Ok, I’m going to do it. I’m going to talk about race. Deep breath… head above the parapet… here goes…

I’m not comfortable talking about race and Classics, because I’m a white classicist and I don’t feel that I have the right. I’m happy to talk about the barriers that working class people encounter in entering the discipline, because I am working class and I have some insight into that. I can talk about the problem of being female and working in a male-dominated area, because I’ve been through that too. I can talk about the challenges of juggling family and an academic career, and I’m even happy talking about disability and neurodiversity. All of these things fall within my own experience, and while I don’t think that my experiences stand for everybody’s, I don’t find it difficult to start a conversation about them.

But race and racism in Classics? That’s different.

This is the moment where I’m probably supposed to wave around my anti-racist credentials. And in fact I did. I wrote a really good paragraph about my involvement with local BAME community groups and the students I have from around the world. It would have looked great on a CV.

But that’s not the point here. The point is that Classics as a discipline has a clear and obvious problem with diversity, whatever we say about our feelings on racism.

Take a look at my list of Comfort Classics interviews, for instance. I’m proud of the diverse range of voices in the series. I post interviews with people from all kinds of different backgrounds and professions, and with very different levels of experience within Classics. But it has turned out to be a VERY white list.

(You might well argue that I should be taking deliberate action to address the whiteness of my Comfort Classics back catalogue, by chasing more Black classicists to do my interviews. In an ideal world you’d be right; and someday I hope I’ll be able to do that. But at this point I suspect that the very few Black classicists I know are taking on a disproportionate amount of responsibility for managing change, so I’m not going to pester anybody right now!)

I’ve always thought that Classics as a subject area was well placed to challenge racism, simply because the ancient world’s diversity encourages us to take a close look at our own categorisations of difference. But while the subject area might offer potential, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that there is very little diversity in the professional world of Classics – and now is undoubtedly the time to highlight that fact, as many people are currently doing.

So what can we do about the situation?

Well, what I intend to do is read and learn, and share what I read. So in my links, this week and last week, and as long as the material is out there, I’m including a special section for links about diversity and Classics, linking to material written by people who do have insights, and who have experienced challenges for themselves. I hope that you’ll follow some of the links and read the material. It’s little enough, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a place to start.

Some people (shout-out to Andrew Fox here) have been receiving a lot of online abuse for suggesting something similar on their blogs. I like to think that my readers are better than that; I can’t imagine receiving threats for posting links and encouraging people to read them.  But I suppose I’ll soon find out!

Wow – that turned into a serious post! Quick… think of something frivolous! Ermmm… stamps! Cool Roman stamps. We love a good Roman stamp. Hooray for the Royal Mail!

 

 

Finally I’d like to say a big thank-you to my Comfort Classics guests this week – because it’s been a week in which a lot of people have needed happy thoughts. Greg Gilles provided lovely pictures of Pompeian frescoes, and now I have new ideas for what to paint on the walls of my empty loft room! Flint Dibble offered a zooarchaeologist’s perspective: his threads on Twitter are really great reading for anyone interested in archaeology. Steve Jenkin, who runs the extraordinary Classics Library community, gave us a View – and I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s one I’ve never seen in person, so I’m adding it to my When We Get Back To Normal list! Georgy Kantor talked about Tacitus, which naturally made me happy, being a Tacitus groupie myself. And today Maddy Perridge from Kallos Gallery talked about the vase of Achilles and Penthesilea – so now I’m feeling homesick for the British Museum again!

Oh, and I wrote a Thing for The Open University about Comfort Classics: you can read it here.

 

 

 

 

This week’s links from around the Classical Internet

 

 

News

Islamic texts online – The Guardian 

Roman forts and roads revealed – BBC 

New Roman Britain stamps –ITV

Amazing details of a Roman city – The Guardian 

‘Revolutionary’ radar technology – Forbes 

Unveiling the Torlonia marbles – Wanted in Rome

 

 

 

 

Comment and opinion

Time Travel Diaries review – Pop Classics

Publius Decimus Mus – Roman Times 

The mysterious history of Thebes – The Spectator

The last words of Milman Parry – The Oxonian Review 

Polyphemus – Roman Times 

ACE Studentships for teachers – ACE 

 

 

 

 

 

Classics, race, diversity and statues

Remembering to forget – Pompeian Connections 

A tale of two Creons – Corona Borealis

Classics and diversity – Andrew C. Fox 

Towards a more inclusive Classics – University of Reading 

Racial Diversity in academia [video] – Digital Hammurabi 

Racism in Classics – The Queer Classicist 

Romans and statues – A Don’s Life 

Aristotle must fall? – Sphinx

Unteaching white supremacy – Eidolon

The Sportula: links and grants – Medium

 

 

Podcasts, video and other media

Socrates in Love: Armand D’Angour – York Festival of Ideas 

Spartacus, with The Partial Historians – Ancient History Fangirl 

Dionysus in Greek art – Runshaw Classics