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1. Medieval studies originated in a racist, sexist, colonizing institutional context in the long nineteenth century. We must first openly name this problem and identify the origins and Systemic problems. We might even want to make somqe apologies and restrictions >
2. We must never force minoritized scholars carry the burden of this work or expect them to do it instead or in addition to old school medieval studies. Your advanced degrees mean you are smart and can learn new things. Start educating yourself .
3. We need to change how we teach. Decolonize your curricula. Change your language requirements. Incorporate an honest critical reading of your racist academic "grandparents" into the framing of your courses.
4. Adding "global" to medieval studies by accumulating a quota of non European specialists becoming another kind of colonizing violence thqt makes us look better without fixing thr Systemic problems in medieval studies. We must change how we write about Europe.
5. That means learning from experts on other regions during the medieval period. Trust their work. Read and cite them. Don't ask them to teach you until you've done your homework. If African studies or middle eastern studies oriental studies cons are in your budget go and learn
6. Learn a new language! Yes ok but that's hard. it is ok to k with translations. They were done by professionals. You can probably trust their work. You don't have to do every yourself. Reviewing a manuscript that uses translations? Applaud don't reject
7. Instition-level solutions. We need more translations of scholarship. It would be awesome if the medieval academy could help fund and organize translating academic monographs. And IMO we should start with books published in the so-called "global south"
8. We need to support the work of scholars working in nations without funding and academic freedom. Get them visiting scholar gigs and fulbrights. Co author. Yes i know this describes adjunct and early career scholars in US/Uk/Eu too. Help them too
9. For those of us with tenure: take the risks. Amplify voices. Advocate for hiring faculty in these areas. Revisit your own work and decolonize it if you can. Encourage students to learn things outside your area of specialty
10. Don't ever let yourself say "I'm not an expert on ____." or "i wasn't trained to do ____." get good enough to competently try. don't be afraid of criticism. You're going to make mistakes and some people might get angry. That's okay.
11. (hi all. Pardon typos up thread!) Rethink how you use images of/made by non-Europeans. Go for normalcy not exoticism. Name looting and colonial histories if discussing items held by "western" institutions. Better yet, replace w/ a less violent example
12. We are so used to the whiteness and eurocentrism of medieval studies that we can't fully see how we fit into it. If someone helps you notice some of these problems and you're feeling speechless you still could say thank you and signal boost
13. Every predominantly white university and discipline some of these problems. You can help change life at your own home institution if not in your publications. Do be careful. This can be exhausting and risky work.
We have to listen with empathy even to those we disagree with if we're going to make changes that matter but also: Don't feed the trolls.
14a. Learn what academic freedom and extramural utterances are and why they are protected. And enjoy the rest of the conference if you're actually here
