EDI Scholarships in Classical Studies for UK Schoolteachers

We are delighted to be able to offer three fully-funded EDI scholarships for teachers in UK state schools wishing to study either of the following Open University modules:

  • A229 Exploring the Classical World
  • A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

These scholarships, funded by the OU’s Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, will be awarded to UK schoolteachers who intend to introduce or develop the provision of Classical Civilisation or Latin in the curriculum of the non-fee-paying school or college where they work.  They are open to teachersof any discipline and at any level (primary, secondary or tertiary) looking to develop their knowledge of the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome and/or Latin language and Roman culture with this aim in mind.

In the award of these scholarships, preference will be given to:

  • teachers (broadly defined) working in schools with a high proportion of students from backgrounds which aretraditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background and/or where a high percentage of pupils are eligible for Free School Meals;
  • individuals from backgrounds which aretraditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background (including people with a mixed ethnic background) or from a working class background.

These scholarships are open to those teaching in non-fee-paying primary and secondary schools as well as sixth form colleges. Please note that applicants will normally be expected to have worked for at least two years as a teacher.

Studying with the Open University

A229 Exploring the Classical World and A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome are 60-credit modules, requiring regular study each week.  Students are supported by a dedicated tutor, enjoy access to regular tutorials, and study using a combination of printed and online materials. The Open University’s distance learning model gives students the flexibility to study where and when they want.  Modules run from October to May and are assessed via a series of assignments submitted throughout the year.

A229 Exploring the Classical World

This module provides an introduction to the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. It covers a range of topics such as Homer’s poetry and the society where it was created; Athens in the fifth century BCE; republican Rome; and Roman social history. This module explores ancient poetry, prose, drama and historical texts in English translation along with art, architecture and archaeological evidence to help you build up a solid understanding of key periods of classical history and culture. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Classical Civilisation up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 Classical Studies in Scotland).

Further information about Exploring the Classical World is available on the OU website , and on our departmental website.

A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

This module combines a beginners’ course in Latin with the study of Roman culture and literature in translation. You’ll learn the core principles of the language, while also exploring a range of Latin texts in translation (including Livy, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace) from literary, cultural, and historical angles. The module focuses on the themes of Roman identity, Rome’s origins, and the use of stories from the past in Augustan Rome. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Latin up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 in Scotland).

Further information about Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome is available on the OU website, and on our departmental website.

What’s included in the scholarship

The Open University EDI scholarships consist of a grant of £3,228 to cover the full cost of the tuition fees for the module.

Successful candidates will be provided with support and advice on developing or introducing classical subjects in their school. They will also be asked to provide brief written and/or oral updates on their progress and plans during their studies and to complete a report following their completion of the module.

Developing the teaching of classical subjects in schools

There is good support available for teachers looking to introduce classical subjects into state schools provided by the charity Classics for All. For more details, go to the Classics for All website and click on ‘My school wants classics’.  The ACE project website (Advocating Classics Education) also provides useful advice for those wishing to develop Classical Civilisation (and Ancient History) in their schools.  Charities such as the Roman Society and Hellenic Society can provide grants of up to £500 for classroom resources and books.

Note that your plans to introduce or develop classical subjects in your school need not necessarily mean offering a formally examined course (such as a GCSE).  Your plans might instead involve introducing classical content into other subject areas, teaching classics-related classes or clubs off-timetable or offering Latin as a foreign language at KS2, for example.  Please outline your plans and their expected impact (e.g. in terms of student numbers) in your application.

How to apply

To apply for the scholarship, please complete the EDI-scholarship-application-form-2023  and send it to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk. With the form you should also send:

  • a separate curriculum vitae (CV) of no more than two pages;
  • a copy of your degree certificate (or a transcript of your degree that makes clear the level of your academic achievement);
  • a statement from your headteacher indicating that they are willing to support your plans to introduce or develop Classical Civilisation or Latin in your school or college. (This need be no more than one side of A4.)

The application form includes a section for a short personal statement (of no more than 800 words). You should use this section to outline:

  • the nature of the school you work in and its student body (where possible, please provide information on the percentage of pupils with English as an Additional Language, Special Educational Needs and Free School Meals, plus a link to the latest Ofsted report);
  • how you propose to develop the provision of classical subjects in your school;
  • how the scholarship will facilitate greater access to classics for those from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the field (this may apply either to you as the candidate and/or to your students);
  • your teaching experience to date;
  • your need for the qualification.

The successful applicants will be selected on the basis of this statement, their eligibility, and their academic and professional achievements to date, also taking into account the level of support from the school or college.

Stronger applications will normally:

  • show evidence of clear, well-developed plans;
  • outline how the knowledge and skills acquired by studying the module will enhance the candidate’s ability to teach classics; and
  • demonstrate that the candidate’s study of the module will make a meaningful contribution to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in classics education.

The scholarships will not be awarded to students receiving full funding from other funding bodies. It is not necessary to register for OU study before making this application.

The Open University is proud to promote diversity in education and we welcome applications from all sections of the community. If it would help to have the application in an alternative format, please contact:  FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk

The deadline for applications is 4pm on July 10, 2023 and we intend to inform all applicants shortly afterwards.  (Please note that successful applicants will be required to register for their chosen module by the end of July.)

Informal enquiries about these scholarships can be made to: Prof James Robson (james.robson@open.ac.uk).

Trevor Fear

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dr Trevor Fear on Sunday 26 February 2023.

Trevor was Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Classical Studies. He joined the Open University in 2003, originally working in Region 04, and going on to contribute to many Arts and Humanities and Classical Studies modules in production and presentation as both module team member, module team chair and cluster manager. Trevor will be best known to tens of thousands of former and current Arts and Humanities students as the author of ‘Cleopatra’, the very first unit of their study journey. This unit, written initially for AA100 The Arts Past and Present and subsequently reworked for the successor module A111 Discovering the Arts and Humanities, showcases Trevor’s generosity of knowledge. Encouraging students to investigate the reputation of Cleopatra VII across time and space, from the Roman and Arabic texts of the first century BCE to the twenty-first century CE, and from Egypt to Hollywood, ‘Cleopatra’ is regularly named by Arts and Humanities students as their favourite unit and the one that first made them start thinking differently about the world around them.

Over the last 20 years Trevor recruited and supported the development of over 100 Associate Lecturers in his role as Staff Tutor, and his leadership of ‘The Relaxed Tutorial’ FASSTEST scholarship project continues to open up new forms of tuition support for neurodivergent students. Trevor was also deeply committed to increasing access to Classical Studies in UK state schools and was responsible for the recruitment and support of holders of the A.G. Leventis MA Studentship for teachers who intend to develop the provision of Classical Civilisation in their schools.

Trevor’s research specialisms focused on Roman Love Elegy and Latin poetry, particularly the writings of Catullus, and most recently on Classical Reception Studies. For the last twelve years he has been the editor of the Open Access journal New Voices in Classical Reception Studies, promoting the research of early career researchers and established researchers moving into the area of Classical Reception Studies, as he himself once did. Trevor also supervised a number of PhD students, the most recent of whom successfully passed their viva a few weeks ago.

