Seminar Special Issue: Conceptions of “Race” in Premodern German Studies

While Black German Studies has become an important field in our discipline, scholarship in premodern German studies is only beginning to show the same level of engagement with Critical Race Studies as evidenced in Anglo- and Francophone premodern research. Initial investigations by Valentin Groebner (2007) and Beatrice Michaelis (2014) have made important first steps towards addressing this situation. They make a case for the applicability and relevance of CRS scholarship to premodern German studies in various subfields, such as art history, history, and literature. More recent studies, such as those of Juliane Schiel (2023) and Karl Ubl (2023), further evidence the growing impact of this developing conversation.

This special issue aims to help bring premodern German studies up to the same level of conversation as Anglo- and Francophone premodern scholarship by contributing to further developing a shared set of methodologies and terminology for premodern German Studies within a CRS context. Doing so, it builds on work done by prominent medieval scholars such as Roland Betancourt, Geraldine Heng, Jonathan Hsy, Dorothy Kim, Matthew X. Vernon, and Cord J. Whitaker, who have proposed methodologies that challenge the concept of “race” as a modern phenomenon. They argue that the essentialization of physical and somatic traits linked to “otherness” existed long before the modern era and that the process of “racialization” was used to maintain power structures and suppress minority groups throughout the European Middle Ages. Geraldine Heng’s groundbreaking book The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (2018) has also specifically drawn attention to this topic. 

The primary aim of our proposed special issue is to demonstrate how applying and further developing such methodologies can also enhance the field of premodern German Studies. We seek contributions that explore how the concept of “race” was constructed in premodern literature within German studies and invite submissions from various subdisciplines within our field, including literature, history, religion, art history, and beyond.

Potential Questions and Topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

• How has “race” been constructed in the context of premodern material? Do these examples challenge or reinforce the (modern) concepts of “race” and “racemaking” and underscore their socially constructed nature?
• To what extent have the premodern examples we study impacted modern “race” epistemology and rhetoric formations?
• Are we using appropriate and ethical terminology or unknowingly using problematic language? How can we resolve these terminological challenges? Is our terminology effectively challenging prevailing ideas, or does it perpetuate them inadvertently?
• Can our concepts and terminologies be applied across different subfields (literature, history, linguistics, etc.)? What is needed to achieve shared understanding?
• How are our studies impacted by the places where we work (Austria, Germany, Switzerland vs. Canada, GB, and USA, e.g.), the languages in which we write, and the places where we publish?

Please send a 500-word abstract and short bio to Dr. Tina Boyer boyertm@wfu.edu and Dr. Annegret Oehme oehme@uw.edu by June 1, 2024. Prospective contributors will be notified by July 1, 2024. The deadline for draft manuscripts (6000-8000 words) will be January 5, 2025, and June 1, 2025, for revised, final manuscripts. Each contribution will undergo rigorous double-blind peer review before publication of the special issue in winter 2025. Submissions are welcome in English, French, or German.

Works Cited

Groebner, Valentin. “Mit dem Feind schlafen: Nachdenken über Hautfarben, Sex, und “Rasse” im spätmittelalterlichen Europa,” Historische Anthropologie, vol.15, no. 3, 2007, pp. 327–38.

Michaelis, Beatrice. “In/Kommensurabilität. Artikulationen von ‚Rasse‘ im mittelalterlichen Nibelungenlied und in Fritz Langs Film Die Nibelungen.” Durchkreuzte Helden, edited by Astrid Lembke et al., Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2014, pp. 147–164.

Schiel, Juliane. “Die ‚Critical Race Theory‘. Zur Anwendung hochmoderner Theorien auf das Mittelalter.” Deutungsstreitigkeiten in der jüngeren Mediävistik, edited by Hans-Werner Goetz, München, hybrid, 2023, pp. 213–230.

Ubl, Karl. “Rasse und Rassismus im Mittelalter. Potential und Grenzen eines aktuellen Forschungsparadigmas.” Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 316, no. 2, 2023, pp. 306–341.