INTERVIEW WITH JENNY HU · Summer 2022 · Torch: U.S.
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long ago events. I think it does bring clarity to think about those things through that lens of DEI and through that lens of humanization."
In one of your recommendations you suggest that teachers expand the idea of “classical civilizations” past ancient Rome and Greece. We as the
NJCL board have discussed this previously but
struggled to determine what our role is, and how narrow or broad our focus can and should be. What are your thoughts on this?
Jenny Hu: "That’s a difficult question. I think traditionally because the 'classics' is such a vague term, it's such a vague study, you know we have the languages, the civilizations, the history, the culture, the myth, I can understand why institutions have limited this idea of the classics to Greece and Rome. One argument I've heard is 'If we get too broad we’re not going to have any specific focus. That's what the other ancient history departments are for.' But I think when we study the classics it's really impossible to separate Greece and Rome from the other— their contemporary civilizations, especially because so much of certain time periods were made up of a rise in globalization and interactions between cultures; even in the texts we read we see those interactions taking place. We see those blends happening, and I guess one way of thinking about it that I personally find really interesting is actually the mindset of the classics department I’m going into this fall, which is that Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit come from the same indo european mother tongue. They're actually derived from the same language family, and so those three are kind of held up as classical languages because they do share a root. I think that's a cool way of thinking about it. Others have said, you know, we need to bring in classic China, we need to bring in Persia, and we need to bring in all sorts of civilizations around the world, and I just think its really important that when we study the
classics, no matter what that word means for any particular program and scope, that we remember the importance of globalization and the influence of these cross-cultural interactions at the time."
You offer a variety of different articles and novels in your article. Do you have any personal favorites and why?
Jenny Hu: "Well, I mentioned Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s article earlier; I think that’s just such an eye-opening read as, like, a first step in a way. Dr. Denise McCoskey’s book is excellent. She was actually such a huge help in assembling the document, and she has a really valuable perspective on how race affected the classical world and how race ideas from the classical world continue to affect us today. It's just a fascinating read, and then the blog Ad Aequiora on Medium is excellent. There's so many articles on there that talk about all sorts of aspects of DEI in classics so you can just spend hours scrolling on there."
Do you think the fact that this document was student-written will make its impact greater and more profound?
Jenny Hu: "I really hope so. The OJCL board was also very helpful in the process, you know, like reading through, making sure things make sense, being like, 'Oh, we should add this. We should supplement this,' and I think students have a really particular perspective especially in this time right now, in this present moment. I think those of us who have studied latin while so many other social movements are rising up, I think we have a really acute sense of urgency in terms of what needs to be done in the field for it to survive and in terms of what this field has tolerated for a long time and shouldn't tolerate any more. I think that the fact that the document is student-produced gives it that lens, that urgency, compared to, you know, if we’d been alive for a lot longer we might be more used to it, we might be more accustomed to the way things are right now."