Trevor was deeply woven into the fabric of the Classical Studies department and will be greatly missed by his department colleagues as well as those within the Arts and Humanities Staff Tutor and Associate Lecturer communities and FASS more broadly. He will be remembered with genuine fondness as an innately kind, supportive, understanding and completely dependable colleague who always had time and words of encouragement for everyone. Our thoughts are with Trevor’s wife Cindy and his sons Chris and Zac.

Aristophanes: Lysistrata – new book by James Robson


This month sees the publication of Aristophanes: Lysistrata by James Robson, Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University. 
Lysistrata is a comedy from Classical Athens about a fictional sex strike staged by the women of Greece which brings about the end of a bitter war.

In this post, James recalls his first encounter with the play and contemplates the play’s enduring appeal.

Photograph of James Robson wearing glasses and blue shirt, with books and a classical figurine in the background.My first encounter with Aristophanes’ Lysistrata was as a first-year undergraduate as part of a Greek and Roman Drama module, and I can safely say it was love at first sight.  We studied tragedy for the first semester, and as exciting and profound as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides’ plays were for me at the time, I found myself impatiently waiting for Christmas to be over when all the secrets of Greek comedy would finally be revealed to me. The twinkle in my lecturer’s eye whenever he said the name ‘Aristophanes’ was intriguing enough, but it was the rumours I heard from fellow students about Aristophanes’ anarchic, sassy, quick-fire plays with their countless willy, bum and fart jokes that threatened to send me over the edge.  Greek Comedy sounded mind-blowing and my mind could hardly wait to be blown.

Book cover showing female dancer in classical gown behind title 'Aristophanes: Lysistrata'Reality hit hard, however, when we finally got to the plays themselves.  Greek comedies were like nothing I had ever encountered before, it’s true, but that actually made them tough to read.  Plots didn’t always progress logically, and Aristophanes’ stylistic switches and linguistic exuberance could often be difficult to make sense of.  Most disappointingly of all – the fantastic willy gags aside – the jokes were often challenging to appreciate, designed as they were for a particular audience, in a particular time and place, and therefore referencing people, events, conventions and objects that were often unfamiliar to me.  I desperately wanted to ‘get’ Greek Comedy, but was struggling to find an Aristophanic play to fall in love with.  That is, until I found Lysistrata.

So, what is it that made my heart beat faster when I first read this play?  You could say that I’ve been working on that question ever since, and that writing this book has finally allowed me to figure out the answer.

To help me explain, it’s worth outlining the context in which Lysistrata was written.  It was first staged in 411 BCE during what was perhaps classical Athens’ darkest hour.  The city had recently lost thousands of men in the disastrous Sicilian Expedition and was now at serious risk of losing the Peloponnesian War which it had been fighting against Sparta for 20 years. With Lysistrata, Aristophanes presents his audience with a wonderful fantasy of how peace could be attained by the women of Greece staging a sex strike and thereby forcing the men to reconcile their differences and bring the fighting to an end.  In his play, Aristophanes freely acknowledges the rough time Athens was having (as mentioned above, comedy as a genre is deeply concerned with the here and now of life in the city of Athens, so this stark reality could hardly be avoided).  But importantly, the plot enables him to explore the effects of war from a viewpoint that his predominantly male audience might rarely have considered, namely that of the city’s womenfolk.  This makes the play fresh, innovative and arguably more contemporary-feeling for a modern audience inclined to see a non-traditional viewpoint as refreshing.  Indeed, Lysistrata was very possibly the first Greek comedy to feature an ordinary, citizen woman as its central character.  At this stage in his career Aristophanes was clearly a mature and accomplished playwright who felt confident with experimentation.

The challenging historical backdrop to the play helps us to understand other features of the play that made it more accessible to me as an undergraduate.  The intense turmoil in Athens in 411 BCE led to a toxic political situation, which later that year would result in a bloody coup.  Wisely, then, Aristophanes dials down the kind of contemporary political jokes and the topical allusions which modern readers struggle with, and instead we get a whole bunch of first-rate willy gags that have stood the test of time.  As I just mentioned, too, he also experiments with the genre of comedy: Lysistrata’s characters are more psychologically convincing than the more changeable creations of his earlier plays, their language is more uniform, and the plot – as fantastic and silly as it is at times – nevertheless has its own logical flow.  In short, the play’s universal themes – sex, war, gender, protest – its characters, its language and its humour are simply all more comprehensible to a non-specialist than those of other comedies by Aristophanes.  And this, I think, is what helped not just the undergraduate version of me fall in love with Lysistrata, but why the play has been so influential in modern times, too. As I outline in the book, Lysistrata has been widely read and performed in English-speaking countries over the last 150 years – perhaps more widely than all the rest of Aristophanes’ plays put together – and has even inspired feature films (Spike Lee’s 2015 Chi-raq is a recent example).  In short, Lysistrata has proven to be a deeply seductive play – not just for me, but for many others, too.  And writing this book has not only allowed me to explore the nature of its allure, but also to share its seductive secrets with others.

Aristophanes: Lysistrata by James Robson is published by Bloomsbury.

Read more about James’ teaching and research at the Open University here.

 

Monarchs, Courtiers and Technocrats – Q&A with Dr Martin Dearne

Photo of Dr Martin DearneDr Martin Dearne has been an Associate Lecturer with The Open University for twenty years, and has taught on many of our Classical Studies modules (AA309, A209, A251, A330, A219, A229, A105, A151, A112). He is the author of six books, the most recent of which is an archaeological study of Elsyng Palace in the London Borough of Enfield. In this blog post, Martin tells us more about Monarchs, Courtiers and Technocrats; Elsyng Palace, Enfield: Place and People: The Documentary and Archaeological Evidence for a Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century Courtier’s House and Tudor and Stuart Royal Palace; and for the Lives of its Owners and House

Book cover of 'Monarchs, Courtiers and Technocrats'. The cover is blue with white writing and has a reconstruction drawing of Elsyng Palace in a panel below the titleHello Martin, and congratulations on your new book! Please could you start by introducing our readers to Enfield and its history?  

Enfield today is a London borough – at the top centre of Greater London just south of the M25 – made up of two or three distinct Medieval villages in the Lea Valley that expanded into towns and eventually got swallowed up in the urban sprawl of the capital. Enfield itself was the most northerly of them, from the Norman conquest on quite a small market town in what was then rural Middlesex, but dominated by the nearby royal hunting forest of Enfield Chase. It still has a market square opposite where a manor house used to stand, but as the town grew in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became best known for the industries that grew up east of the original town along the River Lea (the largest tributary of the River Thames) such as that making Lee-Enfield rifles.

Your first book on Enfield (First Stop North of Londinium: The Archaeology of Roman Enfield and its Roadline Settlement) dealt with the ancient history of the town. How did you come to write that book? And what did you discover about Enfield’s Roman past?

Book cover of 'First Stop North of Londinium'. The cover is deep red with orange writing, and shows two ceramic vessels below the title.

