Patrick McDonagh

Patrick McDonagh is a Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of English at Concordia University. His academic work bridges Intellectual Disability Studies, Cultural History, and 19th-Century British Literature, focusing on historical representations of disability and their social implications.

• Research Themes: Historical construction of idiocy, autism in cultural contexts, disability in literature and film, institutional narratives, and empathy discourses.
• Key Publications: Explores 'idiocy' in Victorian England, autism in modernist aesthetics, and person-centred care evolution. His 2018 monograph Intellectual Disability: A Conceptual History, 1200-1900 provides foundational analysis.

Academic Contributions: His scholarship intersects with Medical Humanities, analyzing literary portrayals of disability from medieval to contemporary periods. Notable works include studies on Charles Dickens' representations of intellectual disability and autism in popular film.