Why the Roehampton Classics Department is Important

Why the Roehampton Classics Department is Important

    I have a long history with Roehampton University. I studied my Undergraduate in 2010-2013 and came back to do my PhD in 2017, which is currently ongoing. I'll have studied here for seven years by the end of my PhD! It's very sad for me to see the University's recent statement that they will drastically cut funds from the Arts and Humanities. I'm turning thirty next year and so Roehampton has been a part of my life on and off for a third of the time I have been alive. I think it can easily be forgotten that we students don't see University courses as just a ticket to a better paid job. Even my Undergraduate cohort talk about Roehampton Classics as an important part of their identity, despite it being a long time since they graduated. No matter the reason, department cuts is immensely sad for us students, including alumni.

    I have studied at both a modern university (Roehampton) and a traditional one (Durham). From my experience, the teaching at both institutions was equally excellent. The research by Roehampton Classics has always been internationally recognised and over the last few years there have been major monographs and volumes published (Kathryn Tempest's Brutus: The Noble Conspirator and Shushma Malik's The Nero-Antichrist: Founding and Fashioning a Paradigm just off the top of my head). I know that even some popular books have been published by those who have been members of the Humanities Department (I'm thinking immediately of Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman). Senior Management should be proud that they have a department who produce excellent research and consistently receive outstanding student satisfaction reports (as can be seen in the university league tables).

    I'm sure the above information isn't news for anyone who is reading this blog post. So let me tell you a story from my own experience. When I joined Roehampton I had no Latin knowledge whatsoever. The Roehampton Classics staff are especially good at teaching intensive language courses because they are experienced in working with students who have come to the subject with little or no Latin or Greek. At Roehampton, some students have never even studied a Classical subject before. I took the Latin course over the three years of my Undergraduate and learned the fundamentals of the language, which I have developed in my MA and PhD. I'm now preparing to go into Latin teaching! I wouldn't be reading Roman and Greeks texts in their original language in my PhD now if it wasn't for that three year Latin course which I took during my Roehampton Undergraduate degree. I think this is a really good representation of why Roehampton Classics offers a valuable service. We know that making Classics more accessible to those in the state sector is of utmost importance. Classics departments such as those at Roehampton, which have predominantly state school educated students on their programmes, can introduce young people to aspects of the ancient world which they did not have the opportunity to study at school. We should celebrate the Classics department at Roehampton for improving the current situation of the discipline, not defund it.

    I worry that the cuts in Arts and Humanities at Roehampton could lead to a precedent where other Classics departments, which similarly teach students from the state sector, also start to downsize. I see this as a real crossroads for the future of our discipline. There is some great work being done to introduce Classics to the state school sector (Edith Hall and Arlene Holmes-Henderson at ACE; Classics for All), but this has always been a long, arduous task and one which needs government support. Classics Degrees which are offered by universities such as Roehampton always represented a symbol of hope for me. Universities can introduce those from the state sector to Classics right now, even those who may never have had a chance to formally study it before. If we lose these departments then we will be set back by decades. If you care about giving all students the opportunity to learn about the Ancient World then you should not defund Classics programmes at universities such as Roehampton.


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