NEW! Dr. Harriet Fertik speaks on "Rethinking Classical Education with W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folks" based on her reflections on his writing and her understanding of his views on education within the historical context as well as some implications for classical studies today. Her presentation was part of our NCLG 2023 Exploring Equity Panel, 'Rethinking the Canon; New Voices Reassess Traditional Content.'A video clip of her talk alone is HERE. Within the whole panel recording, her presentation begins at minute 17:30. The latter is a large file, so it may take a few moments to load on your device. 

NEW!  Exploring Equity Series - Rethinking the Canon: New Voices Reassess Traditional Content is the 2023 NCLG DEI panel for ACL Institute. This panel opened with a discourse by DEI Chair Dr. Daniel McGlathery on our efforts to present to Greek and Latin educators a wider range of views and more inclusive content. The 90 minute video contains two presentations, an interview, and a wrap up Q&A with all 3 speakers. Dr. Harriet Fertik spoke first on W.E.B. DuBois. "Rethinking Classical Education with W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk" is based on her reflections on his writing and her understanding of his views within the historical context as well as some implications for classical studies today. Dr. Stephanie McCarter, reflected on her new translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, speaking on the need for more accurate translations and greater sensitivity toward gender and sexual violence portrayed within epic works such as the Metamorphoses. She offered advice for Latin instructors and many practical examples for how to handle such readings in the classroom. McGlathery followed with a candid Interview with Dr. Daniel Mendelsohn, touching on his scholarship in Classics and Humanities, his forthcoming translation of Homer’s Odyssey through a unique new lens, his life experiences as a gay, Jewish student, professor and author, his advice to current and future Classicists who might want to follow in his footsteps and “inhabit themselves fully,” and his strong public media presence in New York. The panel wrapped up as the host Dr. McGlathery moderated a brief conversation among the three other panelists as they answered questions from the audience.

NEW! Expand your curriculum: Bring Latin writings to your level 2-3 students composed by non-canonical authors born in North America in the 17th century. You may know of Phillis Wheatley, but we offer four examples you may not be aware of. Access our summaries and links to copies of original works of Francis Williams, a Black scholar of Jamaica and education advocate; two Wampanoag Harvard College students, Caleb Cheeshateaumauk and Eleazar Judus; and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz who lived near Mexico City and published in Spanish, Latin, and Nahuatl, earning her the title The Tenth Muse. Appreciation to Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick and to Skye Shirley for sharing their work on Williams and Sor Juana, respectively.

NEW! “Exploring Equity: Re-envisioning Our Place in the University,”  Listen to the NCLG Panel created for the ACL Institute 22 and hosted by Dr. Daniel McGlathery, DEI Chair. The host explores the current situation of Classics and invites three panelists to share different ways that Classics needs to change its attitudes, methods, and content to survive. 

Dr. Anika Prather (Howard) discusses the value of the classical educational tradition in the historical and current lived experiences of Black students and scholars. Teaching the truth about ancient literature and culture has and will resonate with people of color. It can create a space for liberation and healing as students learn about writers, leaders, and preeminent thinkers of the past that were people of color. And they can explore universal and personal issues as they explore ancient stories, cultural practices, and products.  

Dr. Pramit Chaudhuri (UT Austin) proposes that departments make important changes 1) carefully evaluate and revise course content – what are we teaching and why  2) explore more interdisciplinary course and research by teaching classics where it intersects with other disciplines and use computational analytic tools developed in other fields to broaden studies (Quantitative Criticism Lab) and 3) create more DEI public-facing projects such as their public exhibition, “This is My Native Land,” which focuses on classicists of color in Texas.

Dr. Emily Greenwood (Princeton) presents why we need to develop "A Paedagogy of Respect: Teaching Up Without Looking Down.” She proposes that classicists need to discard outdated and often entrenched expectations of who students are, what they “should already know,” and what they should be taught. Culture (one’s own or another society’s) is not just something for the elite to study, but something that every person - right where they are – participates in fully, finding relationships and exploring meaning.

NEW! "Reclaiming Our Canon"  Hear the thoughts of Dr. Anika Prather on the Black Classical Tradition. Describing her own journey from skepticism to enthusiasm, Dr. Prather explains why it makes sense for students of color to embrace the reality of the deep connection between Black education and the classical tradition, especially in America. She explains how that study helped liberate and empower African Americans (who were torn from their own cultures and linguistic traditions) by giving them access to language study and the tools of logic and rhetoric. This podcast summarizes her presentation for our NCLG DEI panel and her keynote address at ACL Institute 2022.