I was born in the borough and the first archaeological dig I ever went on was with the local archaeological society on a Roman site here. After many years at Sheffield University when I moved back to Enfield I got involved in that society which was active at the time in excavating a Roman settlement that lay on Ermine Street – the main Roman road north out of Londinium which ran ultimately to York and beyond – but a little at a time in people’s back gardens. Nobody had tried to take all these little pieces of a jigsaw and put them together and the book grew out of the process of doing that. The result was a picture of the first roadside settlement along the road once you left Roman London, a settlement that combined farming with providing for travellers, probably had a mansio (official ‘hotel’) and lay in a wider landscape that may have included a tannery site and a large estate farm.

This new book moves the story forward by looking at a later period of Enfield’s history, and at a particular site – the royal palace of Elsyng. How did you come to that topic?

Yes, that’s right. While I was working on the first book I was asked to direct new excavations on the site of this Tudor and Stuart palace. Some very impressive remains of it had been excavated in the 1960s, but nothing had been done on the site for about 40 years and, as it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, English Heritage required a professional archaeologist to lead the local team who wanted to uncover more of it. And that fairly rapidly became an annual excavation taking in student training, community open days and even a TV documentary. But, as the team (which includes two other current or former OU Associate Lecturers) uncovered more and more of the palace, it became more and more important to publish what we had found and link it to the people who had once lived here. Surprisingly royal palaces like this are in fact a very under explored part of the national story and Elsyng was also the most important element in putting Enfield on the map over about 300 years. So once I finished the book on Roman Enfield I decided that I would try and research its history as well as publish the archaeological work I had led.

Can you introduce us to some of the historical figures you study in the book? Maybe you can tell us which figure interested you the most?

I could tell you about a variety of people who I look at, from an Earl of Worcester in the Wars of the Roses who was called ‘the Butcher of England’ to Elizabeth I who lived at Elsyng at times when she was a girl. But one I got particularly interested in was John Carleton. Before it was a royal palace, Elsyng was held by Sir Thomas Lovell – one of the technocrats who ran early Tudor government. He was very rich, had vast estates all over the country, many governmental positions and was constantly being visited here by Henry VII and VIII. But it was Carleton, his own ‘Receiver General’, who ran Lovell’s private affairs and then organised his lavish funeral when he died in 1524 and had to disentangle his complex financial affairs as his executor. And it is through Carleton’s accounts books with their detailed pay records and tradesmen’s bills that we get an insight into how Elsyng functioned as a ‘courtier’s palace’ with a staff of about a hundred. He is the sort of figure who stands just outside the spotlight of history, but without whom those in the spotlight couldn’t have functioned.

How did you go about researching the book? Was it archival research, archaeological fieldwork, or both?

The site of the furnace of the boiling house at Elsyng. Whole sides of meat were boiled in a large vat set over the furnace.

It was very much both. I reassessed the 1960s excavations and synthesised the 16 years of those I had up to that point directed myself, which in some ways was the easy part. The more difficult was writing the history of the site and the people who lived there because it meant getting into late Medieval and early Modern studies which I didn’t have a background in. Fortunately I had colleagues from the excavations, one of whom took on photographing hundreds of documents in the National Archives and elsewhere and another of whom taught himself to read and transcribe them – because often they were written in things like Tudor secretary hand which at first glance is as hard to read to the uninitiated as cursive Latin. Even then though it meant trawling through and cross referencing vast numbers of printed ‘calendars’ (summary publications) of documents. In fact it is only the fact that so many of these can now be read on line that made this side of the research possible.

Did you find many links between the Roman and later periods of Enfield’s history? 

To borrow a phrase, it’s about location, location, location. The Roman settlement in Enfield was here because it was a convenient distance out from Roman London for travellers to break a journey. In the same way the palace was near enough Medieval and Tudor London to easily reach it, but far enough away to escape its plague outbreaks and develop a prestigious house in a large estate. Then where exactly the palace was sited was in part determined by the survival of Ermine Street; in the 1430s, when it was first built, Roman roads like Ermine Street were still the backbone of the road network in Britain.

Which is your own favourite historical spot in the town of Enfield – and why?

Well, it would have to be the site of Elsyng palace, but one specific spot on the site. At that point you can see over 1,600 years of Enfield history in one go. Look in one direction and there is a modern road that follows the line of Ermine Street to an eighteenth century bridge over a brook that stands where a Roman bridge or ford once did. Turn round and across the modern park it edges you can still trace the approach road to the palace that ran off of it. And turn half way back and look uphill and there stands the early seventeenth century Forty Hall, the country home of a Lord Mayor of London (the excavations I have directed around and inside which look dangerously like turning into another publication !)

Thank you Martin, and congratulations again on this new book!

Monarchs, Courtiers and Technocrats is available to buy via the website of Enfield Archaeological Society: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/publications/

 

Q & A with Dr Gina May

This week we chatted with OU Classicist Gina May about her new book A Student’s Guide to Online Learning published by the Open University Press, which is due to go on sale on 12 August.

Hello Gina! Before we start talking about your book, could you introduce yourself to our readers? How did you get into Classics?

I have been an associate lecturer with the Open University since 2009 and have taught modules at stages 1, 2 and 3 as well as at postgraduate level.  Over the years I have also contributed to module content and TMA questions for a variety of Classical Studies modules – it is my dream job!  At the same time as teaching for the OU, I also taught in the Classical Studies department at the University of Kent for 10 years but left there 3 years ago to allow time to write and develop my own courses which I teach online as an independent educator.  I also do work as a consultant for universities and schools developing online teaching strategies and training staff to teach online.

I first discovered a love of Classics at school because our drama teacher had us reading Greek tragedies and our French teacher had us reading Racine’s versions of the same Greek tragedies, but in French.  I also did Latin at school which I loved but did not do any other ancient languages until I went to university as a mature student.  Although I had a long gap before starting a degree, I kept reading in the meantime and when my children were in their teens, I did a BA and PhD degree in Classical Studies and loved every single minute!  I am a lifelong learner and look enviously at OU modules wishing I could do them all.

What is your daily routine like, in your job as an OU associate lecturer in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences?

As associate lecturers we work from home and so I spend most of my days in a summer house at the end of my garden which is great!  I teach on 5 modules including A863 and A864 which are the first and second years of the Classical Studies MA.  My work includes writing and delivering tutorials, marking TMAs, talking to students via email and on the phone, as well as other general tasks such as monitoring and moderating forums.  There is a great feel of camaraderie between the members of the department and although ALs do not go onto the physical campus very often, we still feel very much a part of what goes on and have a great rapport with the central academics.

We are all excited about reading your new book A Student’s Guide to Online Learning!  How did you come to write the book?

The book came about because during the pandemic there was such a large shift towards online teaching for both universities and schools.  This made me realise that actually, the OU have been doing this really well for years so were well ahead of the game in terms of teaching.  However, there was nothing on the market that looked closely at the skills needed for learning online.  I started by talking to current and former students asking them what they wished they had known before they started and to tell me about some of the problems they encountered or were encountering along the way.  This, combined with the experience of teaching thousands of students both face to face and online, helped to decide on the content.

