2018 Workshop

Medievalists of Color will convene “Whiteness in Medieval Studies 2.0” at the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, on Saturday, May 12, at 1:30 in Fetzer 1045. This workshop continues the conversation begun at the 2017 Workshop.

Together, the workshop leaders and audience will further interrogate the effect of the field’s predominately white constitution upon the experiences of its scholars and students of color. This year, the workshop takes as its starting point Claudia Rankine et al.’s discussion of the “racial imaginary,” which elucidates the differing experiences and perceptions of white and POC writers. How, we will ask, might this concept inflect our understanding of medievalist scholarly practices? In the months before the conference, the organizers will use social media to make available links to Rankine and other relevant readings. This workshop will feature small breakout groups to foster in-depth discussion of the readings and the issues they raise for us as medievalists.


DISCUSSION LEADERS

Kavita Mudan Finn, Independent Scholar
Geraldine Heng
, Univ. of Texas–Austin
Dorothy Kim, Vassar College
Carla María Thomas, Independent Scholar

READINGS

“The Combahee River Collective Statement”

Cheryl I. Harris, “Critical Characteristics of Whiteness as Property”

Eugenia Zuroski, “Holding Patterns: On Academic Knowledge and Labor”

WOC Faculty Collective, “A Collective Response to Racism in Academia” (response to CHE survey “Tell Us about Your Experience of Racism in the Academy”)

Additional readings assigned last year that will create continuity with this year’s workshop:

Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, “On Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary”

Peggy Macintosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”