We invite students and faculty associated with Medieval Studies at Cornell to join us in a new reading group, currently titled Decolonizing the Global Middle Ages. This reading group is intended to help grad students (and faculty) gain a solid understanding in anti-racist and anti-colonialist literature from which to develop an anti-racist framework which we can incorporate into our teaching and scholarship. We intend to explore both how racism functions within medieval studies as a discipline and how our work is co-opted by white nationalists in the present day. As scholars in modern day America, we need to confront structural racism wherever we encounter it. Although this group is intended for medievalists, we will incorporate non-medieval scholarship as an avenue to reconsidering theoretical approaches, and will begin by reading some recent works on whiteness and anti-racism before moving on to scholarship focused more specifically on medieval studies. Following a scaffolded framework which begins with confronting whiteness, for our first meeting, which will be held at the end of this month over Zoom pending scheduling, we will be reading Waking Up White by Debby Irving. Anyone who is interested in joining should email the Medieval Studies office: medievalst@cornell.edu.