Who did you write it for? Is your target readership mainly OU students? Who else do you think will benefit from reading the book?

As an AL I had my own students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in mind a lot of the time, but the content works equally well for any student of an online course whether that is as part of a degree or for work as part of continuing professional development.  A lot of the issues are the same such as developing the right persona, conversing with tutors and peers and demonstrating employability skills.   The use of social media as a tool for learning and networking is something that is new to many students so this is also covered.

Could you give us a sneak preview of the contents? How is the book structured (and was it difficult to decide how to structure it?)

The chapter headings are: Online Identity and Personas; Learning Online Environments; Accessing Learning and Peer Support; Recognising Strengths and Overcoming Difficulties and Disabilities; Academic Integrity and Employability; Researching Online; Digital Technologies for Online Learning; Using Social Media for Learning Online and Trouble Shooting, Staying Safe Online.

To decide on the structure, I thought about the order in which a student might need to know how to do things and went from there.  The book can be used by starting from the beginning and working through to the end but works equally well for just dipping in and out of.  Each chapter has advice and practical exercises together with quotes from students who have experience of dealing with the particular issue being talked about.

Which chapter was hardest to write, and why?

The hardest chapter to write was ‘Trouble Shooting’.  Current and former students sent me lots of examples of things that had happened to them and how they had resolved the issues.  I then had to combine these together with my own experience as a tutor and online student into a format that worked well.  I wanted to provide clear advice that would be both helpful and reassuring.

Which is your favourite chapter, and why?

I have two favourite chapters.  The first is ‘Recognising Strengths and Overcoming Difficulties and Disabilities’.  This is because students tend to focus on the negative, the things that they have done ‘wrong’, cannot do because of a difficulty or disability, or do not know how to do.  I wanted to turn this completely on its head and look at how to discover what you can do well, how this is being done and how to enhance it going forward.  The chapter also deals with practical issues such as how to use assistive technologies such as screen readers and voice activated software.  For me, the important thing about this chapter is that it empowers all students.

My other favourite is ‘Researching Online’ simply because I love research.  In this chapter I show how to narrow and deepen a search to avoid falling down rabbit holes that might well provide hours of pleasant reading but that may not actually be very useful.  I look at using library catalogues and other data bases as well as what does not form academic content and so should be avoided.

The book is written together with Tim Bentley – could you tell us a bit about this collaborative writing process?

My co-author (and husband) is now a paramedic and paramedic educator but is a former learning technologist who developed and implemented online learning platforms at two large UK universities.   Using this expertise, he contributed towards the explanation of how technologies work and can be best used in order to learn online, and what to do when things go wrong.  Content includes everything from making sure that your internet connection is secure to how to use the tools in FB and Twitter to enhance learning and to become part of the wider learning community in your discipline.

What is your next project after this book?

I am currently working on a number of projects.

The first is a companion book to A Student’s Guide to Online Learning which is aimed at those who teach online.  It looks at the practical skills of online and blended teaching as well as how to write or convert material to do so.  This combines my experience of many years teaching online with the wealth of experience that current and former students, and colleagues, continue to share with me.

My other current projects include:

  • A book which takes all the vocabulary used for GCSE, AS and A Level Latin and sets out all the tenses of the verbs and the cases of the nouns in full. This is almost finished and will be on Amazon by the end of the summer.  I have not quite decided on a final title for this so any suggestions would be gratefully received!
  • Academic Practice for Classical and Archaeological Studies which looks at the specific study skills needed in Classical Studies and includes content on using data bases, archaeological reports, coins and standing culture as well as ancient texts. I also look at how to use online dictionaries as a non-linguist and how to work with fragmentary evidence when writing essays and dissertations.   As well as all this, the book includes study skills such as critical reading, referencing, structuring written work, constructing an argument and much more.
  • A novel for Falcon Books Publishing which is about a little girl who gets lost in the crowds at Epidaurus and grows up in the temple there. I was so inspired by the way that Pat Barker wrote Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy that I thought I would have a go myself!

I am on twitter @DrGinaMay and have a website: ginamay.co.uk which has details of all the courses that I teach as an Independent Course Provider outside of my work with the OU.

Congratulations, Gina – we can’t wait to read the book! 

 

Scholarships in Classical Studies for UK Schoolteachers

The Open University is delighted to be able to offer three fully-funded EDI scholarships for teachers in UK state schools wishing to study either of the following Open University modules:

  • A229 Exploring the Classical World
  • A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

These scholarships, funded by the OU’s Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, will be awarded to UK schoolteachers who intend to introduce or develop the provision of Classical Civilisation or Latin in the curriculum of the non-fee-paying school or college where they work.  They are open to teachers of any discipline and at any level (primary, secondary or tertiary) looking to develop their knowledge of the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome and/or Latin language and Roman culture with this aim in mind.

In the award of these scholarships, preference will be given to:

  • teachers working in schools with a high proportion of students from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background and/or where a high percentage of pupils are eligible for Free School Meals;
  • teachers from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background (including people with a mixed ethnic background) or from a working class background.

These scholarships are open to those teaching in non-fee-paying primary and secondary schools as well as sixth form colleges. Please note that applicants will normally be expected to have worked for at least two years as a teacher.

Studying with the Open University

A229 Exploring the Classical World and A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome are 60-credit modules, requiring regular study each week.  Students are supported by a dedicated tutor, enjoy access to regular tutorials, and study using a combination of printed and online materials. The Open University’s distance learning model gives students the flexibility to study where and when they want.  Modules run from October to May and are assessed via a series of assignments submitted throughout the year.

A229 Exploring the Classical World

This module provides an introduction to the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. It covers a range of topics such as Homer’s poetry and the society where it was created; Athens in the fifth century BCE; republican Rome; and Roman social history. This module explores ancient poetry, prose, drama and historical texts in English translation along with art, architecture and archaeological evidence to help you build up a solid understanding of key periods of classical history and culture. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Classical Civilisation up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 Classical Studies in Scotland).

Further information about Exploring the Classical World is available on the OU website , and on our departmental website.

A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

This module combines a beginners’ course in Latin with the study of Roman culture and literature in translation. You’ll learn the core principles of the language, while also exploring a range of Latin texts in translation (including Livy, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace) from literary, cultural, and historical angles. The module focuses on the themes of Roman identity, Rome’s origins, and the use of stories from the past in Augustan Rome. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Latin up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 in Scotland).

Further information about Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome is available on the OU website, and on our departmental website.

What’s included in the scholarship

The Open University EDI scholarships consist of a grant of £3,228 to cover the full cost of the tuition fees for the module.

Successful candidates will be provided with support and advice on developing or introducing classical subjects in their school and are asked to provide a report on their progress following their completion of the module.

Developing the teaching of classical subjects in schools

There is good support available for teachers looking to introduce classical subjects into state schools provided by the charity Classics for All. For more details, go to the Classics for All website and click on ‘My school wants classics’.  The ACE project website (Advocating Classics Education) also provides useful advice for those wishing to develop Classical Civilisation (and Ancient History) in their schools.  Charities such as the Roman Society and Hellenic Society can provide grants of up to £500 for classroom resources and books.

