This is an ongoing bibliography on antiracism and teaching that is collectively curated by MRECC throughout the year. The goal is to increase awareness and meaningful engagement with current antiracism resources including books, articles, blogs, interviews, and podcasts. The categories below are arranged intentionally to encourage readers to engage heavily with resources produced outside of Classics. We prioritize publications by Black authors, Indigenous authors, and People of Color (BIPOC). Links are provided to open-access materials wherever possible to increase access and engagement. We hope this arrangement inspires you to take action and learn new ways to reimagine Classics pedagogy by joining the ongoing conversations with teachers, scholars, and activists in other fields and around the world.
Please send suggestions for additions or changes to multiculturalclassics@gmail.com. We also welcome you to share with us how you are using these materials to inform your teaching and your students.
Table of Contents
- Antiracism
- Antiracist Teaching outside Classics
- Teaching about Race & Racism outside Classics
- Fictional Works on Race & Racism outside Classics
- Personal Narratives from Classics Scholars
- Antiracist Teaching & Research in Classics
- White Supremacy & Classics
ANTIRACISM
Anderson, C. (2017). White rage: The unspoken truth about our racial divide. NYC: Bloomsbury Publishers.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2017). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America (5th ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Coates, T-N. (2017). We were eight years in power: An American tragedy. NYC: One World.
Coates, T-N. (2015). Between the world and me. NYC: Spiegel & Grau.
Coates, T-N. (June 2014). “The case for reparations.” The Atlantic.
Cooper, B. (2018). Eloquent rage: A Black feminist discovers her superpower. NYC: St. Martin’s Press.
Davis, A. Y. (ed.). (2017) Policing the Black man. NYC: Pantheon Books.
Davis, A. Y. (2016). If they come in the morning…: Voices of resistance. Radical thinkers series. NYC: Verso Books.
Davis, A. Y. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Davis, A. Y. (2012). The meaning of freedom and other difficult dialogues. San Francisco: Open Media Series.
Davis, A. Y. (1998). Blues legacies and Black feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. NYC: Pantheon Books.
Davis, A. Y. (1981). Women, race & class. NYC: Vintage Books.
Jennings, M. E. (2015). Auditioning for whiteness: Autoethnography and critical race theory in the early schooling experiences of an African-American man. In M.A. Khalifa & F. Briscoe, (Eds.), Becoming Critical: The Emergence of Social Justice Scholars (pp. 23-35). Albany: SUNY Press.
Haley, S. P. & C. Pollock (2018). “When I Enter’: Disrupting the White, Heteronormative Narrative of Librarianship” in Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, eds. Rose L. Chou & Anna Pho. Sacramento: Litwin Books and Library Juice Press.
Haley, S. P. & M. Paludi (2012). “Scientific Racism.” Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, York, England: Springer Reference, December.
Hartman, S. V. (2007). Lose your mother: A journey along the Atlantic slave route. NYC: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. NYC: One World.
Kendi, I. X. (2016) Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. NYC: Nation Books.
Kolbert, E. (2018, April). “There’s no scientific basis for race – It’s a made-up label.” In The Race Issue. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-genetics-science-africa/?user.testname=none.
Levad, A. (2012). Restorative justice: Theories and practices of moral imagination. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC.
Noel, J. (2012). Stereotyping, prejudice, and racism. In J. Noel (Ed.), Multicultural Education Third edition, (pp. 56-59). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Oluo, I. (2019). So you want to talk about race. NYC: Seal Press.
Saad, L. F. (2020). Me and white supremacy: Combat racism, change the world, and become a good ancestor. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.
Sekora, J. (1987). Black message/White envelope: Genre, authenticity, and authority in the antebellum slave narrative. Callaloo, No. 32, pp. 482-515
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microagressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Van Ausdale, D. V., & Feagin, J. R. (2001). The first R: How children learn race and racism. New York, NY: Roman & Littlefield.
