INTERVIEW WITH JENNY HU · Summer 2022 · Torch: U.S.
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Jenny Hu
INTERVIEW WITH
Jenny Hu
On May 30th, 2022, I had the opportunity to talk to Jenny Hu the author of the document "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Classics Studies" about her recommendations and suggestions.
For those who may be new to the DEI discussion in Classics: can you give your perspective on what changes are necessary and why?
Jenny Hu: "Well the classics, as a lot of us know, have traditionally been a very white-dominated field, very male-dominated field, very cishet-dominated field, and that’s just not— the version of the classics that is often presented and that we see in classrooms, textbooks, and in media representations, just ends up not being consistent with the truth of antiquity, and that is because of, you know, who’s run this field for so long. We all know that whole thing about history being told by the victor, the dominant party, or whoever’s in control of the narrative, so when diverse voices aren’t a part of telling the classical narrative or representing classical history then we end up with this version that’s very much whitewashed in many senses of the word, and we don't get to see a really true, accurate, and factual picture of what the classical civilizations actually looked like; that’s really damaging, for one, because we’re not learning real history, and also because it ends up making the classics very susceptible to being misused and misinterpreted by white supremecist groups as we’ve seen in the past couple of years and before and by different parties that are using this piece of history to their own advantage and in a way that it shouldn’t be used. So what we really need to see are more diverse voices in this field and also an evaluation of what actually happened historically and an evaluation of how we’ve been interpreting that history and how our own cultural biases have been shaping that."
Most students of the classics are aware of the many prejudices embedded in the texts they read, but what made you realize that you had to take action and write? Did you read a specific text or have a specific class discussion that influenced you the most to write?
Jenny Hu: "I think I’ve been really lucky to have amazing teachers and mentors in terms of the classics. We read Juvenal in a Latin class and for anyone that hasn't read Juvenal, it's a very strongly worded— his texts are very, you know, they're biting. Some people say it's satire, other people say, 'Is it really satire?' But it deals with a lot of the anti-immigrant discourse of the time. The Romans were very anti-Greek for a while and anti-poor people and there were just a lot of prejudices in that text that felt very reminiscent of prejudices of the modern day. So in looking at that text specifically and seeing those issues of today mirrored in the classics I started doing some reading online, and I found this white supremecist website that was using Juvenal to make some points and I was like, 'That is really messed up.' And so I was talking to my teachers, I was talking to my mentor, and I was like, 'This kind of thing shouldnt be happening with classical texts. You know, like texts that point out prejudices in society shouldnt be used to reinforce prejudices in society.' I think Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s article is like an awakening for a lot of classics students. Also with COVID, in the OJCL specifically, we were really evaluating what was causing a decline in membership, and personally I really think that a lack of discussion about DEI and about inclusivity plays a huge part in why