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.
Nominations are being solicited for joining the Steering Committee of the Women’s Classical Committee UK. The Steering Committee runs the WCC UK, including organizing events, workshops, and future development of the WCC UK. Committee members will 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
You may nominate someone or nominate yourself. Nominees must be current members of the WCC UK; new members are very welcome to stand. Names of nominees should be submitted to Ulriika Vihervalli, WCC co-chair, by Friday 17th February 2023. Her e-mail address is u.vihervalli [at] liverpool.ac.uk.
The Co-Chair will contact nominees for permission to place their candidacy on the ticket. This will require a short CV (1 page) and an election statement from each nominee. These will be made available on the WCC UK website for members to review prior to voting.
Voting will open on Monday 13th March and run until Friday 24th March 2023. The elected members will be announced in late March and will assume office at the AGM in April 2023.
If you have any questions about the Steering Committee or the process of elections, please e-mail us at womensclassicalcommittee [at] gmail.com.
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.
Statement of Solidarity: UK Classics representative bodies deplore attacks on Arts and Humanities across Higher Education institutions
As a united group comprising Chairs and Presidents of the primary representative bodies for Classics professionals in the UK – the Council of University Classical Departments, the Classical Association, the Institute of Classical Studies, the Women’s Classical Committee UK, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, and the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies – we wish to express our solidarity with all those affected by the deeply worrying programme of closures and redundancies in the Arts and Humanities announced this month across institutions, including Bishop Grosseteste, De Montfort, Dundee, Roehampton, and Wolverhampton.
As institutions working in Classics, we deplore, and are angry at, attacks on Classics at Roehampton. The University’s decision to close Classics comes only months after a celebration of 21 years of Classics at Roehampton – two decades of pioneering research and teaching. The University’s research culture has historically stressed and rewarded the production of high-quality academic publications, and many areas of its School of Humanities and Social Sciences have been strong in this regard, notably Classics, which has led the way in terms of the institutional aims around practical humanities, applied research and innovation.
Classics at Roehampton has been at the forefront of world-leading research in feminist and disability studies in Classics, and its closure would be damaging to the discipline as a whole. Roehampton has also been exemplary in creating teaching practices for neurodivergent students in Classics, and the loss of this Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion work sets back efforts in this area, which are of incalculable value to all students. Indeed, major publications are forthcoming from Roehampton Classicists around their projects on Classics and autistic children, involving partners such as English Heritage, Keats House, and Pupil Referral Units. Other important, ongoing, collaborations include the Acropolis Museum, Athens, and Heritage of London’s ‘Proud Places’; these are precisely the kinds of projects and partnerships through which Classics at Roehampton has fantastic potential to develop its already highly successful practical and employability training for students.
Classics at Roehampton, since its inception, has championed employability; as a team it earned the Roehampton Teaching Fellowship for embedding employability into the classical programme, and its research and teaching staff have published around pedagogy and employability in Classics in high quality, peer-reviewed journals and held sessions on student employability at major national and international conferences. This work has blazed a trail, and has directly and positively impacted on the development of comparable initiatives at other institutions. Classics at Roehampton is in fact at the forefront of moving the subject, and by extension the institution, towards practical focused and employability training with potential for exceptional Graduate Outcomes.
More broadly, the effects that these cuts would have on access to Higher Educationare potentially devastating. Classics and Ancient History in particular are far too often considered the preserve of Russell Group institutions with Classics or Greek & Latin departments, whose entrance criteria and history of systemic under-privileging of first-generation students, BAME students, and state-school-educated students are well-known; Roehampton Classics colleagues have in fact been instrumental in working with colleagues in such departments to make headway in terms of inclusion. Classics at Roehampton bucks this entry trend and is already significantly boosting and broadening access to these subjects: Roehampton’s Classics courses were ranked fifth in the UK in the 2020 Guardian league table, one of only two non-Russell Group universities in the top ten for the subject, with exceptionally high scores for teaching satisfaction (96%), on a par with Durham and St. Andrews. In the most recent NSS survey, Classics received a score of 100%, showing colleagues’ outstanding level of successful teaching.
Roehampton has great experience in teaching students who have had little previous formal education in Classics, and who have entered university from less privileged backgrounds. Many of them are the first in their family to go to university. Roehampton Classics is a partner in a growing number of non-RG institutions offering this subject to diverse student bodies, the Post92Classics Network, who are collectively at the heart of invigorating the shape of the discipline for future generations in a changing world; indeed Roehampton Classics is very much a leading light in this regard.