ANTIRACIST TEACHING OUTSIDE CLASSICS
Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.M.A. (2010). Multicultural education: issues and perspectives. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Banks, J.A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.A.M. (2004). Handbook of research on multicultural education (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Banks, J.A. Cookson, P., Gay, G., Hawley, W.D., Irvine, J.J., Nieto, S., Stephan, W.G. (2001). Diversity within Unity: Essential Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society. The Phi Delta Kappan, 83 (3), pp. 196-203.
Banks, J.A. (1995). The historical reconstruction of knowledge about race: Implications for transformative teaching. Educational Researcher, 24 (2), pp. 15-25.
Coffin, C. (2005). Constructing and giving value to the past: an investigation into secondary school history. In F. Christie and J. R. Martin (eds.), Genres and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and in school (pp. 196-230). London: Cassell.
Coffin, C. & R. Veel. (1996). Learning to think like an historian: The language of secondary school history, pp. 191-231 in Hasan, R. and G. Williams, eds. Literacy in Society. New York: Longman.
Davidman, L., & Davidman, P.T. (1994). Teaching with a multicultural perspective: A practical guide. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Foreman, P.G,. et al. “Writing about Slavery/Teaching about Slavery: This Might Help,” community-sourced document. Accessed March 16, 2019. 6:45 pm EST. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A4TEdDgYslX-hlKezLodMIM71My3KTN0zxRv0IQTOQs/mobilebasic.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NYC: Continuum.
Gee, J. P. (2015). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. 5th Edition. NYC: Routledge.
Hendry, R. (2009). Building and restoring respectful relationships in school: A guide to using restorative practice. London: Routledge.
Hollweck, T., Reimer, K., & Bouchard, K. (2019). A missing piece: Embedding restorative justice and relational pedagogy into the teacher education classroom. The New Educator, 15 (3), pp. 246-267.
Kernahan, C. (2019). Teaching about race and racism in the college classroom: Notes from a white professor. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press.
Posselt, J. R. (2016). Inside graduate admissions: Merit, diversity, and faculty gatekeeping. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Southern Poverty Law Center. (2018). Teaching hard history: American slavery. Montgomery, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center.
TEACHING ABOUT RACE & RACISM OUTSIDE CLASSICS
Eggins, S., Wignell, P. & Martin, J. R. (1993). The discourse of history: distancing the recoverable past. In M. Grades say (ed.), Register analysis: Theory and practice (London: Pinter Publishers), 75-109.
Fang, Z. & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2008). Reading in secondary content areas: A language-based pedagogy. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Jeffries, H. K. and D. C. Owens. “Diverse Experience of the Enslaved,” Teaching Hard History: American Slavery. Podcast audio, 2018. https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/podcast.
Moya, P. L., & Hamedani, M. G. (2017). Learning to read race: Multicultural literature can foster racial literacy and empower students. California English, 22 (4), pp. 10-13.
Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2010). Creating multicultural learning communities. In Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.M.A. (Eds.), Multicultural education: issues and perspectives (pp. 187-190). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Nieto, S. (2005a). Why we teach. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Nieto, S. (2005b). Affirming diversity: A conversation with Sonia Nieto, Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Teacher Education and Practice, 18 (2), pp. 175-184.
FICTIONAL WORKS ON RACE & RACISM OUTSIDE CLASSICS
Adichie, C. N. (2013). Americanah. NYC: Alfred A. Knopf.
Baldwin, J. (2013). Go tell it on the mountain. NYC: Vintage International. Originally published 1953.
Butler, O. E. (2009). Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press. Originally published 1979.
Jones, K. & G. Segal. (2019) I’m not dying with you tonight. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Fire.
PERSONAL NARRATIVES FROM CLASSICS SCHOLARS
Catenaccio, C. (Interviewer) & Haley, S. (Interviewee). (2020). Women in Classics: A conversation with Shelley Haley: Part I [Interview blog]. Retrieved from https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/claire-catenaccio/blog-women-classics-conversation-scs-president-elect-shelley-haley-part-i.
