CFP: Teaching uncomfortable subjects in the classics classroom

Seen on the Classicists list (please direct any queries to the folks mentioned in the item and not to rogueclassicism):

Teaching uncomfortable subjects in the classics classroom
Fiona McHardy and Nancy Rabinowitz, editors

We invite submissions of abstracts for a volume on teaching uncomfortable
subjects in the classics classroom, to be submitted to Ohio State
University Press. International contributions are actively sought. The
volume is built around an APA workshop with the same name which took place
at the 2011 meeting. This workshop itself grew out of a panel at the
Feminism and Classics V conference, in particular the paper by Sharon James
(later published in Cloelia) on teaching rape in the classics classroom.
The topic of rape generated a great deal of interest, and the desire to
keep the conversation going led to further roundtables and panels in the UK
and the US.

But the issues are much broader than rape, and the APA workshop in 2011
expanded the discussion to encompass a wider range of issues potentially
uncomfortable for teachers or for students or for both, including crime,
pedophilia, domestic violence, abortion, suicide, homophobia, slavery, and
racial ‘jokes’ where some students will have had personal experiences that
might generate distress or make discussion difficult. The emphasis of the
session was on stimulating discussion to raise awareness of unforeseen
difficulties and to share strategies for dealing with those difficulties.
We would like to include that emphasis in this volume.

In the US there has been an effort, spurred on by the Ford Foundation’s
grants, to have what they call “difficult dialogues.” The program
description was aimed at classes “designed to promote academic freedom and
religious, cultural, and political pluralism on college and university
campuses in the United States.” But political topics are not the only ones
that provoke difficult dialogues. We welcome other ideas about how
classical texts might raise controversial issues and allow the opportunity
to discuss them.

Questions we will consider: what makes something difficult to talk about?
How much do we know about our students’ experiences? How much is it
appropriate for us to know? How much can we challenge our students in the
classroom when we are unsure of their experiences? Is it appropriate to
single out students to discuss topics related to their own experiences
(e.g. should we call on the one student of color to talk about race?) How
can we help students work through trauma without overstepping our bounds?
How can tutors be supported in dealing with crisis situations? What are the
personal and professional risks that we might run in opening up such topics
for conversation?

Please send a one-page abstract to f.mchardy AT roehampton.ac.uk or
nrabinow AT hamilton.edu by February 28, 2011; papers will be 5-6000 words in

length. We plan to send the completed volume to OSU by December 1, 2011.