Lunch Club provides affiliates of the Stanford Archaeology Center with a community-oriented forum for engagement with current issues in archaeology. On November 19, 2025,  we will host Dr. Laura Heath-Stout from Stanford Archaeology Center.

Abstract:

Whether diagnosing illnesses and injuries in human remains, identifying the material culture of medical care, or excavating historical sites of institutionalization, archaeologists often discuss disability. Indeed, since all human communities have members with a variety of bodies and minds, all archaeology is, in part, the archaeology of disability. Yet we rarely engage with the expertise of disabled people in the present or theory from disability studies that could help us understand past disabled lives. Simultaneously, the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies is deeply engaged with studying the past, but almost never uses archaeological methods. In this talk, I will explore how archaeology and disability studies can be brought together to create more rigorous and inclusive interpretations of the human past.