance open as a means of access. Dr. Knight also developed icons that put a medieval spin on modern disability icons that you may have seen. There is one for blindness, mental health, prosthetics and mobility aids, and a pony cart. Not all disabilities could be highlighted on one logo, but these represent at least the wide spectrum. Thank you to Dr. Knight!

So welcome to the Accessible Medievalist! If there is something you would like to hear about, don’t hesitate to contact me to share it. And watch for more releases in this inaugural week! I know you have plenty of options out there for podcast listening, so I hope you will find mine interesting and tune in to learn a little something about the Middle Ages!