Lomuto, Sierra. "Antiracism or Appropriation?: Performing Diversity Work in Medieval Studies." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/performing-diversity-work-in-medieval-studies. [Date accessed].

Performing diversity work in medieval studies

Reimagining medieval studies beyond traditional periodization to challenge the ontology of whiteness.

Download the transcript
Sierra Lomuto
Rowan University

Antiracism or Appropriation?: Performing Diversity Work in Medieval Studies | Watch the full talk

Presented by Sierra Lomuto at Appropriations: A RaceB4Race Symposium in 2020

Sierra Lomuto examines the field of medieval studies and how it privileges whiteness in knowledge production. She argues that whiteness is a structure that informs the engagement of nationalist hate groups and liberal academia with the Middle Ages despite the differences and opposition between the two. However, Lomuto contends that the Global Medieval/Early Globalities as a methodology can open up current structures and create a spacetime beyond Europe and beyond traditional periodization that can challenge the ontology of whiteness.

Further learning

Recommended

RaceB4Race Highlight

What is premodern critical race studies?

Margo Hendricks offers her insights into what exactly premodern critical race studies is (especially in comparison to premodern race studies), and what it means to be a practitioner within this field.

Margo Hendricks
Video

The cliché of race

Probing the cliché of race is a necessary moral objective and pedagogic requirement that begins by making race visible in Shakespeare’s texts to disrupt the prevalence of a destructive, convenient untruth.

Ian Smith
Activity

Journaling through questions of race

The journal is a place where students can engage in dialogue with themselves. This kind of reflection helps students track how their understandings of race develop over time.

Kyle Grady