Classics in Crisis? (a.k.a ‘The Discourse’)

 

As seems to happen every few years in Classics, the discipline seems to undergo a major period of self doubt, self-examination, and self-recrimination. The phenomenon has arisen again, but in the age of Social Media the discussion has not been solely ‘internal’ and has spilled over into plenty of online public venues. What follows is a minimally-annotated, chronologically-ordered account of the current discussion, which seems to have bubbled up in the waning days of 2020 and picked up steam as 2021 went on. This page will be updated as more voices are heard …

What seems to have instigated the current round (for a small number of folks not really in Classics) was a report that a high school teacher in Massachusetts was proud she managed to get the Odyssey removed from her high school curriculum:

• Even Homer Gets Mobbed – WSJ | Paywalled

… which sparked responses critical of “cancel culture”, e.g.: a piece by Dr Victor Davis Hanson (emeritus professor of Classics, California State Fresno), picked up by various conservative-leaning outlets:

• HANSON: Is the wisdom of Homer immune to cancel culture? | Toronto Sun | January 6, 2021
• Homer and His Wisdom May Be Ripe for Cancel Culture | Daily Signal | January 11, 2021
  • uses the Massachusetts example as a point of departure
  • mostly about what we learn from ancient Greek literature
  • concludes with “Canceling Homer is not virtue-signaling. It is broadcasting ignorance”

Just so folks are also aware, about the same time, a discussion had started regarding Classics connections to white supremacy movements in the context of reviews of Dr Eric Adler’s The Battle of the Classics among some respected Classics bloggers:

• Save the Humanities With This One Simple Trick! – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
  • I just finished Eric Adler’s The Battle of the Classics, an…(response to the above)
• Battling Classicists; Saving Souls | by Maximus Planudes | Jan, 2021 | Medium

It was in this mini-zeitgeist that Rachel Poser’s piece on Dr Dan-el Padilla Peralta appeared in the New York Times Magazine. It’s a lengthy, detailed piece that can’t easily be reduced to bullet points so it’s basically a must-read:

• He Wants to Save Classics From Whiteness. Can the Field Survive? – The New York Times | February 2,2021

After that, the deluge:

