THE OJCL TORCH: FALL EDITION 21
Emily Greenwood is a professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Greenwood was formerly John M. Musser Professor of Classics and Chair of the Department of Classics at Yale University. Her research focuses on ancient Greek prose literature, postcolonialism, and classical reception in Africa. She has written multiple books including Afro Greeks: Dialogues between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the Twentieth Century (2010). Greenwood writes about how certain classical transitions avoid conversations about race, including those of Aristotle.
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, an associate professor of classics at Princeton, researches and teaches the Roman Republic and classical reception. He majored in Classics and studied Rome and Greece when attending Princeton University. Peralta speaks openly about the harm the classical justifications of slavery, race science, colonialism, Nazism, and other 20th-century fascisms cause. Dan-el Padilla Peralta has written a few books including Divine Institutions: Religious and Community in the Middle Roman Republic (2020).
Diversity helps to destroy harmful stereotypes and brings new ways of thinking and different experiences to the conversation. Different perspectives promote creativity and lead to better problem-solving. This is why supporting and celebrating female and BIPOC classicists such as Yung In Chea, Emily Greenwood, and Dan-el Padilla Peralta is crucial.