Going Medieval On White Supremacists | 1A

The Middle Ages spanned roughly a thousand years – and encompassed all seven continents.

But when most Americans think about Medieval times (not the restaurant), our brains go straight to an all-white version of Medieval Europe that never really existed.

The myth is so pernicious, white supremacists have used it to draw people to their cause for more than a hundred years.

Last month, it was even alluded to in a memo calling on Republicans to form a caucus driven by “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”

So, while we still hear a lot about the Vikings, the Celts, and the supposed “Anglo-Saxons,” what were those groups really like? And what does our misunderstanding of the Middle Ages mean for how we view our world today?

Guests

Matthew Gabriele

professor of Medieval Studies and chair of the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech. His upcoming book is called, “The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe”

Eleanor Janega

guest teacher in women’s history at the London School of Economics and Political Science; host of the series “Going Medieval;” author, “The Middle Ages: A Graphic History”

Cord Whitaker

associate professor of English at Wellesley College; author, “Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged From Medieval Race Thinking”

MIT X TAU Series: Africa’s Agricultural Reinvention – MIT Events

Sara Menker, an Entrepreneur and the CEO of Gro Intelligence.

Gro Intelligence was named by Time magazine as among the 100 most influential companies in 2021

She is a trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies and was elected one of the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders.

Menker was born and raised in Ethiopia. She studied Economics and African Studies at Mount Holyoke College. She moved to the London School of Economics for her graduate studies, and eventually earned an Master of Business Administration at Columbia University.

Menker is a former commodities group Vice President at Morgan Stanley. During her time at Morgan Stanley, Menker became interested in farmland investments. She left her job in Wall Street to use her skills in data analytics for social good. She became concerned by threat of a global food crisis, and started to investigate how Africa could mitigate the Earth’s growing demands for food. In 2014 Menker established Gro Intelligence, a data-driven platform which connects food market around the world. Gro Intelligence includes information such as the cost of avocado exports from Mexico and popular coffee beans, and uses artificial intelligence to make predictions about trends in food prices. Gro Intelligence offer software that makes agricultural, weather and climate data easy to understand. The data is combined with satellite imagery and creates over 1,000 models a day. She has used Gro Intelligence to investigate the impact of natural disasters, including droughts, on food supply. The reports inform companies on what and where to sell products, as well as supporting policy makers and insurance companies.

In 2018 Menker was named the Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems Lecturer. She has presented at the Rockefeller Foundation, X and The New York Times.

Menker is a trustee of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. She was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014. She is also a member of The Aspen Institute African Leadership Initiative. Menker is involved with Cognition X, the artificial intelligence information platform.

Gro Intelligence – AI company improving decision-making in climate, food, and agriculture

Curated by Human Intelligence, Scaled by Artificial Intelligence

Gro invites the question, statement or problem and inspires the confidence that our platform has the honest answer.

Sara Menker

MIT X TAU Series

The Center for International Studies (CIS), home to the MIT Africa Program, has partnered with the newly launched TRUE Africa University (TAU) to host a webinar series focusing on various aspects of sustainable development in Africa. Thursdays at NOON ET, starting on March 4, 2021, TAU founder, MIT alumnus, and CIS research affiliate Claude Grunitzky, will interview the thinkers, shapers and doers who he sees as the inventors of the future of Africa. The MIT x TAU webinar series will be an opportunity for the MIT community and the world to engage with luminaries such as Taiye Selasi, the Ghanaian-Nigerian author; Jeffrey Sachs, the American economist; and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, the Nigerian serial entrepreneur behind some of Africa’s most valuable startups.

A famous locust organization of the past – OCLALAV

OCLALAV

Balliol Historic Collections: Slavery in the Age of Revolution – trailer

Balliol College, Oxford

Apr 13, 2021

An exhibition to be held at Balliol’s HIstoric Collections Centre, September 2021

The End of American Exceptionalism

New Economic Thinking – Oct 3, 2018

“We don’t look after each other at all,” says Jeffrey Sachs on America today Jeffrey Sachs sits down with Rob Johnson to discuss his new book, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (Columbia University Press, 2018).

Starr Forum: Racing to the Precipice: Global Climate, Political Climate

MIT Center for International Studies

Mar 24, 2017
Starr Forum lecture with Noam Chomsky on climate change and President Trump.

A transcript of the event is available at https://cis.mit.edu/events/transcript…

About Noam Chomsky:
Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as “the father of modern linguistics”, Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy, and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has worked since 1955, and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.

Recorded on March 23, 2017 – 5:00pm to 6:30pm

The MIT Center for International Studies (CIS) is a world premier, university-based research and education center.
Learn more at http://cis.mit.edu/​ The MIT Starr Forum is a flagship public event series hosted by CIS.
Learn more at http://cis.mit.edu/events-seminars/ab…

Bernie Sanders Launches Blistering Attack on Mitch McConnell in Kentucky

By Alice Hutton, The Independent

05 May 21

Senator Bernie Sanders accused Republican senator Mitch McConnell of making ‘the rich richer’ in America

Senator Bernie Sanders unleashed a blistering attack on Mitch McConnell during a rally in the Senate minority leader’s home state over the weekend.

The 79-year-old, who shot to fame for his progressive, left-leaning policies during two failed bids for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, appeared at a rally with former state representative Charles Booker in Kentucky on Sunday, who continued to hint at a potential run against Republican senator Rand Paul.

Outside the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, the senator from Vermont focused on Kentucky’s other senator, McConnell, accusing him of obstructing bids to improve health care and decrease poverty whilst reportedly raising funds from banks and corporate giants, as reported by The Courier Journal.

Mr Sanders said: “As we speak, Senator McConnell is leading the effort against the long-term structural changes that working people in Kentucky and throughout our country desperately need.”

…(read more).

‘Just a glorified blog’: Donald Trump launches new social media platform

FRANCE 24 English

Published on May 6, 2021

IN THE PRESS – Thursday, May 6, 2021: We look at reactions in the US media after Facebook’s oversight board upheld a decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account. We also look at the former president’s new “social media platform”, where Trump is the only one who can actually post content.