Selected annotated 
bibliography of PCRS

This bibliography represents a selection of foundational texts in the field of premodern critical race studies (PCRS). It focuses on secondary sources examining premodern race and how constructions of difference in the past continue to reverberate today. While these entries treat a variety of sociohistorical and linguistic contexts, the studies themselves covered here are all produced in English. This is a continuously expanding document created by the ACMRS Postdoctoral Research Scholars in collaboration with the RaceB4Race Executive Board.

Period
Discipline

Dadabhoy, Ambereen and Nedda Mehdizadeh. Anti-Racist Shakespeare. Cambridge Elements Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Investigates a spectrum of possible techniques regarding how to teach the early modern English plays of Shakespeare with an attention to racial formation. The work excavates relationships between past and present Anglophone discourses on race to argue for a need to embed such a consciousness about race within pedagogical praxes today. By doing so, this work sits at the intersection of early modern studies, Shakespeare studies, and the study of Anglophone literature more generally.

Early Modern
Literature

Das, Nandini, João Vicente Melo, Haig Z. Smith, and Lauren Working. Keywords of Identity, Race, and Human Mobility in Early Modern England. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021.

A critical lexicon of terminology used to configure racial difference in the context of early modern English. The entries provide historicizations of key concepts such as Alien, Moor, Citizen, Convert, Denizen, Exile, Foreigner, Heathen, Indian, Jew, Mahometan, Pagan, Savage, Turk, and Vagrant. The work thus participates in a broad range of fields including study of early modern England, cultural history, and the English language.

Early Modern
Literature

Davis, Kathleen, and Nadia Altschul, eds. Medievalisms in the Postcolonial World: The Idea of 'the Middle Ages' Outside Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

A collection of essays exploring the intersection of medievalism and postcolonialism. The work as a whole argues for the utility of the medieval/modern binary as a framing lens by which to deepen an understanding of postcolonial theory, as well as the various pertinences of postcolonial theory for understandings of “the medieval” situated outside Euro-American contexts. The essays consider sociohistorical sites in Africa, the Americas, East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia, and engage discussions in fields such as medieval history and postcolonial studies.

Medieval
History

De Barros, Eric L. "'"Shakespeare” on His Lips’: Dreaming of the Shakespeare Center for Radical Thought and Transformative Action.” Teaching Social Justice Through Shakespeare: Why Renaissance Literature Matters Now, eds. Hillary Eklund and Wendy Beth Hyman. 206-214. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

Considers the pedagogical uses of Shakespeare in an effort to foster habits of linguistic complexity and creativity in the contemporary classroom. De Barros argues for the ways in which educators might draw upon Shakespeare’s language both to work against existing habits of language and ground necessary political thought. Of interest to students of English, Shakespeare studies, and pedagogy.

Early Modern
Literature

Derbew, Sarah F. Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Explores the representation of black skin in ancient Greek materials between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. The book argues for a differentiation between the cultural attitudes of Greek antiquity and contemporary cultural overlays onto antique materials to execute an anti-racist historiography binding classical contexts to contemporary receptions. The work engages conversations in performance studies, material culture, and Blackness.

Ancient

Derbew, Sarah, Daniel Orrells, and Phiroze Vasunia, eds. Classics and Race: A Historical Reader. London: UCL Press, 2025.

Examines the classical traditions arising from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas from the 14th through the 20th centuries. The volume combines primary texts and expert essays to demonstrate how the classical tradition and racial/anti-racial thought have been mutually influential. It argues that classical studies cannot be separated from histories of race and empire. The collection is of interest to students of classicism, colonialism, and intellectual history.

Ancient
History
Intro to premodern critical race studies

Dominique, Lyndon J. Imoinda’s Shade: Marriage and the African Woman in Eighteenth-Century British Literature 1759-1808. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2012.

This work explores the literary figure of Imoinda from Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave (1688) and Thomas Southerne’s 1696 adaptation, Oroonoko. Dominique argues that Imoinda and fictional African women in literary texts from 1759-1808 demonstrate a political moment when British writers are thinking about rebellion, antislavery rhetoric, and abolitionism. This text participates in conversations on the transatlantic slave trade, race, and gender.

18th Century
History

Earle, Thomas Foster, and Kate J. P. Lowe. Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

A collection of essays surveying a broad range of topics pertaining to Black persons’ representations and experiences in Europe across the 15th and 16th centuries. The works are thematically joined through an exploration of how Black people were racialized within the cultural frameworks of early modern Europe, attending mostly to social and cultural history in Portugal, Spain, and Italy. The essays vary widely in content and the volume thus intersects with a broad range of academic conversations in social history, cultural history, art history, literature, and more.

Early Modern
History

Eccleston, Sasha-Mae. Epic Events: Classics and the Politics of Time in the United States Since 9/11. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025.

Addressing the United States in the 21st century, especially after 2001, this book analyzes engagements with Greek and Roman antiquity across literature, art, and public discourse, reading Seneca’s Medea, Homer’s epics, and the verses of Sappho alongside Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones and the poetry of Ocean Vuong and Juliana Spahr, among others. Eccleston argues that invocations of classical antiquity structure contemporary narratives of crisis and belonging and can mask or contest racial and social hierarchies embedded in national life.

