Rebellious Bodies

Explore objects and paintings through the lens of disability, neurodiversity and chronic illness on this tour.

Find out more: My name is Mara Gold and I am a community connector here at Oxford’s Museums, Libraries and Gardens, where I am working to improve disability representation and access. It was vital to speak to others who perceive the collections through a lens of disability and this guide is the result of those conversations.

The tour is not a complete overview of representation in our collections but rather a selection of objects that different disabled, chronically ill and neurodiverse communities felt strong connections to. Some of our responses focussed on disability history whilst others were more personal, eliciting incredibly strong emotions, which we hope is reflected in the guide. Our insights gained from living with a disability will not only help our non-disabled and not-yet-disabled visitors understand our experiences but will also transform the way they understand past lives.

There’s plenty more to discover, and this is only one small part of a cultural change we are pushing at our venues and the University. By partaking in the audio tour, you are helping to prove how desperately this kind of work is needed, so thank you for helping us to make change!