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Posts by Nandini Pandey

A white marble statue of a nude man holding a smaller old man on his shoulder with a child behind his legs. The old man carries a statue.

Blog: Two Years Later: “Classics” after Coronavirus?

April 13, 2022

In an April 2020 post for Eidolon, I gathered predictions on “classics after coronavirus.” Two years later, it’s hard to believe all that’s changed — and all that’s stayed the same. Thanks to advocacy for more inclusive and global approaches to antiquity, the term “classics” can scarcely be used without scare quotes. Even the simple preposition “after” seems hopelessly outdated: we’re all learning to live and work alongside a virus that’s here to stay.

Many of us have gained comfort with new technologies and embraced more global communities. Many have rebalanced work and life, for better or worse. Many others face continuing, or deepening, challenges: program closures, fewer academic jobs for more job-seekers, financial Read more …

Relief found in Neumagen near Trier, a teacher with three discipuli (180-185 AD). Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons.

Blog: Diversifying Classics in Germany: An Interview with Katharina Wesselmann

April 15, 2021

As a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin this spring, working on a book on Roman diversity, I've been wondering how German classicists are experiencing current debates about diversifying our field. To find out, I spoke with Dr. Katharina Wesselmann, a professor in the Northern German city of Kiel who has also taught high school and university in Basel, Switzerland. The fact that she specializes in “didactics” — the teaching of ancient Greek and Latin — is one mark of the differences between our two national classics traditions. In Germany, Latin and Greek are regularly offered at the advanced secondary schools known as Read more …

Blog: What Parts of Classics Would We Choose To Preserve for the Future?

July 10, 2020

In light of the present administration’s brazen disregard for facts and the public good, you’ve got to admire past leaders’ nonpartisan concern to preserve knowledge for the future.

Two recent episodes of the “Radiolab” podcast made me nostalgic for federal preparation for various Cold War Doomsday scenarios -- down to the reassignment of the National Parks Service to run refugee camps and the Post Office to register the dead. Read more …