Applicants may be interested in the panel discussion at the Open University’s Advocating Classics Education event in 2019, in which representatives of the ACE project, Classics for All and a schoolteacher with recent experience of developing Classical Studies provision in a state secondary school shared their experiences and offered guidance and advice. The full discussion is available online here.

Note that your plans to introduce or develop classical subjects in your school need not necessarily mean offering a formally examined course (such as a GCSE).  Your plans might instead involve introducing classical content into other subject areas, teaching classics-related classes or clubs off-timetable or offering Latin as a foreign language at KS2, for example.  Please outline your plans and their expected impact (e.g. in terms of student numbers) in your application.

How to apply

To apply for the scholarship, please complete the EDI-scholarship-application-form-July-2022 and send it to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk. With the form you should also send:

  • a separate curriculum vitae (CV) of no more than two pages;
  • a copy of your degree certificate (or a transcript of your degree that makes clear the level of your academic achievement);
  • a statement from your headteacher indicating that they are willing to support your plans to introduce or develop Classical Civilisation or Latin in your school or college. (This need be no more than one side of A4.)

The application form includes a section for a short personal statement (of no more than 800 words). You should use this section to outline:

  • the nature of the school you work in and its student body (where possible, please provide information on the percentage of pupils with English as an Additional Language, Special Educational Needs and Free School Meals, plus a link to the latest Ofsted report);
  • how you propose to develop the provision of classical subjects in your school;
  • how the scholarship will facilitate greater access to classics for those from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the field (this may apply either to you as the candidate and/or to your students);
  • your teaching experience to date;
  • your need for the qualification;

The successful applicants will be selected on the basis of this statement, their eligibility, and their academic and professional achievements to date, also taking into account the level of support from the school or college.

The scholarships will not be awarded to students receiving full funding from other funding bodies. It is not necessary to register for the OU study before making this application.

The Open University is proud to promote diversity in education and we welcome applications from all sections of the community. If it would help to have the application in an alternative format, please contact FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is 4pm on Monday July 18, 2022 and we intend to inform all applicants in August.

(Note this is deadline has been extended following an earlier call for applications to allow candidates more time to apply.)

Informal enquiries about these scholarships can be made to: Prof James Robson (james.robson@open.ac.uk).

 

Leventis and EDI Studentships for UK Schoolteachers

We are delighted to offer the following studentships for UK schoolteachers to study with us:

  • Leventis MA Studentships
  • EDI Studentships (for undergraduate modules)

Please see below for details and get in touch with us if you have any questions!

Leventis MA Studentships for Teachers:

We are delighted to be able to offer three fully-funded scholarships for teachers in state schools wishing to study our MA in Classical Studies.* These scholarships, generously funded by the A.G. Leventis Foundation, will be awarded to UK schoolteachers who intend to introduce or develop the provision of Classical Civilisation (or closely related subjects) in the curriculum of the school where they work.

The Open University’s MA in Classical Studies:

The MA in Classical Studies at the Open University focuses on the question ‘How do we know what we know about the ancient world?’ It is designed both to introduce you to key concepts and themes in Classical Studies and to allow you to explore some of these in more depth. Over the course of the two modules that make up the qualification, it gradually builds up your knowledge and the skills you need to explore ancient visual and written material, while also training you to become an independent researcher. This is the ideal qualification for anyone who wants to know more about the ancient world and the ways in which we can approach it as researchers. It also offers an excellent starting-point for those wishing to teach classical subjects in secondary school. It is a two-year qualification requiring approximately 16 hours of study time a week, which means that it can be completed alongside employment, and it is taught entirely online. No specific prior knowledge is assumed, and there is no requirement to have studied Latin or Ancient Greek, but an undergraduate degree in a cognate discipline is recommended as a basis. By consultation other arrangements can sometimes be made if you do not hold a degree in such a discipline. This usually involves preparatory reading. Further information about the MA is available on the OU website, and on our departmental website.

The Leventis scholarships consist of a grant of £8000 to cover the full cost of the tuition fees for the MA with the balance available to assist with the cost of book purchases related to the study of the MA modules and the acquisition and development of resources for teaching Classical Studies, or related subjects, in the scholarship holder’s school.

Developing Classical Studies in Schools:

Applicants may be interested in the panel discussion at the Open University’s Advocating Classics Education event in 2019, in which representatives of the ACE projectClassics for All, and a teacher with recent experience of developing Classical Studies provision in a state secondary school shared their experiences and offered guidance and advice. The full discussion is available online here.

Note that your plans to introduce or develop classical subjects in your school need not necessarily mean offering a formally examined course (such as a GCSE or National 4/5 in Scotland).  Your plans might instead involve introducing classical content into other subject areas, teaching classics-related classes or clubs off-timetable or offering Latin as a foreign language at KS2, for example.  Please outline your plans and their expected impact (e.g. in terms of student numbers) in your application.

How to apply:

To apply for the scholarship, please complete the MA-scholarship-application-form-2022 and send it to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk. With the form you should also send:

  • a separate curriculum vitae (CV) of no more than two pages;
  • a copy of your latest degree certificate and/or transcript;
  • a statement from your headteacher indicating that they are willing to support your plans to develop Classical Civilisation (Classics, Latin and/or Greek, ancient history)

The application form includes a section for a personal statement. You should use this section to outline your teaching experience to date and to provide a clear indication of the way in which you propose to develop the provision of Classical Civilisation (Classics, Latin and/or Greek, ancient history) in your school. The successful applicants will be selected on the basis of this statement, and on the level of support from their school for their development of the curriculum.

The scholarships will not be awarded to students receiving full funding from other funding bodies. It is not necessary to register for the MA degree before making this application.

The Open University promotes diversity in education and we welcome applications from all sections of the community. If it would help to have the application in an alternative format please contact FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is 4pm on Monday June 6, 2022 and we intend to inform all applicants by late June.

Informal enquiries can be made to Trevor Fear (trevor.fear@open.ac.uk).

*In line with the Open University’s commitment to EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion), we anticipate awarding these studentships to teachers in state/state-funded schools. We do not rule out applications from private or selective schools, but it will be particularly important in these cases to demonstrate how expansion of the curriculum in the school environment will lead to dissemination of opportunity for the wider community.

EDI Scholarships in Classical Studies for UK Schoolteachers:

We are delighted to be able to offer three fully-funded EDI scholarships for teachers in UK state schools wishing to study either of the following Open University modules:

  • A229 Exploring the Classical World
  • A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

These scholarships, funded by the OU’s Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, will be awarded to UK schoolteachers who intend to introduce or develop the provision of Classical Civilisation or Latin in the curriculum of the non-fee-paying school or college where they work.  They are open to teachers of any discipline looking to develop their knowledge of the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome and/or Latin language and Roman culture with this aim in mind.

