Announcement of Workshop and Call for Papers: ‘Towards a more Inclusive Classics III – Material Culture’, 28-30 June 2023. An Inclusive Classics Initiative hybrid workshop organised by Dr Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis (University of St Andrews) and Dr Tulsi Parikh (British School at Athens), hosted by the Institute of Classical Studies and supported by CUCD EDI Committee.
The third ‘Towards a more Inclusive Classics’ workshop is focused on the theme of Material Culture. It addresses the issue of barriers to accessing classical material culture and explores approaches that foreground marginalised perspectives. It offers a forum for integrated discussions between those working at different stages and in different sectors related to classical material culture. Speakers will include students, academics, schoolteachers, archaeologists, and those working in museums and in outreach. The format of the workshop is hybrid, consisting of two online half days and one in-person day (29 June) in the ICS / British Museum. Online presentations will be in the form of pre-submitted materials (e.g. a short written paper, recorded talk, PowerPoint, handout) followed by live short talks (c.10 mins) and discussion. These will take place on 28 and 30 June; abstracts of c.150 words are invited for the following panels:
(1) The ‘INCLUSIVE EXCAVATION PRACTICES’ panel is devoted to the ways in which we can build more diverse and inclusive archaeological practices, beginning with the work done in the field. Suggested topics include antiracist archaeology, disability in archaeology, and collaboration with the public.
(2) The ‘DECOLONISING THE MUSEUM’ panel combines discussion of decolonising the museum with personal experiences in museums, foregrounding marginalised voices. A discussion on repatriation will be included here.
(3) The ‘QUEERING ARCHAEOLOGY’ panel challenges heteronormative and cisnormative ways of studying the past and experiencing material culture.
(4) The ‘PUBLIC ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY’ panel considers how we can use classical objects in innovative ways to bring together different, often marginalised, parts of the community, cutting across different sectors.
(5) We are also seeking expressions of interest from teachers for participation in a roundtable on ‘CLASSICAL MATERIAL CULTURE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS’.
Please send abstracts and expressions of interest for the roundtable to Tulsi and Alexia (inclusiveclassics@gmail.com) by 20 January 2023. We aim to respond by 28 February. We particularly welcome abstracts from early career scholars, and those currently underrepresented in the field, including Black, Asian and those from other minority ethnic communities, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and academics with disabilities. If you would like to be added to the Inclusive Classics email list do get in touch. We hope to advertise student bursaries towards attending the in-person event nearer the time.