Clara founded CripAntiquity with the aim of combatting ableism by amplifying disabled and neurodivergent perspectives. With specific background and experience in this area, she shares advice on how we can make our Latin classrooms more inclusive, diverse places.
What made you want to pursue a career in the classics?
I got into ancient languages through my father, who encouraged me to take Latin in high school so that he could have a translator in the house! But I stayed because I fell in love: with the strange and lasting legacies of the ancient Mediterranean, and especially with the way that studying Latin and Greek marries a math-y analysis of symbols with the interpretation of literature.
I never expected to have a career in classics, though. I was very lucky to get a tenure-track job in a supportive department straight out of graduate school. With my disabilities, I don’t think I could have sustained a large teaching load as a primary-school or non-tenure-track instructor.
Could you tell us about how you got involved with CripAntiquity?
I founded CripAntiquity in 2017 to advocate for disabled and neurodivergent people in ancient studies. I was drawn to this work as someone whose own disabilities — chronic pain and fatigue, anxiety, migraines, and repetitive strain injuries — were either brought on or exacerbated by graduate school.
Academia is deeply ableist, especially in disciplines like classics that define themselves through “rigor” and a brutalizing form of graduate training. If I was going to be a part of this culture long-term I wanted to change it, especially for disabled and neurodivergent people who are marginalized in other ways (e.g., as people of color or teachers with short-term contracts).
What are the aims and ambitions of CripAntiquity?
To quote from the mission statement, “to combat ableism by amplifying disabled and neurodivergent perspectives; creating resources that will empower individuals and transform institutions; and fostering community among our members.”
We have built visibility through our stories and Twitter profiles; community through meetups, Slack, and Facebook; and resources that range from conference planning to graduate education.
What advice would you give Latin teachers wanting to make their classrooms more inclusive, diverse spaces?
1) Go slowly and make community
It can be overwhelming to tackle these issues, so find fellow instructors to support you and pick one or two changes to implement each term.
2) Go beyond accommodations
To quote from one of our resources, “The language of accommodation sees students as supplicants who must beg for an exception to a static curriculum.” As much as your school allows, offer students informal adjustments that can dynamically meet their needs. Give them examples of things you are happy to provide outside the accommodations process, like alternate forms of participation.
3) Invite students to collaborate
Talk openly with your class about forms of disability and neurodivergence they might be experiencing (many people learn about their disabilities as students). Welcome disabled and neurodivergent perspectives (including, perhaps, your own!) and explain your strategies for inclusion. Invite students to help make your class even more inclusive.
4) Teach disability and neurodivergence in the ancient world
On culture days or whenever you zoom out to consider the broader cultural context of Latin texts, look for opportunities to discuss disabled and neurodivergent characters, like Hephaestus, Cassandra, Ajax, and Claudius.
Teach your students how disability was conceptualized in ancient medical and religious traditions and consider how these concepts overlap with or differ from those your students hold. Prepare your students for these difficult conversations by explaining what ableism is and how it might manifest in ancient sources.
Are there any resources you would recommend for Latin teachers to develop their understanding of these issues?
Our pedagogy resources provide a place to begin exploring, including a few articles on Latin and dyslexia (scroll down to “learning disabilities”). Whether or not you teach with comprehensible input, I also recommend connecting with CI instructors, since their pedagogy emphasizes accessibility and inclusion.
My own pedagogy has been vastly improved by book groups with colleagues: find another instructor who cares about these issues and meet once a month to discuss an article or resource.
Finally, the Wellcome Collection is at the forefront of accessible and inclusive museum design; they have a ton of resources for teaching about disability across time.
How would you like to see classics teaching evolve and become more diverse and inclusive over the next generation?
Above, I’ve focused on what teachers can do for students. But there is a lot that disabled and neurodivergent teachers need too — many of us are pushed out of classics by the brutalities of college and grad school or low-paying, high-stress jobs afterward.
To make our unique contributions to education, disabled and neurodivergent teachers need stable, long-term employment with good healthcare; work that can flex around changing mental and physical conditions; and standards that recognize the quality of our work as much as the quantity.
Capitalist logics that demand ever more output are especially damaging to us, but they hurt everyone. If we design jobs in education for disabled and neurodivergent teachers, non-disabled and neurotypical people will benefit too.
Clara Bosak-Schroeder is a writer, curator, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the founder of CripAntiquity. Her scholarship addresses ancient Mediterranean reception studies and the environmental humanities. Connect with Clara on Twitter @thaumatic and theburningboy and cripantiquity.
Nota bene! This piece is part of our Diversity & Inclusion in the Latin Classroom series. Please let us know what you thought of this piece.
We are now in our second year and with your feedback, we hope to expand the project into a robust toolkit for teachers, adding resources and perspectives to further learning and effect meaningful change together.
To learn more about the series, please visit the home page.
