RAMBARAN-OLM, M. Anglo-Saxon Studies (Early English Studies), Academia and White Supremacy
RAMBARAN-OLM, M. Anglo-Saxon Studies (Early English Studies), Academia and White Supremacy
RAMBARAN-OLM, M. Anglo-Saxon Studies (Early English Studies), Academia and White Supremacy
Rambaran-Olm | Medium
M. Rambaran-Olm Follow
Over the past few years and with alarming frequency, medieval images have
been turned into memes, and posted without context on white supremacist
websites and social media. One recent example from the website Stormfront
proposed a quixotic connection between swastikas and ‘Anglo-Saxons.’ Also on
the neo-Nazi website, we find Beowulf grouped with other “western” texts as
essential reading. The poem, they believe, links them to a supposed warrior
past.** While these posts and the pernicious ideas behind them proliferate,
medievalists of early England and our organizational leadership have largely
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23/11/2022 02:19 Anglo-Saxon Studies [Early English Studies], Academia and White Supremacy | by M. Rambaran-Olm | Medium
remained silent over the years. One reason for this silence: The field is just too
white.
Why is the field so white? Historically, Early English studies was perceived,
taught and studied within an Empirical framework which most often created
an implicit bias surrounding ‘British’ origins. The perpetuated false narrative
continues to prevent students of color from connecting with the texts, and in
short, drives away both students and scholars of color — people who, like me,
grow tired of constantly being asked to justify their existence in a field
assumed to belong to white people. The same bias is not present in disciplines
like African American studies, which boasts of a diverse scholarly community.
I have been told many times I “do not look like an ‘Anglo-Saxonist.’” I’ve even
been told after a campus interview, by the chair of a hiring committee (for a
job I didn’t get) that the deciding factor against me was the department’s
struggle to “justify to their students that [I] was an ‘Anglo-Saxonist.’” My
primary area of expertise and the majority of my work concentrates on Anglo-
Saxon studies [now early English studies], so what other justification is
necessary? Worse, I have witnessed 2.3K
a handful11of competent people of color
leave early English studies because they believed there was no room for
visible minorities to work in the field.
Even the few, barebones opportunities to support diverse scholars are being
squandered. The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (ISAS) has upwards
of 700 members. No official stats are available, but judging from the members
list, one might generously estimate between 2–3 percent of present members
are non-white. At the group’s biannual meeting in Hawaii last year, Dr. Adam
Miyashiro, a native Hawaiian, proposed to discuss the ways that Beowulf
yields specific readings that continue to be used by white supremacists. He
was turned down by organizers. Although many good proposals are turned
down — this decision, understandable in the abstract — takes on a different
character in a field that consistently shuts out diverse voices. The
conversation of race is continuously shifted into the hands of white scholars,
even in fields like early English studies which is one of the least equipped
fields to discuss critical race theory in relation to its literature and history.
Miyashiro (who gave me permission to share his story) and I are not alone in
having experienced exclusion, but we are increasingly alone in the field. This
is not just about individuals losing out on positions because competition is
high, rather there are guardians and gate-keepers on hiring committees
committed to keeping the field white. Demonstrably, merit has no meaning.
By and large, this gate-keeping has been the modus operandi for specialists of
early English studies. Silence or resistance to acknowledge scholars of color
reinforces ever present white supremacy. Silence makes one complicit, but,
on the same hand, so do empty words and undertaking zero practical
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O ver the past eight months I talked to several scholars of color about
their choices to pivot out of early English studies. Choosing to stay
anonymous for professional reasons, several told me racism was their
deciding factor. They told me things like: “I had no choice. There was no room
for me,” and “in my interactions with medievalists, I always felt ostracized and
pushed out.” Another said that skin color was a constant distraction to their
scholarship. “It’s beyond difficult to jockey your way in and continue to try
and justify your work when your currency and worth is based on your skin
color. As a brown ‘Anglo-Saxonist’ I had no currency, so I realized I needed to
switch course.” Another told me about facing racist harassment from their
supervisor in graduate school.
decisions like the US College Board’s revision of its K-12 Advanced Placement Get started
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(AP) World History exam, limiting its assessment to content circa. 1450 —
present.
Even the 9th-century King Alfred’s appeal to attract foreign monks and
scholars to rebuild the intellectual community after wars have ravaged the
kingdom is glossed over in the British historical narrative. Arguably, the king
may have exaggerated the need, but certainly the foreigners who came from
abroad to ensure cultural and intellectual growth had a lasting impact. In the
kingdom’s infancy, individuals from North Africa and the Iberian peninsula
played an important role in the establishment and future of Britain’s cultural
growth and influence. Within the Christian tradition in the English speaking
world, it is often overlooked that many of the Church Fathers were from
Northern Africa, and their theological commentary provided the framework
for the works of the late 7th-/early 8th-century monk Bede. My own work on a
poem within the 10th-century Exeter Book hints at the poet’s knowledge of
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23/11/2022 02:19 Anglo-Saxon Studies [Early English Studies], Academia and White Supremacy | by M. Rambaran-Olm | Medium
By M. Rambaran-Olm, PhD.
*To reflect on-going changes in my field I have updated the article to refer to
the field as “Early English Studies.”
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23/11/2022 02:19 Anglo-Saxon Studies [Early English Studies], Academia and White Supremacy | by M. Rambaran-Olm | Medium
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