Rebuilding, Reconnecting, Restructuring: The Future(s) of Classical Studies Post-COVID

Closer collaboration between the Classics and History disciplines is beneficial, not only for higher education instruction, but also K-12 education. I offer much in terms of resources - programs, webinars, websites and online humanities forums like H-Net - that can facilitate these connections.

For most of us, teaching is the biggest impact that we will have as scholars; it is the most important thing that we do. And since by far the majority of students we will teach will not become academics in our own field, I would suggest that our responsibility is not so much giving them as much ancient world as possible, but, instead, to teach them how to incorporate ancient material into their ways of thinking--about other kinds of material, material from other periods, about comparative work, about de-naturalizing their expectations, etc.

Collaboration on both a macro- and micro- scale: as we begin to reconnect with one another after a long year (and more) of isolation, this absolutely has the chance to be the moment where we put aside more individualistic models of scholarship or graduate education (which can ultimately contribute to narrowing) and think more collaboratively; strength through community-building [n.b.: collaboration as integral to STEM as well as in many non-academic fields; something we might consider integrating early on in undergrad education or grad training].

Is Classics ‘special’? No, but it provides endless opportunities to think about a range of contemporary issues. This has been my approach in teaching in South Africa where there has for many decades been pressure on Classics departments to justify their existence. I have never taught Classics in a ‘traditional’ way. I continuously ask myself whether I can justify what I do and how I teach. If my answer ever becomes no, then I will stop.