Just as Wake Forest University as an institution has recently acknowledged and been challenged to take steps to address its historical complicity with systems of white supremacy, the field of Classics must come to terms with its participation in abusive and exclusionary practices that have caused real and lasting harm to communities and students of color. Inspired by the success of last year’s “Classics beyond Europe” series, we have organized a multidisciplinary and multimedia program including lectures, workshops, film screenings, art projects, a reading group, and a museum exhibit organized around the theme of “Classics beyond Whiteness.”  Beginning in 2019 and continuing today, we aim to provide programming for students, faculty, and the larger Winston-Salem community that examines our field’s misleading and damaging tendency to center “whiteness” in its scholarly and educational practices and charts new paths forward for a more inclusive, constructive vision of the discipline. Our program celebrates the unique pedagogical, scholarly, and artistic contributions of Black Classicists, foregrounds the reception of Classical antiquity by artists and communities of color, highlights recent efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive field, and confronts the hateful backlash (both online and in professional settings) that has targeted those efforts.  We are grateful for the sponsorship of the Wake Forest Classics Department, Wake Forest Provost’s Fund for a Vibrant Campus, Wake Forest Humanities Institute, the Society for Classical Studies’ Classics Everywhere Grant, Bridge Initiative Grant from the Classical Association of the Middle, West and South, the Wake Forest Slavery, Race, and Memory Project, and the Wake Forest Student Government. 

Link to Exhibit Brochure – A Brief History of Black Classicism in North Carolina

For more information about any of our events, please feel free to contact T. H. M. Gellar-Goad (thmgg@wfu.edu).

Events: 

Fall 2019-Spring 2020 Classics Beyond Whiteness Events