Black Metaphors: Race, Rhetoric, and the Middle Ages The

Date

2019-11-08

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Scholars' Symposia, The University of Tampa

Abstract

The Middle Ages come up again and again in the discourse of white supremacists in the United States. This talk investigates the value of the Middle Ages to race and racism by exploring modern understandings of feudalism, caste systems, and racial homogeny in medieval Europe. This talk asks: How did the Middle Ages make race? How can we use that knowledge to disempower racism and make the world better?

Description

Dr. Cord Whitaker is Associate Professor of English at Wellesley College. He is the author of Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), is hard at work on another book The Harlem Middle Ages: Color, Time, and Harlem Renaissance Medievalism, and is the editor of the acclaimed 2019 postmedieval special issue “Making Race Matter in the Middle Ages.”

Keywords

Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION, Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES, Middle Ages, White Supremacists, Race, Racism, Medieval Europe

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