NEW! Spotlight on Dr. Leah Rochell Johnson, 'Supporting Equity: The Importance of Role Models and Mentoring' slides and in PDF. She speaks of her own lived experiences as the youngest of twelve growing up in a strong African American family and inspired by family members, friends, and teachers to aspire to the highest level of education, earning a long list honors during her career as a rising classicist while studying and researching topics in Classics and Archaeology. Later she became a role model, mentoring young students and undergrads to navigate college admissions and set high educational and career goals for themselves.

Database of Classical Scholars is an ongoing work that provides biographical and bibliographical information on hundreds of scholars from the last 250 years, including Black, Latino, and European scholars. It began under the auspices of the APA but is now managed by Rutgers University.

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

NEW!   National Committee for Latin and Greek hosted a DEI panel discussion at ACL 2021 Institute, Actionable Steps to Increasing Inclusivity in the Greek and Latin classroom. NCLG Vice Chair Katie Robinson opened the panel with a summary of the goals and objectives of the NCLG in addressing this important issue. View the live recording to hear the perspectives and advice of John Bracey, Jamie Banks, Svetlana Lazarova, and Maureen Lamb. Learn about resources, techniques, and tools for recruiting from all communities, being sensitive to student needs and identities, and making the language accessible to all of them through technology and alternative readings and forms of assessment. If your students are not feeling successful and finding value in the class, then there are positive ways to address these issues. 

ACTFL writes that agency is a necessary part of equity. See HERE and also HERE. where ACTFL states that “In a world where people self-identify on multiple levels— from race and religion to gender, sexuality, and even dietary choices….. [and] covers a range of intersectional social identities, the various definitions of diversity are fluid, nuanced, subjective, political, and context dependent.” ACTFL goes on to state that inclusion is not accomplished by simply having various people in the room, but the collective work must “provide equitable, meaningful … participation.” Fosslien and West Duffy(2019) are cited as saying that we must remember that everyone with a seat at the table must also be given “a voice, opportunity, and enough time to speak.” 

Our Voices: A Conference for Inclusive Classics Pedagogy (February 2020): Recordings and conference materials from two days of presentations are available HERE. Real-time videos of many presenters and discussions can ALL be found here, on YouTube. Topics include:                                     

• Making Our Voices Heard - Fighting for Change in Classics;                                                             

• Exploring Dimensions of Disability in the Classics Classroom;                                                     

• Assessment and AP: Issues of Social Justice in the AP Latin Curriculum;                                             

• Workshop on Critical Classical Reception;                                                         

• Innovative Pedagogy in the College Classroom: The Joy of Teaching Classics to a Diverse Student Body;  

• Power in Print: Providing Publishing Opportunities for Undergraduates 

• Opportunities for Undergraduates                                                  

• Playful Learning and Deep Belonging in the Classics Classroom;                                                          

• Queer Classics: On (Not) Being Included: What Sara Ahmed Taught Me About Being a Dyke, a Feminist, a Classicist;                                                           

• Beyond Pronouns: Gender Identity/Questions of Language in the Latin Classroom;                                        

• Towards Classical Reparations: A Womanist Approach to Inclusive Classical Pedagogy in America;

• Enraptured: Reading Ovidian Sexual Violence in Early Modern Lit.;                                                                   

• Sulpicia Legenda: An Interactive Pedagogy Workshop;                               

NEW! An Autistic Classicist in the Labyrinth. Hear Dr. Cora Beth Fraser speak about her educational experiences growing up and as a rising Classicist with autism. Our thanks to CCA South who houses this presentation and shares it with NCLG, with Dr. Fraser's permission. Cora Beth Fraser is an award-winning Associate Lecturer with The Open University in the UK, and an Honorary Research Associate in Classical Studies. She is a founder and director of Asterion Neurodiversity Hub, and winner of the 2022 Classical Association Prize. She has dozens of blogs for her students at https://classicalstudies.support/ during the pandemic and supports initiatives which make Classics more accessible to everyone.                                                                                       

NEW!  Finding LGBTQ+ Voices in the World Language Classroom is a webinar recording hosted by NECTFL that focuses on both recognizing and respecting gender identities.   

Women’s Classical Caucus is a long-standing group offering support, advocacy and resources. Their site states “Since its inception, the WCC has proactively supported women, women-identifying persons, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC scholars. This is one pillar of our mission, to advance equality, equity, and diversity efforts that support women, women-identifying persons, people of color, people with disabilities, graduate students, contingent faculty, and allies, and we will continue in our advocacy.”

NEW! How to Promote Ownership of the Classical Past Among Underrepresented Groups: Jermaine Bryant (Medium.com) A student’s view. “Center and Margins: Recruiting, Anxiety and the Power of Reaching Out.”

NEW! It’s Time to Fix Your Pedagogy: FAQ and Resources for Creating an Equitable Latin Classroom, by John Bracey | EIDOLON. This is an article offering many practical steps toward making positive changes that create a more inclusive space.

