Disability and Fairy Tales: Keeping the magic, confronting the stigma

Symposium Programme - 24th and 25th February 2025

The aim of this symposium is to explore the nuances of disability representation in fairy tales, interrogating how writers, storytellers, publishers, teachers and academics use such tales to empower disabled people and preserve the disabled characters that have survived through generations. It shall also discuss the limitations of traditional fairy tales and the ways in which retellings and reinterpretations can challenge the negative or outdated tropes of the genre.
 
The event will feature a mixture of presentations and creative performances which explore traditional fairy tales or contemporary retellings that centre disability, whether that be sensory, physical, learning, or neurological.
Date: 24th and 25th February 2025
Time: 13:00-16:00 GMT.
Place: Online
DAY ONE: 24th February 2025
Session One – Collaborate and Empower
13:00-14:25 GMT
Welcome, introductions, housekeeping.
‘Huff Puff’ – story by Laura Clements.
‘Woodlands as metaphor: creating fairy tales collaboratively in imagining future health and social care for people with energy-limiting conditions’ – Louise Kenward.
‘Reducing the 7 dwarfs to labels: exploring the labelling of disabilities through a reductionist philosophy’ – Charlotte Gray.
Discussion.
Break at 14:25.
Session Two – Resisting the negative
14:35-16:00 GMT
Welcome back!
‘Dead, Dreadful, Dangerous: Disabled Roles in Fairytales’ – Ella Holmes.
‘The Anarchitectural Witch- The Early Modern Witch’s Influence on the Grimm Brothers’ Witch in Hansel and Gretel’ – Saraya Haddad.
‘Carnival Mirrors in the Classroom: Representations of Disability in Fairy Tales’ Raymond Rugg.
Discussion.
End at 16:00.
DAY TWO: 25th February 2025
Session Three - Accept and be yourself – take control
13:00-14:25 GMT
Welcome, introductions, housekeeping.
‘Life of Afaggdu’ - story by Jas.
‘The Lambton Worm: Retold from the Neurodivergent Perspective’ - Debi Gregory (Grove of Aletheia).
‘From Punishment to Empowerment: Rewriting Disability and Transformation in Modern Fairy Tale Adaptations’ - Lea Bachmann.
‘Murder in Fairyland: Understanding Changelings’ - Jeremy Harte.
Discussion.
Break at 14:25.
Session Four - Moving forward
​14:35-16:00 GMT
Welcome back!
​‘Cures & Curses: Using Metanarrative to Reframe Disability’ - Audrey T. Heffers
‘Enchanted Machines? How Fairy Tales Can Illuminate the Reception of Accessible DMIs’ - Mat Dalgleish
Absent Centres: Folklore Without Borders’ – Matthew Cheeseman and Paul Cowdell
Discussion.
Beth and Nicola close conference.
End at 16:00. ​