A classroom is not neutral territory. It is a space where values are taught, cultural norms are reinforced and politics are omnipresent. The inherently political nature of the classroom is amplified and made even more important during times of cultural and political crisis.
At present, the United States is struggling to reconcile how the threat of fascism, in the form of Donald Trump's presidency, could be birthed in a country with supposedly strong democratic political and cultural institutions. To make this paradigm shift even more challenging, Trump's ascendancy has been accompanied by a record increase in hate crimes, a resurgent white supremacist movement, and a full-on rejection of such modern values as cosmopolitanism and equality by many American conservatives.
On university and college campuses these trends have manifested themselves in controversies over free speech. Across the United States, right-wing activists have also engaged in a systemic campaign of harassment against those "liberal" and "left-wing" faculty members whom they view as being "un-American" and a threat to the anti-intellectual ideology that typifies today's American conservative movement. In effect, the radical right wants to silence its foes wherever it finds them. Notions of academic and intellectual freedom are seen as obstacles in this war on critical thinking and empirical reality.
Ultimately, the myth of "liberal higher education" is being exposed as such by risk-averse university administrators who are more interested in protecting endowments and high tuitions than in standing up against the right-wing media and activists - -as well as influential donors and sponsors -- who are waging war against teachers who dare to speak truth to power.
Some educators have dared to speak out against this new type of McCarthyism. Writing in response to the white supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Dorothy Kim, a professor of English at Vassar College, made the following demand of her colleagues in the field of medieval studies:
Today, medievalists have to understand that the public and our students will see us as potential white supremacists or white supremacist sympathizers because we are medievalists. The medieval western European Christian past is being weaponized by white supremacist/white nationalist/KKK/Nazi extremist groups who also frequently happen to be college students. Don’t think western European medieval studies is exceptional.
Kim continued:
As Catherine Cox recently presented at [a meeting of the Modern Language Association], ISIS/ISIL also weaponizes the idea of the pure medieval Islamic past in their recruiting rhetoric for young male Muslims. If the medieval past (globally) is being weaponized for the aims of extreme, violent supremacist groups, what are you doing, medievalists, in your classrooms? Because you are the authorities teaching medieval subjects in the classroom, you are, in fact, ideological arms dealers. So, are you going to be apathetic weapons dealers not caring how your material and tools will be used? Do you care who your buyers are in the classroom? Choose a side. Doing nothing is choosing a side. Denial is choosing a side. Using the racist dog whistle of “we must listen to both sides” is choosing a side. I am particularly struck by this last choice, since I want to know: would you also say this about ISIS/ISIL?
In response to these comments, Kim was subjected to a coordinated campaign of harassment by right-wing activists and their supporters. She was also criticized by scholars of medieval history who felt that their field of study should remain outside contemporary politics.
How should colleges and universities respond to the increasingly bold and aggressive white supremacist movement inspired by Donald Trump? Are some academic disciplines politically neutral? What is the obligation of the teacher-scholar to stand up against fascism and other illiberal values and beliefs? Why are white supremacists obsessed with medieval and ancient Europe? How are they trying to use their distorted version of Europe's past to advance their agenda in the present?
I recently spoke to Dorothy Kim to address these questions and others. A longer version of this conversation can be heard on my podcast, which is available on Salon’s Featured Audio page.
What is the source of the controversy about what seem to be basic observations about the political nature of teaching and the classroom, as well as about the presence of nonwhites in medieval Europe?
I think the source of the controversy is twofold. First is the fact that we are even discussing why and how white supremacists love the Middle Ages. This then means that the faculty who teach the subject can’t be imagined as neutral or innocent anymore. In addition, I think it’s also about a deep discomfort in regards to thinking about one’s scholarly field as somehow connected to white supremacy.
What was the inspirational moment for your deciding to write your essay, "Teaching Medieval Studies in a Time of White Supremacy"?
In my essay I specifically argued that we couldn’t go into the classroom after Charlottesville and just teach medieval studies in the way we’ve always taught it. The Middle Ages is being weaponized by various extreme right-wing groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis and the broader white supremacist so-called alt-right. This has to do with other extreme hate groups as well. I have colleagues who also analyze the materials that ISIS and ISIL actually use to recruit young men and they use some sense of a pure Islamic history and path in the same way.
