Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology

Book excerpt: This book explores disability across time and space—from ‘ancient Egypt’ as a culture to Egyptology as a contemporary field—to go beyond simply identifying disability, encouraging readers to thoughtfully consider the history of disabled people in ancient Egypt and Egyptology. Through a critical investigation, this volume reshapes often-overlooked narratives of disability within the discipline of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology. Chapters explore evidence of disability, the historiographical ways in which disability has been approached, and how disability histories are (mis)represented in various contemporary spaces. Coverage stretches across Egypt and Nubia from the Predynastic to the Roman periods, as well as receptions of these cultures and disability in museums. Its editors and many of its authors are disability community members who are experts in their respective professions, comprising an international authorship and including voices from typically underrepresented groups. Contributors range from early career researchers to senior scholars, as well as those working outside of and adjacent to academia. While focusing on ancient Egypt and Egyptology, this volume offers new ways to consider disability in the broadest possible sense. It uses terminology informed by the disability community and offers guidance for disability inclusivity in curatorial and pedagogical museum and university contexts. It prioritises disability as an essential area of research in ancient world studies, and platforms both ancient and modern disabled voices. The deep, detailed exploration into disability in the past and in our discipline offered by this book inspires readers to further explore and appreciate the infinite diversity of the human experience in all its infinite combinations. The first-book length treatment of the subject, Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology provides a much-needed resource for students and scholars of ancient Egypt, Egyptology, and disability in the ancient world. It is also suitable for researchers in Disability Studies, practitioners in broader ancient world studies, and museum and heritage professionals. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.