A Conversation with Dorothy Kim about Eurocentrism and the White Supremacy Problem in Medieval Studies

Dr. Dorothy Kim is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. She is an assistant professor of literature at Vassar College. Several months ago, Dr. Kim shared the following observations on the website In the Middle about the relationship between Eurocentrism, teaching, white supremacy, and the era of Donald Trump:

“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....Neutrality is not optional."

After making this intervention Dr. Kim was a victim of a right-wing smear campaign led by Milo Yiannopoulos.

During this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Dr. Kim and Chauncey discuss how the classroom is an inherently political space, the ways that Eurocentrism and white supremacy are present in academic fields such as Medieval Studies, the modern origins of the concept of race, and the fundamental misunderstandings that white supremacists have about Europe's past. Dr. Kim also explains how digital culture is a fertile space for the white gaze and its distortions of European history.

In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega explains how White House chief of staff John Kelly channeled the logic of a military coup in his defense of Donald Trump's racist and sexist lies about the war widow Myeshia Johnson and Representative Francesca Wilson. And during this week's episode Chauncey shares a story about a late night encounter with one of Trump's human trash monsters, how right-wing trolls had a public orgasm of anger in response to one of his recent essays, and the importance of psychologist Erich Fromm's observations about fascism and authoritarianism in this moment of national (and global) emergency. 

This episode with Dorothy Kim can be downloaded from Libysn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.