Hi all, and welcome to the live tweet version of our inaugural meeting! @mercury_witch begins the meeting with a brief introduction to the purpose of the group (to give ourselves as teachers and students resources to teach difficult topics and how to address challenges) 1/
@mercury_witch then reads the mission statement of the group and explains some of the ideas in the mission statement 2/
By decentering the Classics we hope to move away from focusing on the classical world as the center of modern western culture without addressing the exceptionalism and uncritical views of this distinction (this includes the name “Classics” itself) 3/
It’s really important to step outside of ourselves and explore the potentially marginalized perspectives this view of Classics does not encompass. 4/
As a group to help with this, we are trying to make this as open access as possible. We want people to have the resources to explore this on their own as well as a place to discuss this with peers. 5/
(To aid in this we will periodically be posting links to specific articles we have been discussing in group, including some of the amazing articles from @eidolon_journal and @pharosclassics) 6/
One thing we want to make sure is that we are sensitive to the experiences our students may have that we are not aware of as well as offer them a safe space. We also want to make sure we as leaders in the classroom have the resources to answer any questions they may have. 7/
“When we don’t have a basis tor teaching a difficult topic, the only recourses we have are to ignore it, pass quickly by it, or do it badly” @Brododaktylos 8/
@ala_Camillae points out that we as PhD students have more experience with this culture than the students in our introductory level students and we don’t necessarily know how they are reacting 9/
Want to become comfortable with our own discomfort and have resources to help in that way. One way we can do this is be honest with our students and let them know that we are uncomfortable too. 10/
@i_nurmi points out that this has been an effective way to engage students on these topics because it validates their opinions and feelings. 11/
@ala_Camillae also suggests inserting a trigger warning at the beginning of a syllabus and allow students to be open with you and gives them time to self evaluate their ability to participate that day 12/
This shows the students that you trust them and treat them as self-aware adults. 13/
If you are leading a discussion section and can’t necessarily write a trigger warning in your syllabus you can either write a “blurb” (@ala_Camillae) or flag readings that might be difficult in an email well in advance (@rympasco) 14/
In the same vein we need to be careful not to cross any professional/legal lines. Know what you are able and allowed to deal with. 15/
What reactions might we see? For example, if you give a trigger warning about sexual assault, statistics show that 20-40% of female students have experienced sexual assault (stastistics from RAINN say 23.1% of female undergrads, 5.4% male, from a 2015 report) 16/
On the topic of tw: suicide, joking about such things can be traumatic and so can treating them flippantly. There is also a potential to glorify suicide in classical studies 17/
Another important subject is what to do if your student is the one causing discomfort in the classroom. One suggestion is to just be firm with them and tell them that what they are doing is not cool. You still need to be delicate—treat it as a teachable moment @mercury_witch 18/
Interrogate why they’re thinking that way and use it to inform your discussion (which, as a bonus, can help students develop critical thinking skills) 19/
Being aware of what your gut reaction is because that can help you mound how the discussion follows from there. The basic concept is to not escalate the argument with your own reaction. 20/
To sum up the session, and the two articles we read, @i_nurmi says that we should walk away knowing that what we do and say in class matters and impacts students, even if they don’t seem to be paying attention) 21/
Be a good ambassador of the Classics. We want to make sure that anyone who wants to be involved in classics should feel welcome. 22/
This live tweet brought to you by @duxfeminafacti9 23/
