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I teach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a federally-designated Minority-Serving Institution and Hispanic-Serving Institution. Among the undergraduate student body, no race constitutes a majority, so I teach diverse groups of students each semester. In this lightning talk, I will share how studying the plays of Luis Alfaro generates unique opportunities for teaching anti-racism.

I’ll discuss how memory techniques from ancient rhetorical manuals can help modern students learn vocabulary faster and “funner.”

For example: imagine a horse in your shower. A snorting, stamping horse. On its rear flank—its HIP—it has P-O-S smeared in steaming manure. Really think about this image.

You’ve just learned the word ἵππος—and you won’t soon forget it!

As one component of anti-racist pedagogy, many instructors wish to make students aware of appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity by contemporary white ethnonationalists. I will recommend sources of examples and guidelines around student safety for using such material both to complicate idealized notions about “the Classical Tradition” and to prompt discussion concerning the relationship of the study of antiquity to racism.

Rome is a key character in the Babylonian Talmud.  Unfortunately, this source remains neglected among classicists. The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud provide important subaltern perspectives about Roman subjugation, tell tales of covert meetings between emperors and rabbis, and incorporate a wide array of Greek words transliterated into Aramaic characters. How can Classics strive to include this radically different perspective?

Eloquence is a key ingredient in the classical tradition, and desire to possess it animated classical curricula for centuries. Nowadays few classicists put their understanding of rhetoric to work by teaching students to speak effectively and persuasively, though the desire to learn is still widespread. This talk explores ways to do so consistent with humanities and liberal arts goals.

Traditional grading perpetuates educational inequities: students with more experience get higher grades than those with less.  In order to break the cycle, I suggest wide adoption of labor-based grading in Classics.  In this talk I will share my experience with labor-based grading, which I have seen benefit all students, reestablishing love of learning and curiosity as drivers of student work.

This talk describes an assignment from a Greek Myth course that prompts students to relate Myth to their own lives. Students use schematics of the Shield of Achilles in Iliad 18 to create a Shield of Themselves for the course website. Samples of several Shields show students insightfully adapting the scenes on Achilles’ Shield to their own experiences.

The global pandemic has caused us all to pivot in our teaching. I have made the most radical (and possibly permanent) shift in the way I assess students. In lieu of tests and traditional paper prompts (including in language courses), I have embraced:

• Focus on individualized feedback on homework prior to class meetings
• Untimed assessments
• Creative composition assessments
• Portfolios

This lightning talk will present “Story Map” and discuss potential uses in the classroom and beyond.  Story map is a new free digital tool through which one can map any narrative across the earth and narrative time.  Annotation features allow embedding of texts and images, creating a more meaningful engagement with the complex and unfamiliar geography of the ancient Mediterranean.

Point-based grading can present challenges to student success by discouraging students who fall behind early. Two flexible approaches to assessment, ungrading and learning portfolios, rely on frequent formative feedback and self-assessment to support an inclusive learning environment focused on progress without grade anxiety. This session will facilitate a discussion of these and other equitable assessment strategies in Latin pedagogy.