The Women’s Classical Committee UK is organising an event aimed at mid-career scholars, to be held on Friday 19th January 2024 on Zoom between 10am and 1pm. We are delighted that Dr Ellen Adams, King’s College London, will be our keynote speaker.
The Women’s Classical Committee UK run a mid-career event annually to help colleagues discuss the issues and challenges that face academics, particularly women, at mid-career. Topics to be discussed may include decisions about whether and when to move institutions, questions around disciplinarity/interdisciplinarity and collaboration in research, expectations about international mobility and balancing this with family/caring duties, managing institutional expectations (which may be gendered) around types and levels of administrative service, taking on leadership positions, ways of supporting precarious colleagues, and strategies to tackle unconscious bias in the workplace. Those who register their intent to attend will be invited to fill in an online questionnaire, the results of which will inform the precise choice of topics for discussion sessions. We envisage that the day’s discussions will help to set priorities for resource development and future campaigns by the Women’s Classical Committee UK.
The WCC UK recognises that the term ‘mid-career’ is open to a range of interpretations, but also that different challenges face women in classics in different situations and career stages. This event is aimed primarily at women who self-define as having reached mid-career; markers of this may include being eight or more years after the award of their PhD, holding an open-ended contract, and having an established publication profile. If the event is oversubscribed then we will give priority to women in this situation, but we welcome applications to register from anyone of any gender who feels they would benefit from attending.
Registration Options
The event is capped at 15 attendees; we will be prioritising WCC UK members and non-members based in the UK should this event be oversubscribed. Free registration is available to all via Ticket Source; if the event reaches capacity, WCC UK members will be given priority. Donations in support of the WCC UK and its activities are welcome.
Child-friendly policy
The Women’s Classical Committee is committed to making our events as inclusive as possible, and recognises that the financial and practical challenges of childcare often impede people from participating in workshops and conferences. We welcome the virtual attendance of children at this event.
We’re calling for nominations to join the Steering Committee of the Women’s Classical Committee UK. You can nominate someone else – but self-nominations are also warmly encouraged! If you’d like to shape our agenda, or if you have a perspective that ought to be heard, please do put your name forward!
The Steering Committee runs the WCC UK, including organizing events, workshops, and future development of the WCC UK. Committee members serve for four years, with the option to renew for a further four-year term. The Steering Committee wishes to encourage a diverse organization comprised of representatives from any background, location, or career level.
People of any gender expression or identity who support the WCC UK’s aims are welcome to become members and to put themselves forward for office; our aims can be found at https://wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk
Nominees must be members of the WCC UK – but you can become a member when you’re elected, if you’re not a member already.
If you’re interested, you should submit your name (or somebody else’s) to Cora Beth Fraser, WCC Co-Chair, by Friday 22nd December 2023. Her e-mail address is CoraBeth.Fraser [at] open.ac.uk.
Next steps
Each nominee will be asked in January 2024 to send in a short CV (1 page) and an election statement. These will be made available on the WCC UK website for members to review prior to voting. If you’re nominated by somebody else, the Co-Chair will contact you for permission to place your candidacy on the ticket.
Voting will open on Monday 4th March and run until Friday 15th March 2024. The elected members will be announced in late March and will assume office at the AGM in April 2024.
If you have any questions about the Steering Committee or the process of elections, please e-mail us at womensclassicalcommittee [at] gmail.com.
As organisations devoted to advancing equality, diversity and inclusion within the field of Classics in the UK, the Women’s Classical Committee and the Council of University Classics Departments EDI Committee write to express our deep concern at the decision of UKRI to suspend its EDI advisory board as of October 30th 2023, following criticism of two of its members by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.
This decision is deeply concerning on several grounds: not only the public criticism, and misrepresentation, of two named individuals without regard for due process or the welfare of the academics concerned, but also the wider implications for academic freedom – including the freedom to award research funding and carry out research without political interference, and the right to freedom of expression. Furthermore, the suspension of the entire advisory board based on critique against two of its members is an unjustifiable move and alarmingly calls into question UKRI’s commitment to advancing equality, diversity and inclusion within UK academic research.
We ask you to immediately reinstate the EDI advisory board and reaffirm your commitment to both advancing EDI in UK academia and protecting academic freedom.
The Women’s Classical Committee UK is pleased to announce its 2023 Annual General Meeting, ‘Resistance‘, on Friday 5th May 2023. The AGM will be held in a hybrid format: please register for the event on Eventbrite. If you select to attend via Zoom, you will receive details closer to the date.
People of any gender expression or identity who support the WCC UK’s aims are welcome to attend this event. Further details are available here. Around the website you can also find more information on the Women’s Classical Committee UK, including our aims and activities and how to join.
The building is distinctive and just a few minutes’ walk from Manchester Oxford Road station (or a short taxi/tram ride from Manchester Piccadilly Station).
