Teaching about Sexual Violence in the Classics Classroom
Teaching about Sexual Violence in the Classics Classroom
When: August 11, 2021 (over Zoom)
Discussion guidelines (generated by participants)
EVENT DESCRIPTION: How do we talk about ancient materials that feature sexual violence with our students? How do we frame ancient stories about rape and consent, while teaching on campuses where many students are likely to have experienced sexual violence themselves? This workshop invited participants to think through the pedagogical and ethical considerations around teaching materials that include sexual violence. To help us consider how we may guide students through difficult material, we paired two readings: Donna Zuckerberg’s “How to Teach an Ancient Rape Joke” with Nicole Bedera’s “Beyond Trigger Warnings: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Teaching on Sexual Violence and Avoiding Institutional Betrayal.” Participants in this workshop gained concrete strategies for managing class discussions around sexual violence and applying best practices of trauma-informed pedagogy to their own classrooms.
READINGS:
Donna Zuckerberg’s “How to Teach an Ancient Rape Joke”
Nicole Bedera’s “Beyond Trigger Warnings: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Teaching on Sexual Violence and Avoiding Institutional Betrayal”
The following are some questions to consider as you read:
Do you agree with Zuckerberg's approach? Have you had any experience teaching texts that involve sexual violence? How have you talked about these kinds of texts in past courses, as either a student or a teacher?
Bedera writes "Instead of teaching around student survivors, I argue that professors should teach to them." What might her suggestions look like in a classics classroom, in concrete terms?
Resources shared by workshop participants or discussed in the workshop
Comedy and contemporary material that may be good parallels to bring into discussion about sexual violence (especially in the context of comedy) in the ancient world:
Just a Girl: Being Briseis (Sententiae Antiquae)
Emily Wilson on the enslaved women in the Odyssey (often translated as "maids"): Twitter thread, Twitter thread, and a third Twitter thread