Throughlines
Share
Created by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Throughlines offers approachable and practical methods for incorporating premodern critical race studies in the classroom.
Professor Cassander L. Smith offers an important reading the double-edged sword of respectability politics in the lives of Black Americans. She explores how this respectability is centuries old and can be found in the first memoir written in English by a Black African, Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789.
Find her full talk on Throughlines.
https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/olaudah-equiano-and-the-mirage-of-respectability-politics
As a curator, Andrea Achi learned that accepting museums don’t always have all the facts can actually create a better space for learning. Good curation is about creating an environment that invites questions, not just answers.
https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/curating-from-the-lens-of-critical-race-studies
03/19/2026
Smith traces the linages of libraries and rare book collections and their direct links to sugar plantations and the history of enslavement. To grapple with and fully understand our editorial and curatorial traditions today, we must confront how deeply these systems of value were shaped by the economics and injustices of the transatlantic slave trade.
https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/slavery-sugar-and-the-value-of-shakespeare
Earlier this year we got to interview Carol Mejia LaPerle about Shakespeare, affect, and pedagogy. Find more of her insights on Throughlines.
https://throughlines-asu.webflow.io/scholars/carol-mejia-laperle
In early modern Europe theatre was the mass media. From street performances to court theaters, early modern plays laid the groundwork of racializaiton and what Noémie Ndiaye calls "the racial matrix." Find her full talk on Throughlines.
https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/race-and-early-modern-performance-culture
End of semester quiz: what’s the through line between a renaissance pope and the 21st-century US Supreme Court? See the full video on The Doctrine of Discovery on
What connects a Renaissance Pope with the 21st-century Supreme Court?
The Doctrine of Discovery is one of the oldest and most enduring legal precedents in the Western Hemisphere. Originally issued as a series of papal bulls to resolve territorial disputes between Spain and Portugal, its influence spread across colonial legal systems for centuries.
Scott Manning Stevens provides not only a clear and concise history of this doctrine, but also situates it within the broader context of medieval conquests and intellectual traditions. His full video on Throuhglines highlights how these early frameworks became the epistemic foundation for settler colonial rule.
https://throughlines-asu.webflow.io/suite-content/the-doctrine-of-discovery
Metropolitan Museum of Art curator for Byzantine and North African art Andrea Myers Achi literally goes the extra mile to build her exhibitions. She was gracious enough to offer Throughlines her insights and expertise on curation as pedagogy, the foundational value of North and East Africa in medieval art history, and more.
08/14/2025
🗣️ New Throughlines scholar incoming‼️ We had a wonderful day with Carol Mejia-LaPerle, editor of Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literature. Be on the lookout for her videos and additional pedagogical resources coming soon!
What skills do you want your students to walk away with? Find more pedagogical resources from Patrica Akhimie and others on Throughlines.
08/12/2025
Still trying to finish your syllabus for the semester? Throughlines has several exemplar assignments and classroom activities from leading scholars.
Journaling through questions of race from Kyle Grady
This ongoing, ungraded journaling practice invites students to engage deeply with their own experiences, beliefs, and questions about race.
Practice:
Offer periodic class time dedicated to journaling.
Prompts for journaling can be used to frame conversations and analysis from the classroom texts like Titus Andronicus or The Merchant of Venice.
A prompt for Titus could be “Where in your life do you witness mixed-race identities being explored?”
Keep a journal and reflect alongside the students. It is instrumental to set an example for students to see the teacher engaging with the same questions they are.
Share how the writing process has helped you think about a given topic.
Journaling gives students the time to privately reflect and answer questions they might not have asked themselves before. This primes them for a richer discussion during class and invites them to self-reflect on how their attitudes and awareness change over time.
Journaling through questions of race Grady, Kyle. "Journaling through questions of race." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/journaling-through-questions-of-race. [Date accessed].
Who's the grumpy uncle in your head 👴🏻? Patrica Akhimie joins Throughlines to talk about the importance of editing in Shakespeare.
https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/editorial-influence-in-othello
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Category
Contact the school
Website
Address
Tempe, AZ