Schedule
9.30am: Welcome and housekeeping
10am: Business meeting
11am: Coffee break in local coffee shop or at home
11.30am: Keynote panel discussion – Resistance. This will include a group discussion
1pm: Lunch in local eatery or at gine
2pm: Spotlight talks
Adam Aderman (Manchester Metropolitan University): ‘Psychology and trauma in the Roman Empire’
Benjamin Wilck (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem): ‘How to use a definition in scientific proof: Euclid’s model’
Ville Vuolanto (University of Tampere and Manchester Centre for Youth Studies): ‘Martha, a seller of fish in Roman Egypt’
Francesca Fulminante (University of Bristol): ‘Gender stereotypes in antiquity’
3pm: Coffee break in local coffee shop or at home
3.30pm: Get to know the WCC – discussion on further directions
4.30pm: Wrap up and close
Spotlight talks – call for papers
We are reserving time during the day’s schedule for a series of short (five-minute) spotlight talks by delegates. Through this session, we hope to provide a chance for delegates to share projects, experiences or research connected to the WCC UK’s aims. We are particularly interested in talks that address the AGM’s theme of resistance; that highlight new, feminist, intersectional and gender-informed work in Classics, ancient history, classical reception or pedagogy (inside and outside the university sector); and that feature new work by postgraduate students and early career researchers. If you would like more information or to volunteer to give one of these talks, please e-mail Liz Gloyn (totelinlm at cardiff.ac.uk). The deadline for expressing interest was noon on Wednesday 19th April.
Please feel free to pass on this CFP to anyone you think may be interested in participating or saving the date.
Child-friendly policy
The Women’s Classical Committee UK is committed to making our events as inclusive as possible, and recognises that the financial and practical challenges of childcare often impede people from participating in workshops and conferences. Anyone who needs to bring a dependent child or children with them in order to participate in one of our events is usually welcome to do so, but we ask you to inform us of this in advance so that we can take them into account in our event planning and risk assessment. The safety and well-being of any children brought to our events remain at all times the responsibility of the parent or carer. While we do our best to ensure that rest and changing facilities are available for those who may need them, this will depend on the individual venue we are using. Again, please contact us in advance to discuss your needs, and we will do our best to accommodate them.
The Women’s Classical Committee UK is delighted to have been awarded Wikimedia UK’s Partnership of the Year prize for their initiative #WCCWiki. #WCCWiki is an example of successful community activism, where volunteers come together regularly to improve the representation of classicists who identify as women and non-binary on Wikipedia. Classics is very broadly conceived, including historians, archaeologists, theorists, translators, poets, and others who work on the ancient world. Wikimedia UK, the organisation that runs Wikipedia, have recognised #WCCWiki’s fantastic work in transforming the online representation of classicists and helping to challenge Wikipedia’s intractable gender gap.
One of our most prolific and dedicated #WCCWiki members, Lucy Moore, has been doubly recognised by Wikimedia UK as Wikimedian of the Year. The award celebrates Lucy’s tireless editing to improve Wikimedia’s diversity and inclusion as a platform, across class, gender, disability and race. Lucy is an excellent role model, both in her dedication and in her combination of professional academic and curatorial activities, and Wikimedia work.
Before #WCCWiki started, women and non-binary people, historical and contemporary, in classics were a largely unrepresented online demographic. An estimate in 2016 found that only 7% of biographies of classicists on Wikipedia featured women. #WCCWiki has held 62 editathons since then, shifting to online events during the pandemic. #WCCWiki has created or edited more than 600 Wikipedia pages, including path-breaking foremothers who were only referred to on their husbands’ pages, such as Dr Miriam T. Griffin, Dr Annie Ure, and Professor Leslie Brubaker. As of July 2021, 17.7% of the total of classicists’ biographies on Wikipedia now feature women. With every month, the proportion of Wikipedia biographies featuring classicists who identify as women or non-binary continues to increase.
The pace of change means that, on average every other day, a page for a woman or non-binary classicist is created or edited. Expanded, inclusive categorisation allows #WCCWiki to increase our scope, creating and editing pages for historians and writers working on later periods, such as Professor Olivette Otele, Dr Sadiah Qureshi, and Nikita Gill. #WCCWiki articles have featured regularly on Wikipedia’s front page and an increasing number have achieved Good Article status. #WCCWiki has collaborated successfully with other organisations that aim to improve diversity and inclusion on Wikimedia, including the Wikiproject Women in Red and Medieval Wiki, and #WCCWiki has received valuable support from Wikimedia UK in running events.
But despite the huge effort of #WCCWiki, the scale of the problem means that the overall percentage of pages for classicists that feature women is still only around 20%, which is consistent with Wikipedia’s wider gender bias where pages for women are outnumbered 5:1 by pages for men. The #WCCWiki Wikidata Redlist records 2,700+ women classicists that still do not have pages. Women and non-binary classicists who have made significant contributions to the field still lack proper representation online. #WCCWiki will continue to inspire volunteers and spread the message about the importance of inclusion and diversity online for as long as necessary, and we gladly anticipate when this work is obsolete.