As with Arts and Humanities subjects more broadly, Classics encourages and develops appreciation of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, while broadening students’ horizons to a global range of philosophical and intellectual outlooks that have influenced modern thought; it teaches critical thinking and analysis of complex source material in a range of languages, and requires students to view humanity through a critical lens, with empathy. Classics in such educational contexts has the transformative power to engage students in discussion around a wide range of cultures, religions, ethnicities, genders, sexualities and disabilities, across huge spans of space and time. These are not soft skills, nor are they fringe topics. They are vital skills and perspectives for modern life, and indeed the cornerstone of good training both for social and civic participation, and for employability.
Studying the Arts and Humanities can be transformative for students: over their time at Roehampton, students expand their cultural horizons, and build their employable and creative skills. Further, they become active, empowered citizens. The University’s stated rationale for its decision to close these subjects is in fact at odds with the likely outcome of this action. The University’s objective in terms of sustainability of programmes in growing fields, especially those with emerging markets of future economy and society, is one which Classics is extremely well positioned to achieve and at which to excel. There is potential here for multidisciplinary work to develop and further embed employability into its teaching, as evidenced by recent programme revalidations, particularly in areas of institutional strategic importance such as Roehampton’s BA in Liberal Arts and its MAs in Cultural Heritage and Environmental Studies.
The loss of any Classics provision will undoubtedly hurt the Classics community as a whole, but the loss of Roehampton in particular would diminish our field, and its potential loss is symptomatic of the damage caused by competition for its own sake, that has been actively encouraged by successive governments. Higher Education departments need time, space, collaboration and long-term team-building to provide an excellent education and student experience. Roehampton Classics has built up such a team and collaborations both national and international, including for example major international AHRC, ERC, DFG, Loeb Foundation and Leverhulme Trust grants. The loss of Classics at Roehampton would leave a massive hole. University management and government higher education policy are together destroying a long-cherished site, like Erysichthon cutting down the grove of Demeter. Such willful destruction of Arts and Humanities in UK Higher Education cannot be allowed to stand.
Signatories:
CUCD, Council of University Classics Departments, Chair: Prof Helen Lovatt
WCC UK, Women’s Classical Committee UK, Co-Chairs: Dr April Pudsey & Dr Ulriika Vihervalli, Administrator: Prof Laurence Totelin
ICS, Institute of Classical Studies, Director: Prof Katherine Harloe
SPHS, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, President: Prof Paul Cartledge
SPRS, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, President: Prof Roy Gibson
CA, Classical Association, Chair of Council: Prof Douglas Cairns
Following the second call for nominations to the Steering Committee, we were delighted to welcome two nominees, Dr Elena Giusti and Dr Stephe Harrop. As no other nominees were able to stand for election, the election has been considered uncontested.
We are delighted to welcome Dr Giusti and Dr Harrop to their new roles as members of the Steering Committee, and to share Dr Giusti’s CV and electoral statement, and Dr Harrop’s CV and electoral statement. We look forward to their valuable contribution to the ongoing work of the WCC UK!
We would also like to thank Dr Laurence Totelin and Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts, for four years of outstanding service as members of the Steering Committee. Dr Totelin and Dr Mackin Roberts are standing down following the 2022 AGM, after which Dr Giusti and Dr Harrop will officially assume their position as our newest Steering Committee members.
Once again, many thanks to our outgoing and incoming SC members!
Appointment of the WCC UK’s Administrator 2022-2027
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Laurence Totelin to the position of Administrator. Dr Totelin will be taking over the role following the end of Dr Liz Gloyn’s tenure as the WCC UK’s first Administrator.
The WCC UK would like to offer our deepest thanks to Dr Gloyn for her instrumental role in the founding and development of the committee, and we look forward to her ongoing contributions and involvement.
Dr Totelin has been a central member of the Steering Committee since 2018, and we are delighted to welcome her to her new position as Administrator.
WCC UK are delighted to be collaborating with the Institute of Classical Studies, the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the Journal of Roman Studies and Britannia on this event about publishing articles in these journals. The workshop will take place on Friday 6th May at 10am-12pm.
This online event, hosted by the ICS and WCC-UK, is intended to demystify the process of submitting an article to some of the leading Classical Studies journals. The Editors of the Journal of Hellenic Studies (Lin Foxhall), Britannia (Will Bowden), and the Journal of Roman Studies (Peter Thonemann) will speak about the kinds of things they are looking for in submissions, the peer review process, and ways of maximising your chances of a successful submission. As well as providing a forum for the editors to speak and answer questions about their journals, the event will also be an opportunity for the Journal Editors to get feedback from the subject community about their journals and their image, and to better understand some of the challenges or barriers that potential contributors feel they face.