Ancient
Literature
Transnational studies

Eccleston, Sasha-Mae, and Dan-el Padilla Peralta. "Racing the Classics: Ethos and Praxis." American Journal of Philology 143, no. 2 Special Issue: Diversifying Classical Philology vol. 1, edited by Emily Greenwood (2022): 199–218.

A reflection on the "Racing the Classics" conference series between 2017 and the date of publication. The essay situates the history of the series within the nexus of countering white supremacy in academic studies of antiquity, offering both a roadmap for desired future outcomes and a series of techniques available to scholars and pedagogues.

Ancient

By examining Europe and its global entanglements between the 15th and 17th centuries, this essay brings early modern ecocriticism into dialogue with premodern critical race studies. The authors consider The Tempest, Jonson’s Masque of Queens, and early modern recipe culture all as important sites for unlearning. They argue that environmental, racial, and social justice are mutually constitutive and require interdisciplinary methods to purposefully unsettle established disciplinary boundaries.

Eklund, Hillary, Jennifer Park, Debapriya Sarkar, and Ayanna Thompson. “Becoming Undisciplined: On Pathways to Environmental and Racial Justice in Early Modern Studies.” PMLA 139, no. 5 (2024): 791–805.

Early Modern
Literature
Intro to premodern critical race studies

El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria. Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Study of medieval Arab Muslim views on the Byzantines. The work moves away from the dominant historiographical emphasis on conflict to demonstrate how Byzantium figured into the wider and deeper cultural imaginary of the Arab Muslim world. Of interest to students of history, Islamic studies, and Middle East Studies.

Medieval
History

El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria. Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

Study of how gender and sexuality constructed early medieval Muslim identities. The work argues that gender and sexuality were key to how Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate constructed difference—with primary reference to pre-Islamic forerunners, female mourners, the Qaramita, and the Byzantines—feeding into the ways in which Muslim women were conceptualized. Of interest to students of history, gender & sexuality studies, Islamic studies, and Middle East studies.

Medieval
History

El Hamel, Chouki. Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Examines the history of slavery in Morocco from the beginning of the Islamic era through the reign of Mawlay Isma‘il in the 17th and 18th centuries. The book places special emphasis on the enslaved “Black army” and argues that, despite European travel narratives generally representing Morocco as free of racial prejudice, Black Moroccans were stigmatized and marginalized. It concludes with a profile of the Moroccan Gnawa, an ethnic group descended from enslaved Black people. The book analyzes slavery through the interplay of race, gender, and religion.

History

Erickson, Peter and Kim F. Hall, “'A New Scholarly Song': Re-Reading Early Modern Race,” Shakespeare Quarterly 67, no. 1 (2016) 1-13.

A historiographical exploration of critical race theory within Shakespeare studies in the context of establishment attempts at disappearing the subject matter of race from the field. Following a brief survey of three prior phases relevant to the critical analysis of race in this scholarly context, the essay provides an expansive prescriptive argument for future directions in premodern critical race theory.

Early Modern
Literature

Erickson, Peter. Citing Shakespeare: The Reinterpretation of Race in Contemporary Literature and Art. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Investigates contemporary citations of Shakespeare’s work in Anglophone texts in order to excavate a nuanced set of citational praxes. The book argues that Shakespeare is invoked by contemporary authors not only to celebrate the underpinnings of Euro-American culture, but to subject cultural landscapes to a critical lens. To do so, it attends to specific literary maneuvers which are each embedded within specific literary and visual artifacts. The work engages conversations in literary theory and Shakespeare studies.

Early Modern
Literature

Erickson, Peter. “Invisibility Speaks: Servants and Portraits in Early Modern Visual Culture.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 9, no. 1 (2009): 23–61.

This article uses close readings of portraiture of Black people and by Black artists from the early modern period through the contemporary moment. By resisting a linear or progressively positive trajectory, the text raises questions about the genre of portraiture, invisibility/visibility, and the limits of art’s ability to capture Black identity in cross-historical contexts. This work covers topics of art, portraiture, Black identity, and visuality.

Early Modern
Art History

Espinosa, Ruben. Shakespeare on the Shades of Racism. New York: Routledge, 2021.

Examines Shakespeare through conversations that interrogate the vulnerability of Black and brown people under oppressive structures. The book draws attention to aspects of Shakespeare’s works that illustrate people’s ethical responsibilities in the face of brutal racism. It addresses issues like the murder of unarmed Black people, militarization of the U.S. Mexico border, anti-immigrant laws, and healthcare inequities.

Early Modern
Literature

Espinosa, Ruben. "Stranger Shakespeare." Shakespeare Quarterly 67, no. 1 (2016): 51–67.

Interrogates Mexican-American student engagement with the works of Shakespeare in contemporary classrooms in the United States, with specific reference to conceptualizations of the "foreign" and "strange." The essay analyzes contemporary cultural inscriptions of Shakespeare through various forms of media. It engages conversations in the fields of Shakespeare studies, Mexican-American cultural history, and otherness.

Early Modern
Literature

Fryer, Peter. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. London: Pluto Press, 1984.

Articulates the history of Black people in Britain from the third century BCE to the late 20th century as a way to upend the misconception that Black people immigrated to England in the modern era. This work draws on European archives to discuss Africans in Britain, the Atlantic slave trade, and scientific racism. This work also sheds light on writers, abolitionists, workers, and soldiers in the Black British community. Engages in African and British history, racialization, and the transatlantic slave trade.

Early Modern
History
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