In the award of these scholarships, preference will be given to:

  • teachers working in schools with a high proportion of students from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background and/or where a high percentage of pupils are eligible for Free School Meals;
  • teachers from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the teaching of classical subjects, e.g. those from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background (including people with a mixed ethnic background) or from a working class background

These scholarships are open to those teaching in non-fee-paying primary and secondary schools as well as sixth form colleges. Please note that applicants will normally be expected to have worked for at least two years as a teacher.

Studying with the Open University

A229 Exploring the Classical World and A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome are 60-credit modules, requiring up to 16-18 hours of study each week.  Students are supported by a dedicated tutor, enjoy access to regular tutorials, and study using a combination of printed and online materials. The Open University’s distance learning model gives students the flexibility to study where and when they want.  Modules run from October to May and are assessed via a series of assignments submitted throughout the year.

A229 Exploring the Classical World

This module provides an introduction to the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. It covers a range of topics such as Homer’s poetry and the society where it was created; Athens in the fifth century BCE; republican Rome; and Roman social history. This module explores ancient poetry, prose, drama and historical texts in English translation along with art, architecture and archaeological evidence to help you build up a solid understanding of key periods of classical history and culture. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Classical Civilisation up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 Classical Studies in Scotland).

Further information about Exploring the Classical World is available on the OU website , and on our departmental website.

A276 Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome

This module combines a beginners’ course in Latin with the study of Roman culture and literature in translation. You’ll learn the core principles of the language, while also exploring a range of Latin texts in translation (including Livy, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace) from literary, cultural, and historical angles. The module focuses on the themes of Roman identity, Rome’s origins, and the use of stories from the past in Augustan Rome. The material covered provides a strong foundation for the teaching of Latin up to GCSE level (or National 4/5 in Scotland).

Further information about Classical Latin: The Language of Ancient Rome is available on the OU website, and on our departmental website.

What’s included in the scholarship

The Open University EDI scholarships consist of a grant of £3,228 to cover the full cost of the tuition fees for the module.

Successful candidates will be provided with support and advice on developing or introducing classical subjects in their school and are asked to provide a report on their progress following their completion of the module.

Developing the teaching of classical subjects in schools

Applicants may be interested in the panel discussion at the Open University’s Advocating Classics Education event in 2019, in which representatives of the ACE project, Classics for All and a schoolteacher with recent experience of developing Classical Studies provision in a state secondary school shared their experiences and offered guidance and advice. The full discussion is available online here.

There is good support available for teachers looking to introduce classical subjects into state schools provided by the charity Classics for All. For more details, go to the Classics for All website and click on ‘My school wants classics’.  The ACE project website (Advocating Classics Education) also provides useful advice for those wishing to develop Classical Civilisation (and Ancient History) in their schools.  Charities such as the Roman Society and Hellenic Society can provide grants of up to £500 for classroom resources and books.

Note that your plans to introduce or develop classical subjects in your school need not necessarily mean offering a formally examined course (such as a GCSE).  Your plans might instead involve introducing classical content into other subject areas, teaching classics-related classes or clubs off-timetable or offering Latin as a foreign language at KS2, for example.  Please outline your plans and their expected impact (e.g. in terms of student numbers) in your application.

How to apply

To apply for the scholarship, please complete the EDI-scholarship-application-form-2022 and send it to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk. With the form you should also send:

  • a separate curriculum vitae (CV) of no more than two pages;
  • a copy of your degree certificate (or a transcript of your degree that makes clear the level of your academic achievement);
  • a statement from your headteacher indicating that they are willing to support your plans to introduce or develop Classical Civilisation or Latin in your school or college.

The application form includes a section for a personal statement. You should use this section to outline:

  • the ways in which the scholarship will facilitate greater access to classical subjects for those from backgrounds which are traditionally under-represented in the field (this may apply either to you as the candidate and/or to your students);
  • the nature of the school you work in and its student body (where possible, please provide information on the percentage of pupils with English as an Additional Language, Special Educational Needs and Free School Meals, plus a link to the latest Ofsted report);
  • your teaching experience to date;
  • your need for the qualification;
  • the precise ways in which you propose to develop the provision of Classical Civilisation or Latin in your school.

The successful applicants will be selected on the basis of this statement, their eligibility, and their academic and professional achievements to date, also taking into account the level of support from the school or college.

The scholarships will not be awarded to students receiving full funding from other funding bodies. It is not necessary to register for the OU study before making this application.

The Open University is proud to promote diversity in education and we welcome applications from all sections of the community. If it would help to have the application in an alternative format, please contact FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is 4pm on Monday June 6, 2022 and we intend to inform all applicants by late June.

Informal enquiries about these scholarships can be made to: Prof James Robson (james.robson@open.ac.uk).

 

 

 

Another letter from Provence…

We’re very pleased to share another update from “our alumnus in Provence”, Paul Jackson.  Thank you Paul, and good luck with the writing! 

So, this year’s Classical Association conference has just drawn to a close, and what a conference, with papers ranging from Tolkien’s Unique Reception of Pythagorean ‘Dissonance’ in the Ainulindalë of the Silmarillion to Cyrus the Great, Caught Between Persia and Iran.

Well, I say ‘this year’s’, but Swansea was of course meant to have hosted this event two years ago, only for the pandemic to put the dampers on that. Chapeau to Swansea, then, for being able to pick things back again, and though I wasn’t able to be there en presential this time, not able to follow Wordsworth to Tintern Abbey and then tour the West Country as I had planned to, the hybrid nature of the conference did at least allow me to present an updated version of my original paper, The Other Dumas: Alexandre Dumas and the Classics, albeit en distanciel, and to speak on the classical education, passions, and varied works of the popular and famous feuilletoniste by way of Zoom.

The pandemic has unfortunately also had an effect on the Classical Dumas Series I am working on with Noumena Press, with the publication of Isaac Laquedem: A Tale of the Wandering Jew being delayed until next year, though that will at least allow Acte of Corinth: A Tale of Greece and Rome to become the first in the series when it comes out later this year. Look out for news on this here, where you will also find a link to the eBook version of the prologue to Isaac Laquedem, for those who want a little taste of that in advance.

Circumstances have also allowed me to finish a first draft of a little novella I have been working on, which I suppose comes out of my doctoral thesis, De natura deorum Epicureorum. The Last Days of Epicurus is set in Hellenistic Athens, in the arconship of Lysitheides, when an Amynomachus, veteran of Thermopylae, finds what he is looking for, himself, in Epicurus’ Garden. More on this soon.

Back to Dumas, though, before I finish, for we did follow him – and Isaac ­– recently along the Appian Way, though on electric bikes, passing the likes of the Tomb of Caecilia Metella and the Casal Rotondo along that cobbled way like his eponymous protagonist. Here are some photos:

Here too is a little poem of the day that I penned, drawing on Dumas’ descriptions and culminating in a distinctively (Horatian) Epicurean couplet:

The Via Appia

For Paul-Jean Toulet

Who else hath trodden those antique, paved ways,

Gone from distant seas to loftiest walls,

Through those sweeps of green lined with marble halls,

‘Neath shady pines, those abodes of manes.

