- This event has ended.
In the past few years, white supremacist appropriation of medieval symbols and imagery has become more visible than ever, from “white knight” KKK imagery to crests and shields at rallies. This alt-right cosplay is in part the outcome of unexamined biases in the popular imagination as well as blindspots within the academy. What is at stake for those clinging to inaccurate notions of a homogenous European past, and what can be gained by using evidence-based approaches to decolonize entrenched histories and to expand our understanding of the global middle ages? Dorothy Kim (Brandeis University) will unpack loaded fantasies and erroneous ideas about the medieval period, revealing the complexities of European societies at the dawn of a global age. Clark University’s Valerie Sperling (Political Science) will offer commentary.
This event continues the Roots of Everything, a lecture series sponsored by Early Modernists Unite (EMU)—a faculty collaborative bringing together scholars of medieval and early modern Europe and America—in conjunction with the Higgins School of Humanities. The series highlights various aspects of modern existence originating in the early modern world by connecting past and present knowledge.
Co-sponsored by Early Modernists Unite; the Higgins School of Humanities; the Department of English; the Department of History; and the Department of Political Science through the Chester Bland Fund at Clark University