The workshop is held at the University of Helsinki Main Building, Room U3039 (3rd floor). The address is Unioninkatu 34, but the building can be easily found from the Senate Square. The workshop will begin at 10.00 am (EEST) with the keynote.
The workshop room is wheelchair accessible through a gateway and an inner courtyard (Yliopistonkatu 2) and the other side of the building (Fabianinkatu). Unfortunately, there is no induction loop in the room. We recommend that you follow the accessibility guidelines in your presentations, for example this one:
Remote participation is possible; the Zoom link is
The registration is for both in-person and remote participation. For in-person participants, we would like to ask whether you are participating in the lunch (at the expense of participants) and the afternoon coffee.
Please register through this form:
We are looking forward to seeing you in Helsinki!
On behalf of the organizing committee,
Sofia Vierula, Gaetana Balestra and Kaius Tuori
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Program:
10-11.15 keynote: Prof. Christian Laes: Women and disabilities in Antiquity: between presentism and daily life
11.30-13.00 session 1: Disabled Women in the Roman Narratives
Sofia Vierula: The case of Harpaste - Lived experience of disability in Seneca’s letter to Lucilius
Mathilde Chartrand: The Daily Life of a Furiosa: On the Gendered Consequences of Mental Illness
Fran Geldard: Enslavement and Disability in Eusebian Martyr Narrative
Lunch
14.00-15.30 session 2: Women, Disability and Roman Law
Arnaud Paturet: Some Reflections on the Status of Deaf People by Roman Jurists
Kaius Tuori: "Infirmity and monstrosity: on the legal construction of female disability in law"
Jana Mauri Marlborough: Against All Odds: The Legal Position of Wet Nurses in Roman Law
Coffee
16.00-17.30 session 3: Intersections of Gender and Disability in Late Antiquity
Gaetana Balestra: Muta puella fuit. The Mute Woman between tutela mulierum and Justinian's Legislation.
Elena Pezzato Heck: Mental Illness as Grounds for Repudiation in Late Antiquity and the Justinian Era
Arttu Alaranta: Vulnerable Life-Cycle Moments and Disabilities in Women’s Asceticism during Late Antiquity