Classics Beyond Whiteness
2020–2022 Organizer: T. H. M. Gellar-GoadFounding Organizers: T. H. M. Gellar-Goad and Caitlin Hines
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
Student Queen McKee (’23) has published a piece in Ad Meliora titled Reimagining Lysistrata: Gender Expansion, Equity, Representation and Impact. Check it out here: https://medium.com/ad-meliora/reimagining-lysistrata-gender-expansion-equity-representation-and-impact-beb6b5b4affc
Read about CLA 281 and degree requirements here. A 2021 essay in Le Figaro, the oldest national daily newspaper in France, includes the department’s Classics Beyond Whiteness requirement in the vanguard of efforts to reform the discipline of Classics.
Check out this interview with Professor T. H. M. Gellar-Goad about Classics Beyond Whiteness that was recently published in Sententiae Antiquae! https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2021/03/09/classics-beyond-whiteness-an-interview/
At the start of the Fall 2021 semester, we held a reception for the unveiling of three new portraits painted by local artist Leo Rucker that were recently installed in the hallway outside our Classics classrooms. For more information and photos, click here.
Check out this podcast interview with Professors T. H. M. Gellar-Goad and Caitlin Hines about Classics Beyond Whiteness that was recently released by Khameleon Classics!
For more information about any of our events, please feel free to contact T. H. M. Gellar-Goad (thmgg@wfu.edu).
Upcoming Events:
Fall 2022:
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Spring 2023:
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Related events hosted by other departments:
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Fall 2021-Spring 2022 Classics Beyond Whiteness Events