The editorial board of SOEALLC promotes the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion for all those who research the various aspects of early England. We support BIPOC scholars, LGBTQIA+ scholars, scholars with disabilities, and scholars from vulnerable and marginalized communities. We believe that Black lives matter. We condemn white supremacy and desire to see an end to violence against people because of racism and other forms of oppression. We affirm the equality of people of all races, genders, sexual identities, and abilities. We acknowledge that we work within institutions, organizations, and systems that perpetuate intersectional forms of oppression that we seek to dismantle. We also know that the work of dismantling such systems must go beyond statements such as these, and as editors of this scholarly project we commit to actions that will further enact our dedication to these values.
In 2019, the editorial board decided to change the name of this project from the Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture (SASLC) to the Sources of Old English and Anglo-Latin Literary Culture, 500-1100 (SOEALLC). We hope that this new name preserves the spirit of the project’s focus on tracing the literary sources used by authors in England during this period. At the same time, the editorial board feels that this new name more accurately represents the body of literature researched in this project and current historicized understandings of the field. In making this change, the editorial board would like to thank the scholars responsible for founding the project in the 1980s as well as BIPOC colleagues in the field who have recently worked to demonstrate the historically problematic nature of the term “Anglo-Saxon.”
We have also chosen to shift our use of terminology in light of such recent discussions. Acknowledging that terms like “Anglo-Saxons” and “Anglo-Saxon England” are charged with racist histories, we now seek to use alternate terms like “early English” or “early England”—while also acknowledging that these alternate terms are themselves historically and ideologically freighted in their own ways. For reasons related to print and copyright concerns, older files and publications of the project will still carry over terms used in previous scholarship, and it is necessary to acknowledge both the selection of the former name (SASLC) and the use of such terms as conforming to scholarly practice in the field at the time of their original composition. Going forward, however, we are committed to eschewing terminology that perpetuates and enables appropriations of the Middle Ages for nationalist, colonialist, and white supremacist agendas.