Talk Description:

Public-facing work is essential as the continuation of our field(s) depends on developing robust public support for our scholarly mission and because if we are not active in reaching out to the public, we risk surrendering the public square and the public’s understanding of antiquity to the often untrained and sometimes even malign voices eager to take our place. The benefits of public scholarship for the health of the field are obvious: engaging with classics enthusiasts outside the discipline, showing the continuing relevance of the field, bringing fresh and unorthodox methods and perspectives. The speakers will share their experience in this area and discuss practices of outreach. One side of public scholarship that doesn’t get discussed as much is how much fun it can be. This workshop will explore the joy that comes from following the unexpected threads connecting your research with your random passions and interests, and how enjoyable and affirming it can be to share those connections with others.

Biographies:

Bret Deveraux is an ancient and military historian, currently a teaching assistant professor at North Carolina State University. His research focuses on imperialism and warfare in the third- and second-century Mediterranean. His public-facing work began with his weekly history blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, launched in 2019, where he writes every Friday on a range of topics at the broad intersection of ancient history, military history and popular culture. The popularity of that project, averaging around 60,000 readers in any given month, ended up opening doors to reach the public in other venues, such as through podcast guest appearances or writing for larger publications, most frequently for Foreign Policy but also The Atlantic, The Bulwark, The Dispatch, The National Interest, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times.

Donna Zuckerberg is the author of Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age (Harvard University Press, 2018). She received her Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University in 2014. In 2015 she created Eidolon, an award-winning publication for fresh and progressive longform essays about Classics. She served as the publication’s editor-in-chief until it closed in 2020. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the TLS, and many other mainstream and peer-reviewed publications. She is currently working on a memoir, Antiquated: Gender, Marriage, and Other Myths I Used to Love (Simon & Schuster), and on a weekly newsletter, Myth Takes.

This talk will not be available on zoom and will not be recorded.