By Victoria Leonard, WCC founding member, former co-chair, and steering committee member, and #WCCWiki organiser
Assemblywomen is the video-journal of the Women’s Classical Committee, which is hosted on the WCC’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/WomensClassicalCommitteeUK). It provides an online, open-access platform to disseminate research about women and gender in the ancient world (broadly conceived, including receptions of women in the ancient world). The aim of the journal is to promote new research, presented in an innovative way, that will appeal to both scholars and the general public.
We are currently seeking a postgraduate student to join the editorial team for a fixed period of 12 months. The intern will work with the members of the editorial board on all aspects of the journal and be given the opportunity to take submissions from pitch through to publication, with direct support from the editorial team. This may involve soliciting pitches (through regular calls and direct contact), reading and responding to pitches, assisting in the development of ideas, organising peer-review for video essay scripts, organising captioning of finished videos, providing advice and assistance to video editing (where appropriate), and promoting the journal.
Candidates should be either working towards a PhD in classics, ancient history, archaeology or a cognate discipline or have equivalent experience in a relevant industry (e.g. junior professionals in museums, heritage, or in archaeology units) and have a research interest in women and/or gender, and an interest in promoting and upholding the aims of the WCC. All other things being equal, preference will be given to WCC members. The role description for editors is included below, the intern will be expected to work towards this role over the 12-month tenure but is not expected to undertake this role unsupervised from appointment.
About the Journal
Assemblywomen is an innovative avenue for the dissemination of research on women and gender in the ancient world published by the Women’s Classical Committee UK. The journal publishes both ‘pre-print’ and peer-reviewed work in video format on YouTube. All content is therefore open access, and available to be used in a variety of settings including in the classroom. It will present current scholarly research in an engaging and accessible way, and is therefore suitable not only for professional scholars, but also for undergraduates and a general audience. The journal presents one issue per year, with content published on a rolling basis, as soon as possible following acceptance.
The video-journal will accept three types of submission:
Video Essays. These are 10-20 minute video essays, the scripts of which will have been peer reviewed prior to filming and publication on the site
‘Work-in-Progress Shorts’. These will be 5-15 minute videos of work in progress, these are conceived as less formal as video essays and provide an opportunity for ‘pre-print’ sharing of ideas and conversations
Responses, these may either be to video essays or work in progress shorts that have been published on the site, or to wider debates within the field and will be 5-10 minutes in length
Expressions of Interest
If you are interested in applying for one of the positions please forward a brief expression of interest of no more than one page and CV to Ellie (ellie.roberts@kcl.ac.uk). Letters should include a short summary of your research interests, a statement of why you are interested in joining the editorial team, and any experience you think may be useful for the position. Some knowledge of video editing and/or YouTube will be an advantage but is not required. Informal inquiries can be directed to Ellie at the above email address.
Editor Role Description
Work with contributors, peer reviewers, and the editorial board to ensure the content of the journal reflects the breadth and depth of work on women and gender in the ancient world
Uphold a commitment to compassionate and constructive support for contributors throughout the pitch and review process
Work with contributors to refine pitches to ensure that finished videos have the highest chance of acceptance
Where necessary, commission contributions for individual videos and short series of videos with interconnected themes
Liaise with the editorial team and the steering committee of the WCC to ensure the smooth running and development of the journal
Represent the journal at conferences and workshops where appropriate, and develop the profile of the journal
Expressions of interest should be received by Monday, October 3rd.
After an absence, the annual WCC ECR/PhD event is back, and we are excited to announce that this year’s theme – broadly – is ‘niches’. ‘Niche’ is a versatile concept, which refers to something that is ‘exclusive’ or ‘narrow’, but also the ‘place or position suited or intended for the character, capabilities, status of a person’; ‘a place of retreat or refuge’; and ‘the actual or potential position of an organism within a particular ecosystem’.
This event is an opportunity to identify, develop and articulate your research ‘niche’ in a variety of contexts. The day will be a combination of plenary roundtables and breakout groups, structured around working on self-presentation and career planning, from your ‘elevator pitch’ to your five-year plan, to approaching career or employment breaks. These informal group discussions will be a chance to explore and develop ideas with fellow ECRs, and participants are encouraged to be involved within these groups in whichever way they are most comfortable. In addition, there will be space to socialise online and form connections with other ECRs and PhD students in a more unstructured way. Attendees will have the opportunity to prepare for the breakout sessions, using planning sheets that will be sent out in advance.
The event will take place on the afternoon of the 14th July 2022. A more detailed schedule will be presented nearer the time. Attendees are welcome to attend the entire event or to drop in for specific section/s.
