UPDATE: Professor Axel Müller notified me today (8/1/17) that the IMC website has been changed to include a statement about the value of diversity and an apology "for any offence caused by comments made during the introduction to Monday’s opening lecture". These are steps in the right direction, and I hope the IMC continues to diversify: https://www.imc2017.co.uk/news/otherness-imc-2017/
Thank you for your support!
*************************************************************************************************************
Dear Professor Axel Müller, Director, International Medieval Congress,
I am writing to express my concern about the recent events at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, U.K. as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Medievalists-Recoiling-From/240666. As a Shakespeare scholar who has worked to make the study of Shakespeare, literature, and the humanities more inclusive and welcoming, I was shocked to learn that your panels on “otherness” were not only not diverse, but also that the conference organizers have not addressed adequately the offending comments made by one of the session moderators.
In this political-historical moment when the value of the study of the humanities and social sciences is constantly questioned and indeed threatened with vast institutional cuts, I find it dismaying that to date the IMC has only offered a bland statement that the organizers “welcome the fact [that] the debate continues.” What is there to debate when your own members of color no longer feel comfortable attending the conference? We need as big a tent as possible if the study of the humanities and the social sciences are to survive.
I urge you to act more swiftly by offering an apology for any bad feelings generated by the insensitive remarks and creating a statement about the value, importance, and necessity of diversity in medieval studies.
The Shakespeare Association of America values and fosters inclusivity in our profession. As part of a multi-year programming initiative, the conference organizers in coordination with SAA leadership hosted “The Color of Membership” plenary session at the 45th Annual Meeting of the SAA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f8_sOAucWw. The IMC may well wish to explore similar initiatives.
While I have sent this letter to you as an individual, I hereby publish this letter online for others to co-sign.
Sincerely,
Ayanna Thompson
President-Elect, Shakespeare Association of America
Professor of English, The George Washington University
Note to Signatories: Feel free to sign and use the comment function if you wish to provide your professional title and affiliation.
Updates
October 4, 2017
We are approaching the one thousand signature threshold which will serve as our primary leverage during the upcoming meeting with the IMC board. Please ensure your colleagues are aware of this petition today so we can finalize the presentation of our formal demands.
Reached 100 supporters
July 29, 2017
262 Comments
MA (Cantab) Classics, PhD (Yale) Medieval Studies. Novelist with many works set in the Middle Ages. It's critical that we be allowed to see the full spectrum of the period, for the sake of accuracy and completeness. Or what's scholarship for?
Tried to point out to strand lead that his remarks were offensive but he said they were 'humour' and people around understood them in the spirit they were intended. Well that's alright then... #goingelsewhere
I think the most critical point is that if we in medieval studies do not push our field toward greater inclusion and self awareness, we will become entirely irrelevant from an intellectual and moral position.
Signing in solidarity with scholars of color working to make their field more inclusive as well as former students and peers discouraged from the field by institutional and faculty racism.
I too witnessed deeply problematic comments at IMC in Leeds, and I want to urge the IMC to forcefully address this issue and commit to making the conference and our field more diverse and accountable to scholars and students of color.
Had a black mistress , wrote black characters. Come on. Do better.
Novelist based in Ireland. A disabled woman of color medieval studies scholar has literally changed thousands of peoples' perceptions of the middle ages--including my own, and I'm a history major myself. Diversity in medieval studies is critical, enlightening, and world-changing.
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UPDATE: Professor Axel Müller notified me today (8/1/17) that the IMC website has been changed to include a statement about the value of diversity and an apology "for any offence caused by comments made during the introduction to Monday’s opening lecture". These are steps in the right direction, and I hope the IMC continues to diversify: https://www.imc2017.co.uk/news/otherness-imc-2017/
Thank you for your support!
*************************************************************************************************************
Dear Professor Axel Müller, Director, International Medieval Congress,
I am writing to express my concern about the recent events at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, U.K. as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Medievalists-Recoiling-From/240666. As a Shakespeare scholar who has worked to make the study of Shakespeare, literature, and the humanities more inclusive and welcoming, I was shocked to learn that your panels on “otherness” were not only not diverse, but also that the conference organizers have not addressed adequately the offending comments made by one of the session moderators.
In this political-historical moment when the value of the study of the humanities and social sciences is constantly questioned and indeed threatened with vast institutional cuts, I find it dismaying that to date the IMC has only offered a bland statement that the organizers “welcome the fact [that] the debate continues.” What is there to debate when your own members of color no longer feel comfortable attending the conference? We need as big a tent as possible if the study of the humanities and the social sciences are to survive.
I urge you to act more swiftly by offering an apology for any bad feelings generated by the insensitive remarks and creating a statement about the value, importance, and necessity of diversity in medieval studies.
The Shakespeare Association of America values and fosters inclusivity in our profession. As part of a multi-year programming initiative, the conference organizers in coordination with SAA leadership hosted “The Color of Membership” plenary session at the 45th Annual Meeting of the SAA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f8_sOAucWw. The IMC may well wish to explore similar initiatives.
While I have sent this letter to you as an individual, I hereby publish this letter online for others to co-sign.
Sincerely,
Ayanna Thompson
President-Elect, Shakespeare Association of America
Professor of English, The George Washington University
Note to Signatories: Feel free to sign and use the comment function if you wish to provide your professional title and affiliation.
Updates
October 4, 2017
We are approaching the one thousand signature threshold which will serve as our primary leverage during the upcoming meeting with the IMC board. Please ensure your colleagues are aware of this petition today so we can finalize the presentation of our formal demands.
Reached 100 supporters
July 29, 2017
262 Comments
People of different backgrounds need to be involved in medieval studies because there has never been just once race in this world, we've all existed throughout time and haven't just disappeared and repapered in history. We need scholars who reflect the world so that the history being recorded reflects that as well.
MA (Cantab) Classics, PhD (Yale) Medieval Studies. Novelist with many works set in the Middle Ages. It's critical that we be allowed to see the full spectrum of the period, for the sake of accuracy and completeness. Or what's scholarship for?
Tried to point out to strand lead that his remarks were offensive but he said they were 'humour' and people around understood them in the spirit they were intended. Well that's alright then... #goingelsewhere
I think the most critical point is that if we in medieval studies do not push our field toward greater inclusion and self awareness, we will become entirely irrelevant from an intellectual and moral position.
Signing in solidarity with scholars of color working to make their field more inclusive as well as former students and peers discouraged from the field by institutional and faculty racism.
I too witnessed deeply problematic comments at IMC in Leeds, and I want to urge the IMC to forcefully address this issue and commit to making the conference and our field more diverse and accountable to scholars and students of color.
Had a black mistress , wrote black characters. Come on. Do better.
Novelist based in Ireland. A disabled woman of color medieval studies scholar has literally changed thousands of peoples' perceptions of the middle ages--including my own, and I'm a history major myself. Diversity in medieval studies is critical, enlightening, and world-changing.
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People of different backgrounds need to be involved in medieval studies because there has never been just once race in this world, we've all existed throughout time and haven't just disappeared and repapered in history. We need scholars who reflect the world so that the history being recorded reflects that as well.