Numerous resources on social justice (among other) issues from The Society for Classical Studies (SCS) are offered here: https://classicalstudies.org/education/antiracist-resources-links-and-lists 

NEW WEBINAR!  UNITEDWELEARN webinar is on-demand to view on EdWeek.com. Webinar hosts Ross Wiener, Exec, Dir. of the Aspen Institute and Dr. Francesca Lopez, Equity Pedagogy at Penn State show research and evidence-based approaches to treating race and racism in schools and how current trends in restricting this educational content is decidedly counter-productive. The more and the earlier we discuss openly these issues, the students will become less-biased and more inclusive, not the opposite as some politicians say. 

NEW!  Excellent webinars on World Language and Social Justice  from NECTFL (Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) https://www.nectfl.org/webinars/ see recordings: NECTFL YouTube Channel. We recommend this series of past and future webinars on various issues on the intersection of World Language and Social Justice. Recordings and slideshows are available now or will be available after the webinar is held. Titles include:(slideshows & handouts linked here)

  Social Justice in World Languages Education: Where Do I Start? 

  Having Conversations about Race in Foreign Language Classrooms

  Finding LGBTQ+ Voices in the World Language Classroom

  Designing for Equity: Power, Perspectives and Protocols

  Using Digital Games to Create Communicative Activities About Social Justice Topics. 

Social Justice, Antiracism, Diversity, Inclusion, LGBTQIA+ Resources including Anti-Black, Anti-Asian American racism: The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages offers many links internal and external resources on these issues HERE.

Learning for Justice website (formerly Teaching Tolerance) offers many general resources, including an EXTENSIVE library of various media on the topic Race and Ethnicity (nearly 600 articles and over 4000 lesson plans), plus related topics of Bias, Class, Immigration, etc.   They also offer Frameworks: Social Justice Standards  This outlines very clear Can-Do standards and goals covering Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action over K-12 continuum (page includes other topical lesson resources and national standards that can guide culture and history lesson planning, including reflection topics, for a language class) and  Intercultural Dialogues and Example Reflection Activities  which reflect on personal, social, and cultural identities and realities.

NEW!  After finding our NCLG webpages, students of Jennifer Bright who are in a Students for Research homeschool platform, shared the following links they had used from library science resources. The article includes definitions especially appropriate for younger children and cover aspects of addressing inequality and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity within libraries and educational settings. See Ensuring Libraries are Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive.

Try to connect with colleagues! Special Interest Groups, including one focusing on Critical and Social Justice Approaches are offered by ACTFL to its members. https://www.actfl.org/connect/special-interest-groups   Critical and Social Justice Approaches SIG and Comprehension-based Communicative Language Teaching SIG from ACTFL teamed up to offer a Q and A format webinar “Comprehension-based Language Teaching and Social Justice.” Five experienced elementary through university level teachers of Latin, French, Spanish and Chinese spoke about how they perceived and taught issues of Social Justice in their classes. 

NEW! Dr. Alice “Ali” Miano, Spanish Language Program Coordinator, Stanford University, and ACTFL 2021 Critical and Social Justice Approaches SIG Chair offers a Message in her Newsletter that speaks to the importance of using Critical Race Theory or another social justice framework as a lens when planning language lessons and programs, in order to acknowledge the effects of societal systems in our own culture, as well as in those of target language countries. 

NEW! Special FALL 2020 Highlight from CERCLL:  3 Recorded WEBINARS on LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH A LENS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE.Cultural and Linguistic Competence through Social Justice:  In this webinar, by L. J. Randolph, Ed.D. participants discuss the various frameworks that inform social justice in language education and explore ways to connect critical and social justice-oriented pedagogies to language learning goals. The presenters share authentic resources, lesson ideas, and sample activities for a variety of proficiency levels; also includes a specific emphasis on using technological tools for resource selection, student engagement, assessment, and professional development. 

Transformative Learning in a Social Justice Oriented Language Classroom Webinar presented by Stacey Margarita Johnson. Instructors building social justice into their language teaching often report that they hope their language classrooms will be sites of transformative learning and personal growth, to make the world better and inspire students to become engaged citizens. This webinar will explore the steps in transformative learning, its connection to critical pedagogy and social justice, and, most importantly, ways language teachers can promote transformative learning through choices that align with best practices in second language acquisition. 

Some Considerations for Social Justice Teaching in a World Language Setting: From Self to Students to World This Webinar is presented by Michelle Nicola. What are concrete actions that social justice educators take? What beliefs or mindsets do we adopt? What do educators mean by social justice education? This webinar offers suggestions for how to incorporate self-reflection, relationship building, and curriculum design as tools to recognize and interrupt inequitable patterns and practices in our world language classrooms and beyond.  

