This chapter provides a concise overview of the development of disability history, highlighting key themes from antiquity to the twentieth century. It examines how physical and mental differences were perceived in ancient civilizations, including depictions in art and legal codes, such as in Egyptian tomb art and Greek literature. In the Middle Ages, disability was often conflated with poverty and illness, with few distinctions made between different forms of impairment. Disabled individuals were rarely viewed as a distinct social category but rather integrated into broader social frameworks. During the early modern period, more specific ideas about disability emerged, particularly in relation to deafness and blindness. The chapter also highlights the significant shifts in disability history during the modern period, with the rise of institutionalization and medicalization. These changes led to the categorization of disabled people as a distinct group, often subject to control and correction through asylums and medical interventions. Eugenics became a dominant framework during this time, leading to policies that targeted disabled people for exclusion and sterilization, particularly in the early twentieth century. The chapter also acknowledges contributions from non-Western and post-colonial perspectives, expanding the scope of disability history beyond its traditional Euro-American focus. This broader approach underscores the complex relationship between disability, societal norms, and power structures, showing how perceptions of disability have been shaped by various social, cultural, and political forces across different historical contexts.

This chapter examines disability within the sociopolitical and cultural frameworks of state socialist Eastern Europe, addressing a critical gap in disability history. While much of the existing scholarship has centered on Western contexts, this chapter focuses on the specific trajectories of disability policies, activism, and lived experiences in Eastern Europe during the twentieth century, from the founding of the Soviet Union to the collapse of state socialism in 1989. The discussion begins with an overview of historiography during state socialism, highlighting how narratives of disability were predominantly shaped by state-controlled associations for the blind and deaf, as well as special educators and medical professionals. These perspectives often framed disability within the ideological imperatives of socialist productivity and rehabilitation. After 1989, new approaches emerged, particularly in interdisciplinary and intersectional research, addressing themes such as activism, ethnic minorities, and the role of cultural memory in shaping disability histories. A significant focus is placed on the Soviet Union’s influence on disability policies across Eastern Europe, including defectology and the classification of disabilities for labor assessment. These policies were adapted to local traditions, creating hybrid models of education and rehabilitation. This chapter also examines transnational networks of knowledge exchange within Eastern Europe and beyond, particularly with the Global South, challenging the notion of the Iron Curtain as impermeable. By situating disability within the broader socialist vision of society, this analysis reveals how disability activism, while politically constrained, operated both within and beyond the state apparatus. Through these themes, the discussion explores disability under state socialism and its enduring impact on contemporary disability discourses in Eastern Europe, highlighting the potential for further comparative and transnational research.

Ingress: Filosofen Karl Jaspers gav tyskarna ett språk för att tala om den moraliska avgrund som Förintelsen lämnat efter sig. Han avfärdade idén om att skulden skulle bäras lika av alla tyskar, genom att dela in den i fyra olika kategorier.

Ingress: Ian Kershaw ger insiktsfulla porträtt av europeiska ledare men lyckas inte förmedla några allmängiltiga principer bakom maktutövning och auktoritet.

The innovative use of comic art as a medium for exploring and “cripping” historical narratives is a compelling approach that has been gaining momentum in recent years. This paper delves into the ways in which various disability groups themselves are narrating their history and how history is envisioned in the realm of comics through the lens of disability.

In taking a comparative and transnational perspective, three examples will be examined, including “Seger!” which delves into the history of the Deaf community in Sweden, “Epileptic,” a graphic novel that provides insight into a family’s epileptic child, intricately interwoven with France’s post-war history, and “Freaks,” offering a contemporary adaptation of the 1932 film by Tod Browning.

What unites these comics is a pervasive theme of emancipation, a stark departure from the typical narrative of “overcoming” disability often depicted in mainstream superhero comics, as exemplified by characters like Marvel’s Daredevil. Instead, they strive to foster a disability identity and are closely linked to what Robert McRuer has termed “crip,” a strategy aimed to “resist the contemporary spectacle of able-bodied heteronormativity,” and to reclaim disability. By applying Rosemary Garland Thomson’s analytical framework of “staring”, we also aim to scrutinize how the able-bodied gaze on disability perpetuates exclusionary narratives and highlights ableist norms.

Ultimately, the core objective of this paper is to enhance norm-critical discussions on ablebodiness and normalcy. It also wants to trace how disability comics aim to foster social justice. In doing so, we aim to contribute to ongoing scholarly discussions on how disability, identity formation, and the pursuit of social justice are fostered within the realm of comics.

Within the confines of this text, I will explore the history of the deaf community in Romania during state socialism (1947-1989). The primary reason for focusing on Romania is the scarcity of historical research that delves into the experiences of non-Western deaf communities and the prevalent perceptions of deaf people among the hearing majority in Eastern Europe. The objective of this blog post is thus to discuss previously unexplored sources that provide insights into an understudied minority group. Still, one might ask why a case study on yet another Eastern European country is necessary? An incorporation of lesser-studied cases such as Romania has the potential to challenge the longstanding Cold War narrative of Eastern Europe as a monolithic block and underscores the need for differentiated perspectives. Certainly, in the post-war era, several domains, including disability research, special education, or the state-controlled associations of the deaf and the blind in socialist countries, were initially shaped by Soviet blueprints, fostering commonalities across the socialist world. However, upon closer examination, distinctions emerge that were influenced by local traditions. Romanian psychologists and special educators acknowledged their indebtedness to domestic traditions from the interwar era and combined them with Soviet models (Dinu 2022b). In other socialist countries, such as Czechoslovakia, approaches to disability also merged autochthonous traditions with Soviet influences (Henschel and Shmidt 2019). 

Ingress: Förintelsens minnesdag 27 januari överskuggas av ett nytt kulturkrig. Radu Harald Dinu, universitetslektor i historia vid JU, skriver om den infekterade minnespolitiska debatt som blåst upp under kriget mellan Israel och Hamas.