Episode 52: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part Two: Responses

Mark Sundaram January 31, 2018

In part two of our discussion about racism, we talk about ways to respond to the problems in the field, in teaching, scholarship, and more. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. Please join in the conversation with your thoughts and ideas about how to move the fields forward.

Show Notes

Transcript

@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter

The Optimist Cocktail

Episode 44: "Us" & "Them" in the Ancient & Anglo-Saxon Worlds

Episode 51: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part One: The Problem

Dr. Katherine Blouin
Everyday Orientalism blog
@isisnaucratis

Dr. Damian Fleming
@FW_Medieval

Dr. Usama Ali Gad
Classics in Arabic blog
@Usamaligad78

Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Classics at the Intersections blog
Sourcebook on Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World
@kataplexis

Dr. Asa Mittman
Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript

Dr. Dimitri Nakassis
Aegean Prehistory blog
@DimitriNakassis

Dr. Helen Young
Race & Popular Fantasy: Habits of Whiteness
@heyouonline

Dr. Donna Zuckerberg
Eidolon
@donnazuck

The Public Medievalist's series on Race, Racism, & the Middle Ages

In the Middle blog (frequently has useful posts on these subjects)

Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy by Sarah Bond

Medieval People of Color Tumblr

Pharos -- documenting misuse of the Classics

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Episode 51: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part One: the Problem

Mark Sundaram January 17, 2018

The Beowulf Manuscript; Marvels of the East; Beowulf; Judith (Cotton MC Vitellius)

What are the problems surrounding race and racism in the fields of Classics and Medieval Studies today? Where did these fields come from, and how does that affect the way we think about the past, and how we construct the present? For this episode (and the next) we interviewed eight scholars and put it together into an exploration of these unfortunately timely topics. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. In our next episode, we will hear about possible responses to these problems -- in teaching, scholarship, and more.