NEW! Diversity and Inclusion in the Latin Classroom: Cambridge University Press continues to add to their Diversity and Inclusion blog site. An excellent series of presentations from CUP in Dec. 2021 and click HERE (for 2020). See videos and articles with specific information and resources for addressing a variety of diversity and inclusion issues in teaching Latin, Greek, and Classics. You can sign up for their daily email versions! 

NEW! Designing for Equity (Why I am (maybe) never teaching Cicero again). Here is a video presentation by Elizabeth Manwell of Kalamazoo College, MI, given at Res Difficiles Conference 2021. You can scroll down on the conference website where she shares her video and  handout about how we can (re)design college classes and course content to better serve the actual needs and goals of many of our students.

Lupercal Promotes Women Teaching, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Latin:  https://www.lupercallegit.org/  Lupercal Director, Skye Shirley, writes: "Lupercal is a Latin reading group that works to close a gender gap in spoken Latin studies by providing a space for women and non-binary Latinists to learn from each other. We focus on fostering community, amplifying voices from herstory, and developing our spoken Latin. Communitas, ‘herstoria,’ and  Latinitas viva intersect at Lupercal events, where we meet to read biographies of women from Boccaccio's Latin text De Mulieribus Claris and discuss its relevance to our lives. We have chapters in fifteen different cities in three countries and currently run four weekly Zoom groups in addition to occasional special events."   

The Women Writing Latin course https://www.skyeshirley.com/ is an example of how to design a course around texts written by women across 2,500 years of Latin's incredible history. The Women Writing Latin program is compiling a long list of such texts, available online. Readings are drawn from ancient Roman funerary inscriptions, graffiti, early Christian poetry, Medieval letters between royalty, Renaissance feminist arguments, dissertations by the first women to obtain doctorate degrees in science, 19th century textbook passages, and email correspondence by women writing in Latin today.  Emphasis is on drawing connections between texts and current efforts to make these silenced voices more accessible to scholars and students alike. 

NEW! Add a strong female voice accessible to your high school  or beginning college Latin curriculum! Tom Hendrickson has published a new Student Edition for The Passion of Perpetua in an innovative collaboration with his own students. You can purchase it or use the FREE online copy. NCLG Spotlight article HERE in pdf.

Here are some resource books for Latin texts and information about the realities of women’s lives: Women Writing Latin: From Roman Antiquity to Early Modern Europe, et al. Edited by Laurie J. Churchill, Phyllis Rugg Brown, Jane E. Jeffrey, 2002. This is a 3-volume anthology of women's writings in Latin from antiquity to the early modern era and Christian era. Each volume provides texts, contexts, and translations of a wide variety of works produced by women, including dramatic, poetic, and devotional writing. Volume 1 covers the age of Roman Antiquity and early Christianity; Vol. 2 covers the Middle Ages; and Vol. 3 is dedicated to the early modern era.

Women Latin Poets: Language,  Gender, and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, by Jane Stevenson. This book addresses women's relationship to culture between the 1st century B.C.E and the 18th century C.E .by identifying women who wrote poetry in Latin. It also considers women's prose writing in Latin and their performance as Latin orators.

A Roman Women Reader, by Sheila Dickison and Judith P. Hallett, explores the lives of Roman women, described in texts in a variety of genres across four centuries, and offers a comprehensive picture of the realities of women in Roman antiquity. Depicted in the readings are both historical and fictional women, of varying ages and at different stages of life, from a range of social classes, and from different locales.

Here are some sourcebooks to learn more about Greek and Roman women and women writers: Sarah Pomeroy’s Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity; Suzanne Dixon’s Reading Roman Women;  Lindsay Alllason-Jones’ Roman Woman: Everyday Life in Hadrian’s Britain;  Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World, an interdisciplinary work with dozens of topical essays by eminent scholars who reexamine evidence and challenge preconceptions; Diana Robin’s Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the Counter-Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Italy, translations of many texts published by women.

Women Classical Scholars: Unsealing the Fountain from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly (OUP) includes 20 essays, edited by Rosie Wyles and Edith Hall. This book is the first written history of the pioneering women born between the Renaissance and 1913 who played significant roles in the history of classical scholarship. Working in the shadows of husbands, fathers, and brothers, excluded from institutional support, denigrated for being lightweight or over-ambitious, they nevertheless taught, edited, translated, analyzed, elucidated, and compiled Latin and Greek texts for more than 500 years.

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You may wish to visit our companion NCLG webpages.

Go to page: Welcoming All Students and Colleagues

Go to page: Increasing Accessibility and Inclusion in the Latin and Greek Classroom