In 2002-03, fresh in the aftermath of September 11, the West seemed to find itself in an odd temporal wrinkle that materialized the specter of a neo-Middle Ages, evidence of a kind that the" medieval" was not only a historical category that named a temporal inter val but also a transhistorical category that could be repeatedly reinscribed, with difference, in later time, rendering postmedieval and contemporary time non-identical to itself, as some of us medievalists had argued. The foremost leader of the Western world was expati ating blithely on crusades and crusaders in the context of international war; a model of empire as a positive form of governmentality in international affairs was re-emorging in political theory; and dispositions of race practiced at airport security checkpoints, in the news media, and public political discourse suggested that religion was once more on the rise as a mechanism by which fundamental distinctions between populations could be delivered through strategic essentialisms, in a quasi-medieval racialization of religion. 1

Even as the West seemed shadowed by premodern time, humanities departments teaching the Middle Ages continued to be frozen along disciplinary, national literature, and area stud ies lines that made well nigh impossible a broad critical teaching across civilizations and systems, and their geopolitical mobilizations, that would deliver a multilayered grasp of how to scrutinize the past in our time. Nor did September 11 decenter the near-exclusive focus on Europe in literature and history departments in which the Middle Ages were taught. At best, courses like Europe and its Others continued to be offered, and a new enthusiasm for teaching the crusades was found.