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Our Summer School 2020 has now come to a close! We are immensely proud to have achieved what 5 months ago seemed fairly impossible. A team of 28 incredibly passionate people came together, produced and delivered two weeks of lessons and lectures to 71 students who would otherwise not have access to a Classical Education.
In light of the cancellation of many Classical Summer Schools with some proceeding online at extortionate rates, it is an incredible feat to have run a fully operational, educational programme for free. What started as an idea without money or resources amid a pandemic has now been transformed into a website with funding, a host of students, 28 staff members and a virtual learning platform with over 125 hours of teaching material. Our most remarkable feat remains how many children have been inspired to take on Classical Studies. We have heard aspiring medics who believed STEM careers would be more stable and rewarding highlight the value of Classics as a discipline.
The Classes
Students have been receiving an all-round tour reading Lucan with Ramani and Virgil with Zarifah. While in Ancient Greek Literature, Jude has been discussing the popular topic, Witchcraft in Ancient Greek Literature.
Classes have also covered important areas such as the geography and infrastructure of the Roman Empire as well as the Political differences between Republic and Empire with Liljana and Chloe. Finally, there have been discussions of Greek political writing with Kitty and Greek Social History with Ella.
The Talks
Over the last two weeks, we have welcomed 12 phenomenal guest speakers from various backgrounds and institutions to speak to our students. Every guest has been pleasantly surprised by our organisation and we have already received offers of future talks! Here are the latest talks from the last two days:
Thursday
Chloë Griggs - 'Judaism and Christianity in the Ancient World'
Chloë's talk discussed the importance of religious practices in the Ancient World, discussing how deities were often flawed but nonetheless how without proper religious practice, the state would collapse - Cicero's words! The talk then moved on to the key differences between Roman religion and Christianity or Judaism and how the Roman state later converted to Christianity.
Dr. Andrew Brown
An insight into his personal journey into archaeology followed by a focus on Roman coins found in Britain and the portable antiquities schemes (PAS). The PAS database to which 320,000 Roman coins have now been uploaded is revolutionising the way we view Roman Britain!
Friday
Emma Bentley - 'Representations of Hephaestus'
Emma discussed how Hephaestus' character evolved over time in the Ancient World from crafty intelligence in Epic to an association with Comic and Satyre drama earning him a slapstick role in Alcaeus of Mitylene's play Ganymede.
Prof. Edith Hall - 'Cyclopes; ancient and modern'
An engaging talk on Cyclopes and their representation in homer and beyond from a post-colonial lens.
As is now traditional, we leave you with a quote from Arlene Holmes-Henderson:
'A Classicist can do anything.'
Thank you to all our students and donors who have made this possible and please keep following us on social media for more updates!