The event is targeted particularly at women, non-binary people and people of other marginalised genders, and early career researchers, though others are of course most welcome to attend.
Elizabeth Schafer is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway. Her work focuses on Shakespeare in production; women’s theatre work; Australian drama and theatre; and Caroline playwright Richard Brome. In this guest post, she pays tribute to her secondary school teacher and the influence that she had on Prof. Schafer’s own personal and professional journey.
Elizabeth Warren, who died late last year, was an extraordinary Woman in Classics, with a particular passion for teaching Greek. From 1969 onwards, Elizabeth taught Greek, Latin, Ancient History and Classical Civilisation in a wide range of educational contexts including Bristol University and the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (JACT) Greek summer courses at Bryanston school, Blandford Forum.
I first met Elizabeth when she joined the staff of King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, in the mid 1970s. She looked like no other teacher I’d ever met: tall, willowy, with Pre-Raphaelite yellow hair and phenomenal reserves of energy. As my Latin and Greek teacher she helped me navigate Catullus, Virgil, Livy, Homer and Thucydides, but she was also my form teacher for one year, concerned and supportive – often with a twinkle in her eye – as 24 teenagers over-shared their problems. Meanwhile in Latin classes she tactfully steered discussions of Catullus’ poetry, sensitive to her pupils’ different levels of worldly experience, and understanding. She led us through the newly introduced Cambridge Latin course, collapsing with laughter at the howls of protests that erupted when we found out that the irritating Quintus had survived the eruption of Vesuvius, along with boring Grumio, when clearly poor Melissa should have been the one to escape.
Elizabeth’s confidence that girls could achieve what they wanted intellectually was inspirational. Setbacks became challenges, mistakes became learning. She told memorable stories of her solo travel adventures; one came back to me as, around 35 years ago, I was interrailing around Europe and my (very slow) train stopped at Trasimeno. Elizabeth had enlivened Livy’s account of the battle of Lake Trasimeno by telling us how she had once, in her enthusiasm for seeing the site of the battle, jumped off the train at Trasimeno and set off to explore. What she found was very little lake, squadrons of mosquitoes and that there wasn’t another train for days.
My entire class was also convinced that when Elizabeth, aged 20, had married Peter Warren, a research fellow at Corpus Christi, in 1966, they had eloped to Gretna Green. So when Elizabeth brought Peter into school to deliver a sixth form general knowledge lecture on archaeology, there was great interest in seeing this romantic figure. I was entrusted with Peter’s slides, stacked neatly in a carousel. I promptly dropped the lot (I still feel mortified about this). Peter and Elizabeth were totally unfazed and years later when I read Elizabeth’s ‘Memories of Myrtos’ in Aegean Archaeology, I realised why. Archaeologists are used to dealing with stuff scattered all over the floor. What really impressed me, however, as Peter lectured from his unpredictably sequenced slides, illustrating Early Bronze Age Crete and the discovery of the Goddess of Myrtos, was his emphasis on how pivotal Elizabeth had been to the success of the excavations during the two seasons in 1967 and 1968. She managed food and accommodation with no electricity, drains, rubbish collection, or tarmac in 44 degrees centigrade. She also helped carry out study seasons after the excavations had finished, drawing and tracing vases and small objects for subsequent publications.
Elizabeth instilled a passion for the Classics in me, and I continued with Latin as part of my London University English degree, taking an option in the Classical Background to English Literature which included translating a significant amount of Senenca’s Medea. I lectured on Greek tragedy at La Trobe University and I put Greek drama on the first year core Drama course at Royal Holloway. I love working with the APGRD, and all that Seneca paid off when I was researching Elizabeth Cary and her neo-classical dramaturgy.
Although some of Elizabeth’s achievements were conventional – mayor for five years and deputy mayor for two – Elizabeth’s kind of brilliance, her ability to engage, interest and inspire students was of the sort that can easily be undervalued. When she left KEHS, her then form missed her so much that they hired a bus to go and see her (the catering experience in Myrtos probably came in handy that day). But for me, the most telling tribute to her came from a friend and class mate, Susan Clarke, who was no Classicist and who was ready to drop Latin as soon as she could:
For someone who was really only good at maths and science I remember her lessons being a safe and comfortable place and her making Latin a fun subject.
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