From within they watch, from within they gaze,

And to all who pass by, they calmly call,

Hoping to hold those strange souls in their thrall,

This now their life, these now their deathless days.

But who hath heard the silence of those stones,

Ever reaching for us with wraithlike arms,

Speaking to us in epitaphic tones,

Whispering so softly oracular charms,

“Seize the moment, whilst you still have some breath,

Knowing that with this life, comes deathless death…”

Oh, Paul-Jean Toulet, if you haven’t heard of him, was a French poet and fellow feuilletoniste, best known for his Contrerimes ­­­– a collection of poems in a verse form of his own invention, la contrerime – some of which the great French actor and director Daniel Auteuil put to music for his album Si vous m’aviez connu, one of the songs of which is entitled Les Alyscamps, that huge Roman necropolis outside of Arles which both Gauguin and Van Gogh painted. It was this song that really inspired my own poem, thus the nod to him.

Right, I suppose that ought to be enough for now. See you soon in our next episode,

Stay safe,

Paul x

 

John Stephen Kassman Memorial Essay Prize 2022

An annual prize is awarded for the best essay in a competition, open to all current Open University undergraduate students. It is likely to be of particular interest to students on A229, A276, A330 and A340. The essay, of not more than 3000 words, should be on any topic related to Greek and Roman Antiquity.

Submission dates for the next prize are as follows:

·         the closing date for notice of intention to enter the competition is 30 June 2022, and 

·         the deadline for submission of essays is 30 September 2022.

For further details, rules and regulations for the competition, see below.

—-

Information and Regulations for Entrants

1. The prize is an annual award based on the income from a donation given by the late Alec Kassman in memory of his son. Alec was an Arts Faculty Staff Tutor in London Region of the Open University and a contributor to Classical Studies courses. The purpose of the prize, which is awarded for the best essay in an annual competition, is to develop and foster study of Classical Antiquity in the Open University. The award takes the form of a book-token (or other academic related goods) to the approximate value of £100. 

2. The competition is open to all current OU Undergraduates and Associate students (i.e. current at the date of notice to enter the competition – see below 4). Candidates may compete in more than one year if they wish, but no candidate may submit an essay more than once on the same topic.

3. Details covering presentation of essay:

i) The essay may be on any topic related to Greek and Roman Antiquity; this regulation may be interpreted liberally – including e.g. comparative study, provided that a substantial part of the essay deals with a Greek or Roman aspect of the topic. The right is reserved to refuse proposals deemed unsuitable.

ii) The essay should be an original piece of work, written for the purpose of the competition, and should not replicate material submitted by candidates for previous assessment (TMAs and EMAs) at the OU or elsewhere.

iii) A word-limit of 3000 words, including notes, should be observed (if appropriate to the essay subject, a limited amount of additional illustrated and/or diagrammatic material may be included). A bibliography should be appended, together with a statement that the essay is the candidate’s own unaided work.

iv) Essays should be submitted as an attached file e.mailed to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk. In order to preserve anonymity for judges, the candidate’s name and address should not be written on the essay itself but enclosed on a separate cover-sheet.

4. Notice to enter the competition should be sent, together with the proposed essay title, by 30th June 2022 via email to FASS-ClassicalStudies-Enquiries@open.ac.uk

The deadline for receipt of essays is 30th September 2022. This timing is intended to give competitors an opportunity to work on their essays after the 2022 academic session. The decision of the judges, which will be final, will be announced to all competitors as soon as possible after the closing date.

5. The administration and adjudication of the competition will be by a Committee appointed by the Department of Classical Studies. The committee reserves the right not to award the prize in any given year if there is no essay of an acceptable standard.

6. Guidelines for competitors. The following criteria will be observed by the judges:

i) Quality of the Essay as a piece of English prose

ii) Appreciation of the issues involved in the selected topic

iii) Quality of thought displayed in setting out and addressing such issues

iv) Sensitivity to the historical ambience of the topic, and its significance within that setting

v) Capacity for independent critical analysis

vi) Imaginative choice of topic.

Asterion: Neurodiverse Classics

Over the last few months, several OU Classical Studies students and graduates have been involved in setting up a new organisation called Asterion, which aims to represent neurodiversity in Classics.

Asterion logo

For the OU Classical Studies Blog, Asterion Director and OU tutor Cora Beth Fraser caught up with two neurodivergent members of the Asterion Editorial Board, Hilary Forbes and Tony Potter, to talk about neurodiversity, OU study and Asterion.

Cora Beth: In setting up Asterion, I’ve been hearing a lot of late-diagnosis stories from people who’ve only found out in adulthood that they are neurodivergent. For many people the diagnosis explains traits and problems that go back a long way. It certainly has done for me. After I was diagnosed as autistic in my 30s, I could look back at my childhood and see all the quirks and difficulties that would have added up to an obviously autistic profile, if I hadn’t been trying so hard to hide them, and if autism hadn’t been so little understood in those days! How about you: when did you first realise that you experienced the world a little differently? 

Tony: I think I’ve always known I was different and that I experienced the world more sensitively than others from my early childhood. Even in primary school I was called a ‘quirky’ child. I remember being told off for having a sort of nervous tick when I got stressed out. I also remember it being referred to as a habit that I’d grow out of. Now however, I see it for what it was, it was a physical manifestation of a condition that at the time I knew nothing about and it was brought on by factors outside of my control. Plus, we’re talking about the late eighties and early nineties here and neurodiversity wasn’t really something that got loads of attention back then. This is the bizarre bit though; in my later teenage years I seemed to do exactly what had been predicted and grew out of it – well, at least that’s what I thought. I sailed through my early twenties with ease. I think this was because I lived in another country and was essentially a different person. I’d escaped my upbringing, so to speak. I worked as a holiday rep for five years and didn’t seem to experience one bit of OCD or anxiety. On the contrary, I would stand up in front of hundreds of people to conduct welcome meetings, I was outgoing, confident and very adventurous and I partied really hard (perhaps too hard if truth be told), but none of this bothered me one bit and any suggestion that I suffered from a mental condition would have had me rolling on the floor in fits of laughter.

It wasn’t until my late twenties to early thirties that I started to experience the world differently again. I could feel myself becoming more and more conscious of my surroundings and how I felt I was being perceived by other people. I think what triggered my OCD and anxiety after all those years was my working environment which at best could be described as stressful and at worst, toxic. There was a very unpleasant culture where I worked at the time, and day in day out people feared for their jobs because the company turned over staff like it was a competition. I personally think that spending three years in that environment sort of broke me. It wasn’t until I bit the bullet and left the business that I felt more secure, but unfortunately the damage had been done and the anxiety and OCD were back to stay. 

Hilary: I think I’ve always known this for as long as I can remember… but I couldn’t express it as a child. I used to think that all the other children at school were in on some secret which I didn’t know, and that’s why they all seemed to be able to communicate with one another, when I didn’t know how.

