In the centuries after the Norman Conquest, as many as eight languages were spoken in the British Isles: English, Anglo-Norman, Latin, Norse, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, and Hebrew. Who spoke these languages, and how did they interact and influence each other? In this episode, Austin Benson discusses the linguistic and literary landscape of multilingual Britain, interviewing Dr. Sara Pons-Sanz at Cardiff University about Old Norse, Dr. Shamma Boyarin at the University of Victoria about Hebrew, and Dr. Georgia Henley at Saint Anselm College about Middle Welsh. For more information about these speake ..read more

What goes into editing a special issue of a journal? How does the framework of race and race-thinking inform medieval studies today? What is the role of objectivity in the study of the Middle Ages? Join us for this conversation with the editors of the special issue Race, Race-Thinking, and Identity in the Global Middle Ages, published by Speculum (99.2) in April 2024. This episode is a collaboration between The Multicultural Middle Ages and Speculum, and it was hosted by Katherine L. Jansen and Jonathan F. Correa-Reyes in conversation with Cord J. Whitaker, Nahir Otaño Gracia, and François-Xav ..read more

What is the relationship between so-called built and natural environments as they are represented in medieval literature, and what is the value of thinking about this relationship? Amy Juarez, Chelsea Keane, and Rebecca Davis discuss the nuanced connections between medieval literary representations of “built” and “natural” environments. Their wide-ranging discussion covers the multiplicity of Middle English words, the form of medieval poetic constructions, and the problematics of disciplinary distinctions. For more on this discussion, check out the episode notes on our website: multiculturalmi ..read more

The producers of The Multicultural Middle Ages podcast sit down to talk about where we've been, what it's been like, and what's to come. www.multiculturalmiddleages.com ..read more

Scholars Thomas Morcom and Helen Gittos reflect on their experiences with researching and writing their article, "The Cerne Giant in its Early Medieval Context," which appears in Speculum 99:1. The Cerne Abbas giant is a well-known figure cut into the chalk of a hillside in Dorset. Recent archaeological investigation has concluded that it had been cut in the early middle ages. Morcom and Gittos argue that he was originally carved as an image of the classical hero Hercules and that this apparently surprising date makes good historical sense. The landscape context of the giant indicates that he ..read more

Scholar Georgios Makris reflects on his experiences with researching and writing his article, “Jewelry and People in the Byzantine Cemetery of Parapotamos, Epiros,” which appears in Speculum 98:4.Jewelry reflecting the tastes, needs, and practices of past users across all social strata constitutes one of the most representative portable arts in the Middle Ages. Jewelry’s typical lack of iconography or original context has often prevented scholars of Byzantine art from engaging with the medium’s socio-historical value. By bringing together artworks from museum collections and objects found in t ..read more

What does it mean to experience a sacred text? How did Buddhism make its way from south Asia to the Japanese archipelago? How did the adoption of Buddhism impact the Japanese Middle Ages? Join Jon Correa Reyes and Reed O'Mara for a conversation with Charlotte Eubanks, where they discuss some of the many ways in which Buddhist beliefs and practices shaped medieval Japanese history, individuals, and landscapes. Additionally, they shed light on how engagement with Buddhist sacred texts was a deeply embodied experience for Buddhist monks and devotees.For more about Charlotte, Jon, Reed, and their ..read more

What did medieval music sound like? How can we read and perform the musical notation from medieval manuscripts? What does singing and playing music written before 1500 actually feel like? How did the early music tradition carry forward into the seventeenth century? In this episode, Reed O'Mara interviews musicologists Elena Mullins Bailey and Allison Monroe from the musical ensemble Trobár on the ins and outs of medieval song, both sacred and profane, and the mechanics of historical performance practice.For more about Reed, Elena, Allison, and this topic, check out our show notes: https://tiny ..read more

As medieval scholarship attempts to decenter the West and move towards a global and multicultural approach, we frequently ask: how do we mimic this move in the classroom? Most often, however, this question and its suggested solutions still presuppose a primarily Western and English-native speaking population of students, as well as courses situated within U.S. or European institutions. Informed by her experience teaching comparative medieval courses in both U.S. and non-U.S. institutions (China), Dr. Elizabeth Liendo refocuses our attention in this episode on pedagogy of non-Western and especi ..read more

In a 1998 roundtable discussion, historian Ian Wood pithily said that there were more than two ethnic groups in Early Medieval Gaul, responding to a comment by fellow scholar Giorgio Ausenda. Much discussion surrounds Franks and Romans, but the ethnic landscape was indeed much broader, and extreme fluidity was the norm: strategies of identification prevailed over any biological sense of ethnicity. Samuel Rowe takes a historical, historiographical and analytical look at how ethnic identities coexisted and evolved in the 6th century. Follow this link for more information about Samuel and to lear ..read more