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I teach the Roman de Silence alongside Queer Theory, Christine de Pizan in the context of the history of Feminism, and discuss with my students parallels between the racist tropes in the Chanson de Roland and current alt-right discourses. https://twitter.com/dragonista99/status/1351813528529874945
I also teach medieval texts in their own context without explicitly relating them to modern theories or ideas. That approach no less valuable to students. It's not either/or, but both/and.
But the important thing here is that what drives these "culture wars" that pit modern views of race, gender, and sexuality against so-called "traditional" ways of thinking is precisely the implication that "woke" sensibilities are modern fads that overturn the past
Teaching that puts modern ideas in their historical context allows students to more thoroughly understand and critique the present. This is precisely the goal of decolonising the curriculum. Colonisation (as well as misogyny and homophobia) is a historical phenomenon..
..that has profound consequences in the lived present. It makes no sense to isolate it from its long history.
But of course, we all know that. What is really at play here is a cynical attempt to make the courses more "marketable" by appealing to what management think students want to study. Medieval Studies has a public image of being stuffy and boring, less likely to attract applicants.
