Ramos, Eduardo. "Sins of the Father: Academic Complicity in Racist Medievalisms." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/academic-complicity-in-racist-medievalisms. [Date accessed].

Academic complicity in racist medievalisms

Examining whiteness in medievalism and its connection to medieval studies.

Download the transcript
Eduardo Ramos
Arizona State University

Sins of the Father: Academic Complicity in Racist Medievalisms | Watch the full talk

Presented by Eduardo Ramos at Appropriations: A RaceB4Race Symposium in 2020

Eduardo Ramos examines whiteness in medievalism and its connection to medieval studies. He discusses how academia’s early nationalistic, and at times overtly imperial, interests suppressed evidence of diversity during the Middle Ages to construct a homogenous white Europe that informs popular medievalism like The Lord of the Rings (1954-55). Furthermore, by presenting texts like Beowulf (pre-11th century) and Vǫlsunga saga (13th century) as some sort of white heritage, early scholars and translators facilitated the appropriation of medieval Germanic symbols by white nationalist movements. Scholars in the field today have a responsibility to address these “sins” of their academic forefathers.

Further learning

Recommended

Video

Comparative epics: Teaching El Cantar de Mio Cid

A mainstay of medieval literature classrooms, El Cantar de Mio Cid expands upon crusades rhetoric in the multicultural and multilingual Iberian Peninsula.

Adam Miyashiro
Video

Deplatforming Chaucer

By using the untimely juxtaposition method outlined by Seeta Chaganti, Chaucer's House of Fame can act as a catalyst to a discussion about the removal of Confederate monuments.

Seeta Chaganti
Video

Comparative epics: Teaching The Epic of Sunjata

The Sunjata is just one of many cultural touchstones from a highly sophisticated and capacious literary and arts culture that remains understudied in most medieval literature classrooms.

‍

Adam Miyashiro

Selected annotated bibliography