This group will consider the contributions of Black artists, writers, and theorists to the field of Classics and its reception. Over the course of eight meetings, this working group will read and discuss texts which reimagine, revise, and/or reject Classical themes and tropes, placing Black contemporary culture in relationship with an ancient tradition from which it has long been excluded despite its many and sustained contributions. This working group builds on foundational works such as Emily Greenwood’s Afro-Greeks, and the edited volume African Athena: New Agendas, which examines the cultural encounters between Blackness and Classics from the sixteenth century onward. The title of this group is intended to evoke Paul Gilroy’s definition of Blackness, which is not only African but simultaneously American, Caribbean, British, and its intersections. Given these premises, this working group draws our scholarly attention beyond the often-dominating American context and towards the cultures and peoples which border the Atlantic Ocean, emphasizing the value of transnational networks and histories. Exploring the specific intersection of Classics and Black Atlantic culture brings a new perspective to enduring historical, methodological, and theoretical concerns across the humanities, such as anti and postcolonial strategies, legacies of imperialism and capitalism, and feminist intersectionality. To request to join the group, email the group lead linked in the list.
Leads
- Letticia Cosbert Miller, Ph.D. student, Classics
- Kenneth Yu, A&S Classics
Faculty Members, University of Toronto
- Ben Akrigg, A&S Classics
- Ronald Charles, A&S Study of Religion
- D. Alissa Trotz, A&S Women and Gender Studies & Caribbean Studies
- Victoria Wohl, A&S Classics
Faculty Members Outside University of Toronto
- Nataleah Hunter-Young, Information & Media Studies, Western University
- Michèle Pearson Clarke, Documentary Media, Toronto Metropolitan University
Graduate Students, University of Toronto
- Vittorio Bottini, Classics
- Georgia Ferentinou, Classics
- Talia Isaacson, Comparative Literature and Victoria University Fellow
- Dylan McKibbon, Classics
- Angus Wilson, Classics
Staff, University of Toronto
- Vasuki Shanmuganathan, Faculty of Social Work
Graduate Students Outside University of Toronto
- Andrew Badgeley, Classics, University of Dalhousie
Community Members Outside University of Toronto
- Filicia Mings, Art Gallery of York University
- Lillian O’Brien Davis, Art Gallery of York University