Classical Studies Support

I was looking back over my archive of Weekend Reading posts (which is here, although I haven’t updated it for months!) and realised that I’ve been managing a weekly post with only a couple of gaps – for Christmas and other big occasions – for three years now.

It’s time for a break.

I’m not abandoning the Weekend Reading posts forever, of course – I’ll pick them up again at the end of the summer. But I do need to free up the time to pursue my Big Summer Projects, so I’ll be pausing the weekly posts for a couple of months. For all your clickable Classics needs, the Rogue Classicist has you covered: his daily round-up of exciting (or otherwise) classical stuff is far more exhaustive than I could ever manage! And you won’t be without my ramblings: I’ll be posting regular updates on the various forms of craziness which I plan to initiate.

To kick off my Big Project Summer, I’d like to ask for your help.

I’m putting together contact lists for two of my current projects, and I’m hoping that you’ll get in touch with me if you’d like to be on either of the lists. These are just lists of ‘people who might be interested in hearing more’ – so responding does not commit you to anything at all!

The first is a North list. I’d like to collect names and email addresses of people in the far North of England (so Tyneside, Wearside, Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria etc) who have an interest in Classics and might like to be involved with Classics-related events (either in person or online). You don’t have to have a qualification in Classics to be added to the list – just interest and enthusiasm! I’m hoping that – if there’s enough interest – there’ll be opportunities to set up fun and exciting local events with a focus on the social side of things. So please do drop me a quick email (through the Contact Form or at my email address CoraBeth.Fraser@open.ac.uk) if you’re in the North and might like to find out more. I’ll also be looking for local organisers and people who might like to play an active role, so if you think you might like to be involved in that side of things, do let me know!

The second list I’m putting together is a Classics and Neurodiversity list (which is ever so slightly related to my current Minotaur obsession!). I’m looking for UK people who are involved with Classics (in any way, as students or teachers or lecturers or graduates or enthusiasts) and who also identify as neurodivergent. Let me explain that a bit… I’m hoping to hear from people who are autistic, or who have ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, dyspraxia or any other form of neurodivergence – and I’m not limiting it to people who have an official diagnosis. So whether you’re diagnosed or self-diagnosed, if you’re neurodivergent and might like to get involved with a Big and Very Cool Classics Project, I’d love to hear from you! At the moment I’m simply collecting names (your name and email address won’t be shared with anyone, by the way) to create a mailing list for distributing further information – but in a while there will be opportunities for writing, editing and creative roles. My hope is that some of this will be paid work. So please do send me an email (CoraBeth.Fraser@open.ac.uk) if you think you might like to know more!

And finally…

It’s been a while since I last opened this blog up to contributions, and I thought it might be nice to do more of that over the summer. So… if anyone would like to write a piece for this website, I’d love it if you would get in touch with your ideas! I’m looking in particular for Classics-related book reviews (no more than 800 words), Classics-related travel guides (photos very welcome!) and articles about any research that you’ve done and would like to share. But really I’m interested in everything! So please do get in touch if you have any thoughts.

I’ll take the opportunity now to wish you all a lovely summer! It’s going to be a busy one for me, but hopefully a fun and productive one with interesting things ahead!