Ramos, Eduardo. "Sins of the Father: Academic Complicity in Racist Medievalisms." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/academic-complicity-in-racist-medievalisms. [Date accessed].
Academic complicity in racist medievalisms
Examining whiteness in medievalism and its connection to medieval studies.

Sins of the Father: Academic Complicity in Racist Medievalisms | Watch the full talk
Presented by Eduardo Ramos at Appropriations: A RaceB4Race Symposium in 2020
Eduardo Ramos examines whiteness in medievalism and its connection to medieval studies. He discusses how academia’s early nationalistic, and at times overtly imperial, interests suppressed evidence of diversity during the Middle Ages to construct a homogenous white Europe that informs popular medievalism like The Lord of the Rings (1954-55). Furthermore, by presenting texts like Beowulf (pre-11th century) and Vǫlsunga saga (13th century) as some sort of white heritage, early scholars and translators facilitated the appropriation of medieval Germanic symbols by white nationalist movements. Scholars in the field today have a responsibility to address these “sins” of their academic forefathers.
Further learning
Recommended

"Merciless Beauty" and carceral justice
“Merciless Beauty” is a poem written in a late 14th-century English that may or may not be Chaucer’s but is highly comparable to Chaucer’s usage. Reading the poem alongside the film The Prison in 12 Landscapes, students are asked to make connections between the poem and the film and their formal examinations of time, incarceration, and repetition.