What does Classics encompass? Is it simply the study of Greco-Roman antiquity, or can it extend to larger ancient worlds? What is its relationship to adjacent disciplines like History and Archaeology? Is it in step with the contemporary political, cultural, and intellectual world—and does it need to be?

These questions and many more have haunted Classics for years. They have prompted classicists to enquire into the ideological shaping of their discipline, and to reflect upon its future. What kind of curricula should universities be offering? What new demands are there on research? And which regimes of truth and understanding do we privilege if we choose one narrative over another?

These questions ought to exercise many, far beyond the bounds of Classics departments and faculties. Anyone interested in the future of the arts and humanities, their place in our difficult and diverse world, and what scholars can do about any of this, will do well to be informed about and to learn from what classicists have to say on these subjects.

Join us on 26 April for a conversation between Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford and author of (among many things) In Search of the Phoenicians (2018), and AIAS fellow Shiru Lim. The event will be held in hybrid mode, and there will of course be time for questions—and cake (only for those who come in person—apologies).

And since this is after all a session of a reading group, here's some reading to get us going:

• Jo Quinn, 'Time to move on', in Times Literary Supplement https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/arguing-against-traditional-definitions-of-classics-book-review-josephine-crawley-quinn/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1632132791 (Paywalled, though institutional access is available via Gale)
• Jo Quinn, 'Against Classics' https://wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/10/27/against-classics/

• Dan-el Padilla Peraltal 'Classics Beyond the Pale' https://eidolon.pub/classics-beyond-the-pale-534bdbb3601b

Want to join?

If you wish to join in-person or online, please register here: https://events.au.dk/antiracism/signup by 25 April.

About this series

This is a group for intellectual historians and scholars in related disciplines interested in taking their thinking beyond the academy. It is not a seminar. Part reading group, part support group, we are now in our second season. It is not affiliated with any academic institution; it is a project aimed simply at stimulating conversation and action. Our membership largely comprises early career scholars.

The group takes as its focus the relationship between the intellectual historian and anti-racist activism. Our point of departure was the resurfacing of systemic racism and mass anti-racist protests as subjects of public debate in 2020. Our aim was to pull those discussions and the work of the intellectual historian into each other’s orbit. That the intellectual toolbox of the intellectual historian is useful in illuminating the histories of racist ideas and structural racism is not in doubt. But, importantly, this group is not solely about the field, its intellectual preoccupations, its scope, its methods. It is about society and about our place in it. It is a prompt for intellectual historians and their colleagues working in related fields to take the tools they value most in the ivory tower and make them useful to the communities outside it.

Owing to the pandemic, we have been meeting exclusively online, approximately once a month. Livestreams and hybrid events—such as this one, however, are in the making. Do sign up to join us, wherever you are. And before you worry that this'll be too time-consuming, don’t: the pieces we read are usually short, and there is no pressure to ‘stay on top of the reading.’