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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 443: Decolonize Medieval Studies: A Round Table Discussion

Monday 3 July 2017, 19.00-20.00

Sponsor:BABEL Working Group and GW Digital Humanities Institute
Organisers:Jonathan Hsy, GW Digital Humanities Institute, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Dorothy Kim, Department of English, Vassar College, New York
Moderator/Chair:Jonathan Hsy, GW Digital Humanities Institute, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Abstract

The International Medieval Congress 2017 has announced a laudable thematic strand of 'Otherness', but the CFP regrettably overlooks decades of work in postcolonial theory and critical race studies. Framing a European self-definition as a binary between 'Self' and 'Other', the CFP avoids mentioning 'race' (or racism); it merely gestures toward cultural 'others' as if assuming medieval Europe's unmarked whiteness. We seek to examine the meanings of this CFP during a turbulent time of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee nationalist movements in Britain and Europe. We will explore how rhetorics of 'otherness' still pervade academic medieval studies - including the very language of this conference's thematic strand.

Participants include Dorothy Kim (Vassar College, New York), Adam Miyashiro (Richard Stockton College of New Jersey), Raúl Ariza-Barile (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Vincent van Gerven Oei (punctum books / Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen).