Dale Spicer received a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Completion Fellowship for the 2021-2022 year. This critical funding will facilitate the completion of his dissertation titled “Notorious Bodies: Disability and Theology in Al-Jahiz’s Book of the Leprous and Lame.” Dale specializes in classical Arabic and early Islamic religious literature. His dissertation analyzes a largely overlooked anthology compiled by the Muslim theologian and literary figure Abu Uthman Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz. Dale’s dissertation reconstructs premodern religious perspectives toward somatic difference and contrasts these with modern concepts of disability. Dale argues that al-Jahiz’s Book of the Leprous and Lame casts embodied difference as a feature that distinguishes one person from another, thus presenting disability as one difference among many. This stance opposes prevalent ideas in both premodern and modern discourses that disease and disability befall a person due to their own moral failings as a divine punishment. By tracing the interconnectedness of religion and disability, “Notorious Bodies” argues that religion is central to theorizing what the human body should be and should be able to do.
The College of Arts