Q & A with Caroline Bristow
1 . Who introduced the idea to diversify the latest edition of the Cambridge Latin textbook ? How was it executed ? What were the steps taken to do so ?
I took over the leadership of the Cambridge School Classics Project ( CSCP ) – who author the Cambridge Latin Course ( CLC ) - in 2017 . I was already pitching a new edition for the rest of the world ( North America had just had a new one in 2015 ) in my interview . It took me a while to convince everyone that it was needed , but I got there . I knew that taking a more inclusive approach and improving diversity was important to me , and our surveys of both teachers and students showed that many of them agreed . For example , when I went into schools I was sad to hear young female students say that they made up their own stories about the women in the books because they found the stories about them so unsatisfying . Once North American educators became aware of our work , they
expressed a wish to also have a new version which incorporated these changes . I am incredibly lucky to have a small team of people at CSCP who all are committed
to widening accessibility to Classics . The genius behind many of the new stories is my colleague Lisa Hay ; I could not ask for a more reflective and thoughtful person to work alongside . We have a couple of extra writers working externally ; specialist academics reviewing all the stories and cultural material ; and several educators who offered their views on specific areas , such as approaches to teaching about enslavement .
Every element of the books is also shown to a larger panel of teachers to get their feedback . One of the most important things we have done is used sensitivity readers , I think we might be the first Latin textbook to do this . Sensitivity readers are individuals from affected groups who read the material and offer feedback to improve representation . Such a process is flawed of course ( one or two people cannot speak for a whole community ) but it helps to ensure that at least some people affected by issues within the content have had a say in its writing . One of our sensitivity readers , Pria Jackson , wrote a blog post for us about her experience .