Ancient History, and Classics moreso, is a white-dominated field. When a laptop had a bottle of coca cola knocked over it by a passer by in the Institute of Classical Studies library, my description of a 'white male, 30-40 years old' identified approximately 80% of the people there. BAME voices are not amplified, and this is something that must change. It has to. Without changing how we approach the ancient world, we will never have fresh perspectives. How each of us approaches history is informed by our lived experience, and if we do not promote diversity in our discipline, we will be doomed to repeat the same tired scholarship of the past. But simply embracing and encouraging diversity is not enough. Diverse approaches must be amplified.
In the last week, Zoé Elise Thomas, a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, created a Google Doc, curating scholarship of colour and about colour. It is available here. It refers to a wide range of scholarship, and a number of resources for students. Among these is Sportula.
Sportula is a microgrant funding group, aimed at supporting students is marginalised and looted communities in small expenses such as books, conferences, computing equipment and more. They began in the US, and have recently spread to Europe, the justgiving page for which is here.
Sportula's mission is one that is very close to my heart. I came to the ancient world through the free local museums, which were an easy day out for me and my siblings. The staff there spoke to me about the Romans (the Greeks didn't visit the sleepy market town I grew up in), and I listened. My summer holidays were to the (cheaper) north of England, or to Norfolk, and we visited historic sites where we could afford to. It remains a life goal to walk Hadrian's Wall. My formal education in the ancient world began at secondary school, in Year 7 (6th grade for my US followers). But I was only able to attend that private school through a country scholarship, since defunded. And even if whichever other school I went to in the local area had taught about the ancient world (they didn't, but Classics for All is a brilliant programme so they might now), they probably wouldn't have taught me in my final two years (Lower and Upper 6th Form, Junior/Senior year), where I was the only student in my Latin class. But the teacher in charge of timetabling, a man with a fearsome reputation - Mr Crampin, had a policy. If one student wanted to learn, that was enough for the class. And my Latin teachers obliged, giving me the best two years of my Latin education.
Without the generosity of others, the local museum staff, the county council, and Mr Crampin (first name a mystery), I would never have known the ancient world in all its richness. Sportula offers that helping hand, to help students have access to resources that would be otherwise inaccessible.
For further resources, please look through the ones already provided by Virginia Campbell in the latest Women's Classical Committee blog post here.
EDIT TO ADD