• Opinion | Why I won’t surrender the classics to the far right – The Washington Post | February 4, 2021
• Don’t yield ancient history and literature to the alt-right | Newsday | February 5, 2021
  • by Dr Shadi Bartsch, Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago
• What is ‘Classics’? | Blog post by Mary Beard – The TLS
  • Dame Dr Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge (piece is possibly paywalled; not positive about the date)
• The Review: Cancellation or Critique? | Chronicle of Higher Education | February 8, 2021
  • by Len Gutkin
  • sort of a roundup piece of Chronicle responses to challenges facing humanities (with links)
• The Unbearable Whiteness Of The Classics – The Weekly Dish | February 5, 2021
  • by Andrew Sullivan on a paywalled blog; included here because it was mentioned on Classics-l (I have not read it)
• The woke left wants to erase classic literature for kids – StarTribune.com | February 7, 2021
  • by John Kass and originally in the Chicago Tribune
• Meet the new boss, same as the old boss | Aegean prehistory | February 8, 2021
  • blog post by Dr Dimitri Nakassis, professor of Classics at the University of Colorado Boulder
• Cancel the Classics? | The Week | February 8, 2021
  • by Damon Linker
• Author discusses his book on a fight over the classics that points to answers to questions about the humanities | Inside Higher Ed
  • an interview with Dr Eric Adler
• Classics & Education: Social-Justice Critics Seek to Impoverish Students | National Review | February 8 2021
• Moronic social-justice war on classics threatens our civilization | (same article in the New York Post)
  • by Rich Lowry
• Should we destroy the classics to save them from whiteness? | by Figs in Winter | Feb, 2021 | Medium | February 8, 2021
  • by Dr Massimo Pigliucci, Professor of Philosophy at CUNY
• ‘Are the Classics Racist?’ | National Review | February 9, 2021
  • by Rich Lowry … actually the same article as above; the title changed
• Aristotle and Plato must go. After targeting statues, race activists now aim to topple the ancient founders of Western thought — RT Op-ed | February 10, 2021
  • by Alexander Adams
• If Classics Doesn’t Change, Let It Burn | Chronicle of Higher Education
  • by Dr Johanna Hanink, Associate Professor of Classics at Brown
• Why Classical Studies Needs Scholars Like Dan-el Padilla Peralta | by Tushar Irani | Feb, 2021 | Medium | February 11, 2021
  • by Dr Tushar Irani faculty member at Wesleyan University
• Should We Kill “the Classics”? – CounterPunch.org | February 12, 2021
  • by Dr M.G. Piety; teaches philosophy at Drexel
• On Classics, and falling out of love with my subject | Varsity | February 12, 2021
  • by Ellie Etches, student at Cambridge
• Classics at the Intersections: Changing Classics to Save Classics? A View from Below | February 15, 2021
  • by Dr Rebecca Futo Kennedy and Dr Maximus Planudes (professors both)
• The Classics Survived University Witch Hunts Before, And Will Do It Again | The Federalist | February 16, 2021
  • by Michael Poliakoff
• In Defense of the Classics | National Review | February 18, 2021
  • by Dr Sarah Ruden
• Op-Ed: Per arduo surgo — why Whitman needs classics – Whitman Wire | February 18, 2021
  • by West Bales and Grace Mitchell (students at Whitman College?)
• The Edithorial: On Not Apologising for Teaching and Promoting “Classics”
  • by Edith Hall (Professor of Classics at King’s College, London)
• Saving the Classics from Blindness – CounterPunch.org | February 22, 2021
  • by Dr M. G. Piety, teaches philosophy at Drexel
• Classics at the Intersections: Changing “Classics”: What Do We Want? Not What Some People Keep Saying We Want | February 22, 2021
  • by Dr Rebecca Futo Kennedy and Maximus Planudes (professors both)
• 21st Century Classics – Why Bother? – Archaeology Grrl | February 22, 2021
  • by Bunny Waring (UK based field and research archaeologist)
• No, Classics Shouldn’t ‘Burn’ | Chronicle of Higher Education
  • by James Kierstead (senior lecturer in Classics, Victoria University of Wellington)
• New York Times racialist vandals descend on Rome and Greece – World Socialist Web Site | February 24, 2021
  • by Sandy English (not sure)
• Don’t cancel the Classics – UnHerd
  • by Daisy Dunn {“Classicist and Critic”)
• The Debate about Classics Isn’t What You Probably Think It Is – Tales of Times Forgotten | February 26, 2021
  • by Spencer Alexander McDaniel (student at Indiana University Bloomington; Classics/History major)
• Classics Worth Studying — Here’s Why | National Review | February 27, 2021
  • by Andre M. Archie (Associate Professor of ancient Greek Philosophy at Colorado State University)
• The battle of the classics: how a nineteenth-century debate can save the humanities today (February 27, 2021?)
  • BMCR review by Simon Goldhill of Eric Adler, The battle of the classics: how a nineteenth-century debate can save the humanities today and Jesús Hernández Lobato, Óscar Prieto Domínguez, Literature squared: self-reflexivity in Late Antique literature.
• Underfunding classics and humanities is dangerous | TheHill (February 27, 2021)
  • by Ayelet Haimson Lushkov (Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin)
• The Chronicle Op-Ed in Support of Western Civilization Sucked? | by Maximus Planudes | Mar, 2021 | Medium
  • by Max Planudes; a response to James Kierstead’s piece above
• What makes the classics worth studying | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | March 7, 2021
  • by Andre M. Archie (reprint of the National Review item above)
• How the TikTok generation is reinventing Classics – Prospect Magazine | March 7, 2021
  • (possibly paywalled) by Robyn Schaffer (not sure what her Classics connection is, if any)
• The hideous weakness of the modern classicist – The Philological Crocodile | March 8, 2021
  • by an anonymous blogger who is a Classicist (?)
• Classics Beyond Whiteness: An Interview – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE | March 9, 2021
  • interview of Dr T.H.M. Gellar-Goad (Wake Forest) by Dr Amy Lather (Wake Forest)
• Raphaël Doan: «Ces historiens de l’Antiquité qui haissent l’Antiquité»
  • article in Le Figaro by a France-based Classicist responding (and mischaracterizing) many of the above items
• The Ghost of Classics Yet to Come — Antigone
  • by Stephen Fry in a new online journal; the piece is sort of an intro to the journal but touches on the future of Classics
• Stephen Fry and the Classics | Blog post by Mary Beard – The TLS
  • Mary Beard’s comments on the Fry article above
• Is there future for classics as a discipline? – Punch Newspapers | March 14, 2021
  • by Tunji Olaopa in a Nigerian publication; not specifically about ‘The Discourse’ on this side of the pond, but the recent death of Dr Nigel Henry at the University of Ibadan is causing some reflection on the place of Classics there