Inclusive Classics Initiative

The Inclusive Classics Initiative, launched in 2020, organises events and offers a safe space for conversations to develop Classics into a more inclusive discipline. We aim to help create a discipline which can thrive in a twenty-first-century multicultural context, responsive to new audiences and open to new areas and techniques of research. The ICI foregrounds voices of people who have historically been and continue to be marginalised by reason of class, ethnicity, gender identity, disability or other protected characteristics. It also puts the spotlight on aspects of the ancient world and its reception and methodologies which traditionally have not been centred. The conferences and panels we have organised showcase the work of scholars and school teachers whose research and teaching actively develop inclusive approaches, stimulating debate and offering possible models for others. We make a point of revisiting projects over time for audiences to follow progress, for example, major collaborative research projects and initiatives to decolonise the curriculum.

A key aspect of the ICI is open conversations. Our first three conferences [links to ICS pages / materials] have been free, online and international in scope. University students at all levels and secondary school pupils, as well as academics and teachers, have made presentations and joined the conversation. The format of the conferences has been designed for maximum inclusivity, with pre-circulated materials in a variety of media, a combination of longer and shorter interventions, and break-out groups. Our online events have convened hundreds of participants from dozens of countries, and although we expect to include some hybrid and in-person events in the future, we are committed to the inclusive aspects of the online format.

We have published reports on our conferences:

1. ‘Towards a more Inclusive Classics III: Material Culture’ hybrid international conference, hosted by the Institute of Classical Studies, 28-30 June 2023; co-organised by Dr Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis and Dr Tulsi Parikh (British School at Athens).

2. ‘Towards a more Inclusive Classics II’ international conference, hosted by the Institute of Classical Studies, 1-2 July 2021; co-organised by Professor Barbara Goff and Dr Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis.

3. ‘Towards a more Inclusive Classics: Perspectives from Teaching and Research’, workshop at the Institute of Classical Studies, 25–26 June 2020 (online due to COVID-19); co-organised by Professor Barbara Goff and Dr Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis.

As well as shorter blogs:

https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/classics-at-reading/2021/05/07/inclusive-classics/

https://standrewsclassics.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/inclusive-classics-initiative/

In addition to the conferences the Inclusive Classics Initiative was invited to open the Classical Association conference in 2021 and we organised a panel on Neurodiverse Classics at the conference in 2022.

Video from the 2021 CA conference panel can be viewed here: https://classicalassociation.org/ca-online-conference-2021-videos/

A chapter that stems from this CA panel was published: ‘Inclusive Classics and pedagogy: teachers, academics and students in conversation’, co-authored by Barbara Goff, Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis et al in Diversity and the Study of Antiquity in Higher Education. Perspectives from North America and Europe eds D. Libatique and F. McHardy, Series: Classics In and Out of the Academy: Classical Pedagogy in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2023): 121-130.

The ICI is hosted by the Institute of Classical Studies, and has received funding from the ICS, the CUCD educational committee, the CA as well as the Universities of Reading and St Andrews. We welcome participation by all who are interested the study of the classical world and we are very open to new ideas for events and activities. If you want to be added to the Inclusive Classics Initiative email list please get in touch with Samuel Agbamu (s.agbamu@reading.ac.uk) or Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis (aipd@st-andrews.ac.uk).