"Leprosy, language and identity in the medieval world" to be held at Cambridge on 5-6 April 2011 (360G-Wellcome-095555_Z_11_Z)

This international workshop aims to bring together leading scholars and early career researchers in medieval history, archaeology, palaeopathology, literature and art history to address a multifaceted theme: leprosy, language and identity in the medieval world. The issues of language and identity are central to numerous questions about lepers, leprosy and: leprosaria (leper hospitals) in the Middle Ages, and to broader issues relating to disease from ancient to modern times. There will be ample opportunity for discussion, both formal and: informal, to encourage dialogue between scholars from different disciplines and produce new ideas and conclusions. The: workshop will consist of three 50-minute presentations by keynote speakers (Luke Demaitre, Carole Rawcliffe and Francois-Olivier Touati), approximately ten 20-minute papers, and a roundtable discussion to conclude the second day. The papers will later be published in a volume edited by Elm a Brenner and Peter Murray Jones, marking a much-needed interdisciplinary publication on this topic. The meeting also aims to bring scholars of medieval medicine to the University of Cambridge, where the Department of History & Philosophy of Science is a major centre for the history of medicine. There will be a visit to the Department's Whipple Library on the first day of the workshop.