Fantasies of Whiteness and the Medieval Imagination

Fantasies of Whiteness and the Medieval Imagination nahir i. otao graciaIn a recent conversation, a former graduate student mentioned that, as his teacher, I continuously describe just "how much work it takes to make structures of violence look effortless and natural" (Peay).I, of course, want my research to live up to this statement.In my first book, The Other Faces of Arthur: Chivalric Whiteness in the Global North Atlantic, I explore the racial logics of medieval Europe through an analysis of chivalric whiteness in Arthurian literature.The book reveals how fantasies of whiteness naturalize violence based on race.It exposes how much work it takes these texts to argue for whiteness.This monograph took a decade to get published, in part because scholars in medieval studies struggle to engage with and value work that deals with race.The truth is that Geraldine Heng's groundbreaking book, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, opened the doors for my own project on whiteness.Heng's research, which is informed by scholarship emergent from ethnic studies, has been imperative for a new generation of scholars.