I have always wanted to know how things worked – from the time when I undid all the nuts on my pram (it nearly collapsed while I was being pushed in it because I did it so quietly and without being seen… but I was fine – it was saved just in time!), to taking radios to pieces. Everything that could come apart, I took apart to see how it worked, so science was a big draw to me. But so was English Literature because I enjoyed learning about how novels and plays were constructed and the context of them, so I was a big Shakespeare fan… so for me delving deep into the possible influences of the ancient world on current science was and is part of the same path. I tend to see history, science, theology etc as one thing rather than chop them up into different disciplines.

Cora Beth: I know you’ve both been studying for a long time. My own path through education has been a winding one: I’ve completed a bunch of degrees in different subjects – and gotten part-way through several more – because when I take an interest in something, I find myself needing to know everything about it! What have your education journeys been like, and how did you end up in Classical Studies?

Hilary: I came to Classical Studies as a natural (to me) progression from Astrophysics and Theology… I know it seems strange, but it makes sense to me! I have had a love of all things astronomy and the night sky since I was four years old and that developed into a BSc in it, and I followed this by a BD (specialising in Old Testament Lit and Lang). However I did these degrees many years ago back in the early 80s and so I have come to Classical Studies quite late in life after a career as a secondary school and then FE maths teacher and after thirteen years of also teaching Astronomy GCSE in FE. Then around fourteen years ago, I found Aristarchus of Samos, who lived around the end of the 3rd and throughout most of the 4th century BC. He was the first person who has been referred to as proposing that the Sun was at the centre of the then known Universe, and that he did this 1800 years before Copernicus did fascinated me.

After reading as much as I could for many years and considering various MA s, I came across the Classical Studies MA at the OU. I love context, and so it satisfied two aspects of study for me, studying the context of ancient cosmologies – and by context I mean, what was everyday life like for the ancient Greeks and Romans? It also gave me a way in to study more of the context of the Roman world in the time of Christ, and the events referred to in the New Testament. Of course, having come now to the end of this MA, I feel I have only just begun to dip my toe in the water…

Tony: I enrolled with the Open University in 2009 and at the time it wasn’t possible to do a degree in Classical Studies alone, so I registered for the BA (Hons) in History. Luckily for me there was a good range of modules available so I was able to tailor my degree pathway to my interests and ended up making up almost 50% of my degree with Classical Studies related modules. Starting in 2009 I studied one 60 credit module per year. I started with AA100: The Arts Past & Present, followed by A219: Exploring the Classical World. I then completed A200: Exploring History: Medieval to Modern followed by A330: Myth in the Greek & Roman World. In my final two years I studied A330: Empire, and finished my degree with A223: Early Modern Europe. So, as you can see, my degree was very varied – but I enjoyed every part of it! I caught the OU bug very shortly after enrolling on my first module so continuing with an MA in Classical Studies after my undergrad degree was finished was a no-brainer for me. Although it has taken me longer than I would’ve liked to complete my MA, owing mainly to a rather inconvenient flare-up in my OCD and anxiety, I’m very pleased to be at the stage I am now.

When I started with the OU in 2009 I wanted to get into secondary teaching. Although teaching in some form or other is still my long-term goal I now know that I’d be better suited to the type of teaching that takes place in further and/or higher education environments. Now that I’ve completed my MA, though, I’m planning a PhD, so hopefully I’ll be a student of the OU for bit a longer! I can’t honestly say with any certainty where I’ll end up after my OU journey, but I know whatever happens I’d love to be involved with Classics and Ancient History and I certainly want to continue researching. Perhaps I’ll apply to become an OU tutor!

Cora Beth: I know that in my own career as a student, and later as a teacher, I’ve had to put a lot of strategies in place to help me, because my autistic brain struggles with certain things. I’ve learned, for instance, that emails tend to overwhelm me – it can take me an hour to compose an answer to a simple query, because I find it so difficult to get my meaning across without misunderstanding. So for me, emails have to be tackled at the right time of day, and in short bursts. Do you find that you’ve had to make adjustments or invent ways of approaching your work differently, because of your neurodivergence?

Hilary: I much prefer learning in my own time and space at my own pace. I enjoy not having to engage with many other students in groups and I have enjoyed especially not having to have my webcam on during tutorials – thanks, Cora Beth, for not asking us to do this…!

This all makes me sound horribly unsociable! I am quite sociable really – but in particular ways when I have the energy to be so, and not in groups or crowds. I did attend one OU conference and it was really lovely to meet people but it also wiped me out for a week or two afterwards so there is a cost to being social around more than three people. The flexibility of the OU also allows study to fit in around work, which is the other major reason it works so well for me.

Tony: I suppose I’ve subconsciously adapted my study methods to appease my OCD and anxiety. For example, one problem I have resulting from my OCD is that I seek perfection in anything I do, or in this case, anything I write which is both physically and mentally exhausting. I’ve tried hard to accept that there’s a point when a piece of work is as good as it needs to be but this just doesn’t work for me so I still strive for perfection. Because my writing style (not sure if ‘style’ is the best word to describe this though!), is a relentless cycle of write, review, delete and repeat, it takes me much longer to get a polished piece of work across the finish line ready for submission. For this reason, over the years I’ve had to be very pro-active in my approach to TMAs. I would start early and work on the little but often approach. I tended to write my TMAs as I worked through the module readings, ending up with a conglomeration of ideas which I could then mould into a coherent piece of work. This approach was exhausting and time consuming, but it was the only workable method I could use.

Luckily for me, I developed a better approach throughout my MA. I still massively over complicated things and made my life very hard, but it worked better for me. I’m still striving for the elusive ‘perfect’ approach (I’m not even sure that exists), and hopefully if I do get on a PhD programme, I’ll have the time to work on that. Despite my convoluted processes though, I always seemed to produce very good work which was at least a reward for the hours I spent polishing my essays. 

Cora Beth: You’re both serving on the Editorial Board of Asterion, alongside neurodivergent classicists from schools and universities around the UK and overseas. Why do you think an organisation representing neurodiversity is needed in Classics?

Tony: Despite a great deal of hard work and tireless effort by a lot of very committed people in our field, the word ‘Classics’ still carries lots of negative connotations, and the perception of it being an ‘exclusive club’ of sorts still persists. Although our field is no longer dominated by elite white males with old-fashioned opinions, it remains difficult to shake off these historic biases. In a world where more and more people are coming to terms with their own mental health and neurodivergencies it’s never been more important to embrace this diversity in our field, particularly if it’s to survive well into the future and become an ‘all-inclusive’ discipline. Classics is a multifaceted and enormously varied area of study and researchers in our field are now regularly exploring the links between neurodiversity and the Classical World, which makes our presence as neurodivergent individuals more and more essential to the future of the discipline.

Hilary: There is a great need generally to raise awareness of neurodivergent people and how we view the world. In the world of Classical Studies – at any level of enjoyment – it is great to have a place which welcomes those who have had experiences of not fitting in anywhere. To be accepted and valued is the one thing we all need.

If you’d like to find out more about the work Asterion is doing, visit our website at https://asterion.uk/ and read our blog. We welcome enquiries and new members – so if you’d like to get in touch, do send us an email at enquiries@asterion.uk, or pitch us an article at content@asterion.uk!