Catenaccio, C. (Interviewer) & Haley, S. (Interviewee). (2020). Women in Classics: A conversation with Shelley Haley: Part II [Interview blog]. Retrieved from https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/claire-catenaccio/blog-women-classics-conversation-shelley-haley-part-ii.
Lepisto, S. (Interviewer) & Murray, J. (Interviewee). (2019, January 10). Episode 12 – Jackie Murray. Itinera Podcast. Podcast retrieved from http://itinerapodcast.libsyn.com/episode-12-jackie-murray.
Padilla Peralta, D. (2019, January 7). Some thoughts on AIA-SCS 2019. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@danelpadillaperalta/some-thoughts-on-aia-scs-2019-d6a480a1812a.
ANTIRACIST TEACHING & RESEARCH IN CLASSICS
Bostick, D. (2019, October 29). The shame of mock slave auctions in secondary classrooms. Sententiae Antiquae. https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2019/10/29/the-shame-of-mock-slave-auctions-in-secondary-classics/.
Bostick, D. (2018, February 23). Teaching slavery in the high school Latin classroom. Medium. https://medium.com/in-medias-res/teaching-slavery-in-the-high-school-latin-classroom-ce4146827abe.
Bracey, J. (October 12, 2017). “Why Students of Color Don’t Take Latin: Dispatches from the Front Lines.” Eidolon. Retrieved from https://eidolon.pub/why-students-of-color-dont-take-latin-4ddee3144934.
Di Giulio, T. (2020, January 10). “Five Tips for Teaching Racial Competency with Racially Biased Textbooks: A 21st Century Skill for Classicists.” Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/ad-meliora/five-tips-for-teaching-racial-competency-with-racially-biased-textbooks-708706aa04cc.
Dugan, K. P. (2020). Antiracism and restorative justice in Classics pedagogy: Race, slavery, and the function of language in beginning Greek and Latin textbooks. [Dissertation, University of Georgia]. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.
Dugan, K. P. (2019). The “happy slave” narrative and Classics pedagogy: A verbal and visual analysis of beginning Greek and Latin textbooks. New England Classical Journal 46 (1), pp. 62-87.
Greenwood, E. (2010). Afro-Greeks: Dialogues between Anglophone Caribbean literature and Classics in the twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Haley, S. P. (2009). “Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies,” in Laura Nasrallah and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (eds.), Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, 4 Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, pp. 27-50
Haley, S. P. (1993). “Black Feminist Thought and Classics: Re-membering, Re-claiming, Re-empowering” in Feminist Theory and the Classics, eds. Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz & Amy Richlin, New York & Oxford: Routledge.
Kennedy, R.F. Classics at the Intersections. [Blog]. – provides teaching resources, bibliography, syllabi, and reflections on race & ethnicity in Classics.
Kennedy, R. F. (2017, September 11). Why I teach about race and ethnicity in the classical world. Eidolon. Retrieved from https://eidolon.pub/why-i-teach-about-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-classical-world-ade379722170.
Levine, M. M. (1992). Multiculturalism and the Classics. Arethusa, 25 (1), pp. 215-220.
McCoskey, D. (1999). Answering the multicultural imperative: A course on race and ethnicity in antiquity. Classical World, 92, pp. 553-561.
Rankine, P. (2020). Classics For All? Liberal Education and the Matter of Black Lives. In Moyer, Lecznar, Morse (eds.), Classicisms in the Black Atlantic (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 267-90.
Rankine, P. (2006). Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Robinson, E. (2017, September 25). “The slaves were happy”: High school Latin and the horrors of Classical Studies. Eidolon. Retrieved from https://eidolon.pub/the-slaves-were-happy-high-school-latin-and-the-horrors-of-classical-studies-4e1123649916.
Ronnick, M. (2019). William Sanders Scarborough’s First Lessons in Greek: A Facsimile of the 1881 First Edition. Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci.
