What is normal?
Before the 1830s, 'normal' was a mathematical term but then it was taken up to describe human characteristics. Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the impact of IQ and reading tests.
Neurodiversity, madness and disability are at the centre of the work being undertaken by three academics who join Matthew Sweet to look at the history of ideas about "normality". Dr Robert Chapman is Assistant Professor of Critical Neurodiversity Studies at Durham University and author of Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism. Dr Louise Creechan is also at Durham University and is working on a book about literacy in the nineteenth century. Dr Sarah Chaney researches the history of emotions at Queen Mary University of London and is the author of Am I Normal?: The 200-Year Search for Normal People (and Why They Don’t Exist).
Producer: Julian Siddle
You can find other Free Thinking discussions featuring Louise Creechan exploring How We Read, and looking at accents in Language, the Victorian and Us.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcast
- Thu 18 Jan 2024 22:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
Featured in...
The Way We Live Now—Free Thinking
From moral questions to the quirks and pleasures of life.
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life