Specific resources on diversity, equity and inclusion from the Society for Classical Studies offers a wide variety of resources at classicalstudies.org and at: https://classicalstudies.org/education/antiracist-resources-links-and-lists  

MRECC: Multiculturalism, Race & Ethnicity in Classics Consortium’s has  Suggested Resources, “...an excellent ongoing bibliography on antiracism and teaching that is collectively curated by MRECC throughout the year.” 

NEW SITE!  Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient World: Methods, Sources, and Assessments has been growing into a robust site curated by grad students. With permission from Barnard College’s Department of Classics and Ancient Studies, we share this site. It curates an ever-growing selection of books, articles, and resources that Barnard and Columbia students of the Ancient Mediterranean have found helpful in answering the question: How can we conceptualize race in the Ancient World through various lenses, such as CRT, art, archaeology, social structures, gender, environmental theory, etc.? 

Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Classics at the Intersections: Anti-Racism Resources (oriented towards higher education). 

Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Anti-racist Resources for Students and Teachers in Grades 7-12  

Multiculturalism, Race and Ethnicity in Classics Consortium (2020). “Principles of Antiracist Teaching and Reflection.” (resources suitable for all levels): and a Resource Guide.  

Di Giulio, T. (2020). “Five Tips for Teaching Racial Competency with Racially Biased Textbooks: A 21st Century Skill for Classicists.” Medium. This is an excellent source of practical methods to teach by breaking through the biased and narrow views often found in our textbooks.  

The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity by  Benjamin Isaacs, refutes the common belief that the ancient Greeks and Romans harbored “ethnic and cultural,” but not racial, prejudice. He traces  the intellectual origins of racism back to classical antiquity. Benjamin Isaacs analyzes ancient social prejudices, social hatred, religious persecution, and stereotypes revealing prototypes of racism.  

Race, Antiquity and Its Legacy by Denise Eileen McCoskey, (OUP, 2012) explores ideas about the complex matrices of identity, race in antiquity and varied forms of discrimination which were distinct from our concepts, but were equally intense and destructive. She shows how many criteria for personal and collective identity were just as closely bound to political and historical contexts as those that developed later during European exploration and colonization and which we still face today.  

Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity by Sarah F. Derbew (CUP, 2022), goes deep into the history and culture of the Mediterranean to discuss attitudes and practices in the Greek world affected by ethnicity, race, and identity. A thorough introduction is contained in a review by Dr. Hannah Culik-Baird HERE in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

African Americans employed classical education as a tool for resistance: a survey.

Margaret Malamud, African Americans and the Classics: Antiquity, Abolition And Activism. London: I. B. Tauris, 2016. Classics has been complicit in White elitism and supremacy movements. Malamud takes a long historical view of the ways that knowledge of Latin and Greek and those ancient civilizations and cultures was used by African Americans as a tool for resistance, as they worked for political rights, equality, and access to educational opportunities usually withheld from Black slaves, former slaves, and free Blacks. Malamud presents a good summary of time periods, movements, and major figures useful to start one’s research in this area. The Afterword has further examples from the mid- 20th to the 21st century of persons influenced by these two classical languages and cultures.  Summary notes from NCLG will be available soon.

NEW!  Detoxifying the Classics, a half-hour BBC podcast  by Professor Katherine Harloe (University of Reading, UK) who interviews other classicists to discuss why racist hate groups coopt and distort the ancient world and explores the history of how Classics and white supremacy became entangled. Curtis Dosier (Vassar College; see his site  https://pharos.vassarspaces.net),  Jackie Murray (University of Kentucky) and others are interviewed.  Cambridge University Press Diversity and Inclusion in the Latin Classroom also offers an informative interview with Curtis Dosier on his Pharos website resources on this topic.

EXCELLENT VIDEO!  Black Student Voices: What We Need From Our Schools. Education Week spoke with 10 Black high school students from across the country about how they think issues of race and racism should be handled in school, discussing what students want educators to know, the impact of school security, and their experiences talking about race in classes. Students share what they need to improve their school experience, how they need a seat at the table so they can identify school policies that lead to inequities and advocate for things like representation within curricula and counseling support. Highland High School student Jaden Adeyemi said, “As people of color and as youth, we know what we need.”   

Equity and Inclusion from the EdWeek selection of videos focused on social justice, equity and diversity.   

