We recently lost a great public medievalist: Sharon Kay Penman, author of a massive corpus of medieval historical novels. If you don't know her work, you don't know what you're missing.
If you know what to look for, you can find monuments to medieval hate in medieval churches and town squares across Europe. The question then is: what should be done with them?
Tolkien fan communities can be hostile places for Black fans. Just because Tolkien's work has white supremacy embedded in it does not mean that fans should embrace or replicate it.
Ever since her death at the stake in 1431, Joan of Arc has become a powerful symbol. Women fighting for the expansion of the right to vote took her as a potent icon of their movement.
Well-behaved medieval women seldom made history. While medieval women were officially barred from positions of power in the Church, several found ways to make their voices heard nevertheless.
The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has ignited a global groundswell of protests decrying systemic police brutality against Black Americans. The Black Lives Matter marches and rallies have forced a reevaluation regarding Confederate statues throughout the United States.
NBC's "The Good Place" says that nobody has gone to heaven in 521 years. That makes the last truly good person medieval! But were the Middle Ages really so good?