Ronnick, M. (2011). “Black Classicism: ‘Tell Them We Are Rising,’” Classical Journal 106, pp. 359-70
Ronnick, M. (2011). “Saintly Souls:” White Teachers’ Instruction of Greek and Latin to African American Freedmen,” Free At Last! The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire, eds. Teresa Ramsby and Sinclair Bell, Gerald Duckworth & Co., pp. 177-208.
Ronnick, M. (Winter/Spring 2010-2011). “African American Classicist William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926) and the 1921 Film of the Oresteia at Cambridge University,” Comparative Drama: Special Issue on ‘Translation, Performance, and Reception of Greek Drama, 1900-1950: International Dialogues,” (ed.) Amanda Wrigley, pp. 531-532.
Ronnick, M. (2010). “Virgil in the Black American Experience,” in The Blackwell Companion to Virgil, eds. Michael C. J. Putnam and Joseph Farrell, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 376-390.
Ronnick, M. (2006). The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ronnick, M. (2005). The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Ryan, A. M. (2012). Consiliō et animīs: Tracing a path to social justice through the Classics. Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Publishing.
WHITE SUPREMACY & CLASSICS
Barnard, J. L. (2017). Empire of Ruin; Black Classicism and American Imperial Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bond, S.E. (2018a, August 30). The misuse of an ancient Roman acronym by White nationalist groups. Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/457510/the-misuse-of-an-ancient-roman-acronym-by-white-nationalist-groups/.
Bond, S.E. (2018b, September 15). Signs of the times: Ancient symbols reused by hate groups. Medium. https://medium.com/@SarahEBond/signs-of-the-times-ancient-symbols-reused-by-hate-groups-832719a00eea.
Bond, S.E. (2018c, May 7). This is not Sparta: Why the modern romance with Sparta is a bad one. Eidolon. https://eidolon.pub/this-is-not-sparta-392a9ccddf26.
Bostick, D. (May 12, 2020). Revisiting Rent-a-Roman: An Interview with Jermaine Bryant About Junior Classical League Slave Auctions. Medium.com https://medium.com/ad-meliora/revisiting-rent-a-roman-an-interview-with-jermaine-bryant-on-junior-classical-league-slave-7a398d8e4fb7
Bostick, D. (2020) Not For All: Nostalgic Distortions as a Weapon of Segregation in Secondary Classics. AJP 141: 2, 283-306
Dozier, C. Pharos. [Blog] – documents appropriation by hate groups & addresses false information.
Hairston, E. A. 2016. The ebony column: Classics, civilization, and the African American reclamation of the West. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
Haley, Shelley P. (1989) “Classics and Minorities”, Classics: A Discipline and Profession in Crisis?, ed. Phyllis Culham, Lowell Edmunds, and R. Alden Smith, pp. 333-338, Lanham MD: University Press of America.
Stewart, R. & D. Machado. “Progress and precarity: 150 years of TAPA.” TAPA Supplement, 149, 2, pp. 39-60.
Sundaram, M. & McMaster, A. (2018, January 31). Episode 52: Race and racism in ancient and medieval studies, part two: Responses. The Endless Knot. Podcast retrieved from http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2018/1/28/episode-52-race-racism-in-ancient-medieval-studies-part-two-responses.
Sundaram, M. & McMaster, A. (2018, January 17). Episode 51: Race and racism in ancient and medieval studies, part one: The Problem. The Endless Knot. Podcast retrieved from http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2018/1/16/episode-51-race-racism-in-ancient-medieval-studies-the-problem.
Zuckerberg, D. (2017, October 5). “Learn some f*cking history.” Retrieved from https://eidolon.pub/learn-some-f-cking-history-94f9a02041d3.
Zuckerberg, D. (2016, November 21). How to be a good classicist under a bad emperor. Eidolon. Retrieved from https://eidolon.pub/how-to-be-a-good-classicist-under-a-bad-emperor-6b848df6e54a.
Multiculturalism, Race & Ethnicity in Classics Consortium (MRECC) 