PBS News Hour on One Solution for the Crisis in Teacher Recruitment: Bridging the Cultural Divide Between Teachers and Students. Chicago is the site of a new Illinois State University Step Up program for teacher recruitment and training for urban, culturally diverse, and underserved schools. This outreach to high school students involves more diverse students in teaching and mentoring experiences that can lead to the choice to pursue a career in education.  

We all have implicit biases. So what can we do about it?  Great advice from Dushaw Hockett - TEDxmidAtlanticSalon  https://youtu.be/kKHSJHkPeLY   

Bias in American Schools - another video talk by Kate Gerson   https://youtu.be/kQ7Taxd3DgA  

Why Students of Color Don’t Take Latin, by John Bracey – Eidolon.pub 2017. Bracey explores the realities of biased recruitment and why BIPOC students don’t feel welcome or comfortable in the typical Latin and Greek classroom. https://eidolon.pub/why-students-of-color-dont-take-latin-4ddee3144934  

The Avery Institute and a Celebration of Black Education – video of excellent presentation by Daron Calhoun. Daron Calhoun: Avery...A Celebration of Black Education.mp4  Daron gives a wonderful accounting of the Avery Institute’s important role in providing quality education to African-American students throughout various periods of American history characterized by racism, bias, and exclusion. This was recorded as part of the American Classical League 2020 Institute.  

NEW!  Black Classicists in Texas is a free public exhibition celebrating African American teachers of Latin and Greek in Central Texas; incl. 'This is My Native Land: Tracking the "Classical" Legacy Across Texan Historically Black Colleges and Universities,' a detailed and illustrated story map of information on HBCUs. 3/2023 Humanities Texas and UT Austin Classics. The website enables you to easily browse through the exhibits, learn more about each item, find high-quality images and detailed descriptions of the items, so you can also immerse yourself in the experience of the physical exhibition from your home or share it in your classroom. Introduction, resources, a Timeline of Black issues, advocacy and scholarship; NPR broadcast by Texas Standard on 5/1/23 ‘Teaching Greek and Roman texts in the Jim Crow era.’

SPECIAL NEW RESOURCE !!  NCLG Spotlights on Black Classicists Slideshow Magazines! 

All Spotlights and other resources are available as individual articles on NCLG website. Here is an excellent way to begin to learn or teach about some important Black Classicists in American scholarship! Scroll through an article on Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick's well known  Black Classicists: A Mural Mosaic exhibit (posters available to self-print), a Spotlight article on Helen Maria Chesnutt and an article on the life and work of Dr. R.S. Lovinggood with reflections from NCLG interviews with family members! New article on John Wesley Gilbert and Dr. John W.I. Lee's research on his life. Also available in pdf.) New William Sanders Scarborough and the Work of Michele Valerie Ronnick.(and PDF), Helen and Dorothy Chesnutt exhibit (poster available) by Dr. Paul Hay, and a Spotlight on Peggy W. Norris' new book on William L. Bulkley. New Spotlight on Leah Rochell Johnson, 'Supporting Equity: The Importance of Role Models and Mentoring' slides and in PDF.

Changing "Classics:" What Do We Want? Not What Some People Keep Saying We Want  By Rebecca Kennedy and Maximus Planudes (from Classics at the Intersections blog; Feb. 22, 2021) This offers a clearly outlined summary of suggested changes in our field of  study (of Latin and Greek), some alternative methods for effecting change, the presence of false narratives, and a variety of end goals being proposed within schools and universities and within professional associations. In it, authors specifically reflect on the New York Times perspective piece, listed below….."He Wants to Save Classics from Whiteness...."

He Wants to Save Classics from Whiteness. Can the Field Survive? New York Times feature article of 2/21 by Dan-el Padilla Peralta. This is a detailed and beautifully written article detailing the long history of the Classical Tradition from the Enlightenment to the present and all the baggage that has tainted the very premise of liberal education with idealism and the cooptation by movements and demagogues. By Rachel Poser.   

A similar article to the above listing was posted by Princeton Alumni Weekly and forward to us by an alum also explores the history of elitism and racism in Classical Studies and discusses future directions for departments and the field as a whole. We recommend you take a look on their site: The Color of Classics | Princeton Alumni Weekly  

FROM CERCLL: Here is an excellent list of resources on many aspects of the issues within L2 education of overt and latent bias, discrimination, and inaccessibility for BIPOC students.  Contact CERCLL, the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy for more details, comments, or to suggest additional resources. 

Additional resource pages:

ACTFL's Resources that Address Issues of Race, Diversity, and Social Justice 

Additional General Resources and Articles on Antiracism   

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