On this episode of the show, we’ll be talking about the Middle Ages: that period in European history that most of us learned about through Game of Thrones and Robin Hood. We think of it as racially homogenous, rigidly gendered, and brutish, but scholars like the ones I talk to in today’s show have more nuanced interpretations. And yet, white supremacists within the alt right are attempting to claim the Middle Ages for their own political ends. What is the truth, and why does it matter?
First, you’ll hear from Dr. Tory Pearman on the lives and public perception of people with disabilities in Medieval Europe. Then, Dr. Dorothy Kim elaborates on the connections between the alt right and Medieval Studies and what scholars like her are doing to take back control over the field they love.
SHOUT-OUTS
- Check out this great interview with the activist and historian behind the “Medieval PoC� project.
- For more on Margery Kempe, check out this episode of the Missed in History podcast.
- Read Dr. Dorothy Kim’s entreaty to her fellow Medievalists to interrupt the white supremacist appropriation of Medieval European culture.
Image: Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop (German, Kronach 1472–1553 Weimar). Saint Maurice, ca. 1520–25. Oil on linden; 54 x 15 1/2 in. (137.2 x 39.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Eva F. Kollsman, 2005 (2006.469)
Soleil cooks for a living and writes sometimes. When she was in kindergarten, she reviewed a book for Reading Rainbow that she didn’t actually read. She cohosts Racist Sandwich, a podcast on food, race, class, and gender.
Source: Media-Activism
{$excerpt:n}