How are your critics imagining the study of medieval Europe to somehow be apolitical and apart from the concerns of the "real world?"
In the field of medieval studies there might be a discussion of, “Well, these topics are not really applicable because we’re pre-racial or pre-colonial or pre-immigrant or pre-migrant.” In fact, of course that’s incorrect . These concepts and ideas may function and look differently, but they are being worked through as well in the past.
Why are white supremacists and other members of the right wing so obsessed with and fascinated by ancient and medieval Europe? How are they using those historical periods to create a "usable past" to fuel their political agenda?
White supremacists and other "alt-right" types imagine medieval Europe as the last cultural space of pure white history that they can basically hook themselves into and argue that there were no people of color present. They’re very interested in how Western Europe becomes this kind of idealized white beginning and origin myth. It’s not a surprise, for instance, that in Charlottesville the white supremacists were carrying torches and circling around Jefferson's statue.
He wanted Virginia to be Anglo-Saxon England. We know from medievalists and scholars that, for instance, after their defeat, the former Confederate states became very interested in thinking of themselves as the defeated Anglo-Saxons after the Norman foreigners basically took over. We also know the Ku Klux Klan is obsessed with white knights. This has had a long history in American culture and history. White supremacists have really grabbed onto the Middle Ages because they do feel like it’s their small heritage. This is why they get so angry and frustrated when academics and others point out that people of color were present in the medieval past.
If you were to offer some basic facts regarding how white supremacists and others lie to themselves about medieval Europe, what would you highlight?
No. 1, that people of color were present in medieval Europe.
No. 2, that it was not entirely all Christian. It was multi-faith, multiracial, multicultural and multilingual. I would also include the fact that Africa is not a country and that there were actually African medieval civilizations and cultures. This is important, because that often gets used as a discussion point in burnishing this idea of medieval Europe. You can talk about medieval Mali and Timbuktu. You can talk about medieval Ethiopia. You can talk about medieval Nubian culture.
I would also tell them that they have to understand that medieval Western Europe was really considered the hinterlands, the proverbial outskirts or boonies. Actual innovation in the medieval world was coming out of the medieval Mediterranean, and was coming through via medieval Islamic culture. Medicine and science and so many other things were basically being circulated to medieval Europe.
I would also say that race existed in medieval Europe. For white supremacists and others to imagine that medieval Europe was empty of anyone of color, and also that these structures weren’t necessarily present, is incorrect. Talking about race in the medieval past is not anachronistic.
Much of the white right's obsession with medieval Europe is a type of political theater. Who are the players?
The "alt-right" is a conglomeration with multiple nodes. You have the "men's rights" types. There are white nationalists and white supremacists. There is of course the Ku Klux Klan. And there are people who call themselves Odinists. There is lots of overlap there with a racist, antifeminist, anti-Semitic idea of a pure white culture and related concepts.
For the angry white men attracted to the "alt-right," what is the appeal of medieval Europe?
I think they imagine that it somehow allows them to do and say these things that they feel like they can’t say and do right now. As with ISIS/ISIL, for example, the gateway drug to those groups is anti-feminism. In this imagined past, white men and others can imagine a time when they did not have to deal with gender equity and these ideas that women should have access to work, fair pay and equal rights. It is very interesting to note that both extremist groups are using the same kinds of strategy to radicalize their members.
How would you characterize the hostile and hateful response to your essay on medieval studies in the wake of Charlottesville?
It’s played out in pretty intense ways. Obviously there have been racial attacks. Of course, there are also threats of sexualized violence. I think you can see what the patterns are. In their distorted view of the past and obsession with TV shows like "Game of Thrones," I am also some kind of non-Christian infidel.
How do you locate this experience within the larger political and social trends in this country and elsewhere?
It is an example of what has happened to those people who have been organizing online against white supremacy and the broader right wing for social justice and human dignity. It is an example of what happened to my female colleagues when they were discussing inclusiveness and gender in video games and digital culture. Yes, there are white supremacists. But there are also a lot of black and brown people who are fans of medieval fantasy and history who are fighting back and doing more than traditional academic experts to engage with politics and the public sphere on these issues.
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