There has been a lot of well-deserved attention lately to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in Classics. We might be committed to DEI in the abstract, but how can this commitment inform the way we teach, say, the Latin first declension?
As we grapple with the problematic origins and legacy of our field — its associations with imperialism or colonialism, for example — many of us are becoming more attuned to how this legacy translates in the day-to-day activities of our classrooms, and are asking what we can or should do about it. This piece focuses on concrete ways to incorporate DEI ideals into our teaching by addressing situations and contexts that commonly arise in an introductory classical language class.
I do not claim expertise or omniscience about issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and my list below is certainly not exhaustive! The principles and ideas I discuss are ones I encountered in professional development settings and then tried in my own classrooms.
I’ll start with four guiding principles, and then present four concrete ideas. First, the guiding principles:
- Know and accept that we will not have all the answers. In initiating conversations about sensitive topics, I realize that sometimes I will not have the answer for every question. When this happens, I promise students to revisit the topic after I have had a chance to do more research and thinking.
- Be honest about our uncertainties. As a teacher, I sometimes instinctively feel I should adopt an all-authoritative position. But DEI discussions require a more yielding disposition and should be prefaced with humility and respect…and sometimes followed with apologies.
- Expect the unexpected. I have come to accept that opportunities to discuss or incorporate DEI into my teaching will present themselves in ways I have not planned for.
- Cultivate respect and humility from the outset. There are a number of ways we can do this. One thing I have done with my students is collaborate with them to create ground rules for honest but respectful interaction and discussion in our classroom. Together with my students, I revisit the ground rules periodically and revise them as necessary.
Now, here are four ways to start DEI-centered conversations in our introductory language classes:
1. Be intentional and clear about our commitments when we discuss our curriculum
Let students know why we have structured a project or unit a certain way. I have increasingly chosen to prioritize DEI in my classes, and I say so to my students. I share with them that I am in the process of revamping lessons and curricula around this central purpose.
2. Ask together, “Why do we still study the ancient Greeks and Romans?”
This is a great question for any Classics-oriented class. I have used it as a launching pad for discussions about the modern preoccupations that lead us to antiquity and shape our approaches to it. This is also a great way to get students to think about how and why modern academic disciplines were developed.
3. Use grammatical gender as a conversation starter
The inflected-ness of Latin and Greek presents opportunities for discussing what we mean when we say gender.
- What is gender? Before introducing grammatical gender, I might pose this question and ask students for examples of ways they have thought about gender. I try to get them to articulate how the concept of gender can be either useful or challenging — or both.
- What are the relationships among grammatical gender, social gender, and biological sex? I then provide a definition of grammatical gender and ask students to think about what the relationship between grammatical and social gender might be, along with those two concepts’ relationships to biological sex. Fortunately, there are many helpful resources (like this one by popular linguist Gretchen McCulloch) for thinking through these topics.
- What are examples of third-person pronouns in English? My previously rote list of third-person singular subjects (“he, she, it”) has grown to include “they,” accompanied by a discussion of how and why this list has grown. My students and I talk about how the ancient language has not changed, but, like any living language, English and the ways we use it to interpret and understand other languages are constantly in flux.
4. Acknowledge and discuss problematic sentences
Many introductory Latin or Greek textbooks contain sentences or passages, often for translation exercises, that preserve or evoke ancient (and/or modern) mores about imperialism, ethnocentrism, enslavement, or gender. Since the textbooks do not provide explanatory context, I feel compelled to provide it myself.
- If I recognize the ancient source the textbook sentence is evoking, I convey that to my students and provide them with information about the author and context in a mini-lesson on history or culture relevant to the sentence. I also try to engage students in the process of inquiry and contextualization by asking questions like, “Why do you suppose the author would communicate this? What does this imply about the cultural system or society that produced it? Why would our textbook include this sentence?”
- If I do not recognize the ancient source, I might ask my students more general questions like, “What do you think of this idea? What do you find problematic about this sentence?” I let their responses generate further discussion.
- If the sentence seems to reflect modern implicit biases rather than a recognizable ancient source — for example, outdated or regressive gender roles — again, I might ask my students, “What is problematic about this sentence?” along with “Why would it be included in a first-year language textbook? What can we hope to learn from translating and understanding this sentence?”
Before you go…
This piece is part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Latin Classroom series. Please help us shape the program for years to come by providing your feedback on this link.
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