Category: Education

Harvard’s Claudia Goldin awarded Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences – Harvard Gazette

The Henry Lee Professor was honored for her research on women in the workplace.

— Read on news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/10/harvard-claudia-goldin-recognized-with-nobel-in-economic-sciences/

One of the very few women awarded a Nobel in economics, and the only one to do so alone, that is, not in the company of a male colleague. Perhaps, with this, Claudia Goldin may become a role model in encouraging women into a profession and a branch of academics in which they remain underrepresented.

I have downloaded this, her latest publication (for the National Bureau of Economic Research), tracing women’s historical and social status in the workplace in the United States. A hefty piece for sure – with lots of numbers and graphs and things – but may be well worth the effort.

A loss worthy of a lament

A short while ago I had my say on this, from afar and detached but nevertheless troubled. Now, I discover an article at the Antigone Journal by one very much attached, and much more troubled at the loss – the loss of an opportunity to participate, even lead, in reshaping the study of the ancient and classical world as one of the foundations of learning (for everyone).

Anika Prather’s piece is a very personal lament at the demise of the Classics Department at Howard University; until now the only such existing at a H.B.C.U., and one of the founding departments of the university in 1867. Prather, a Howard graduate (though not a Classics major), and more recently an adjunct professor there, records the profound influence her engagement with Classics at Howard had upon her (as it did Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston before her), and the role it played in offering an alternative version of what a person, any person, could be; freeing her from the constraints of society and emboldening her to aspire to the best version of herself – into a confident, searching, questioning Black woman. Really a heck of an endorsement.

Dare I say, Prather’s loyalty to Howard is such that she may be more restrained than I; for I have mused unto myself in recent weeks, that the timing begs to suggest that cost cutting was probably in order to finance other personnel and departmental obligations that are, shall we say, more splashy. (Mentioned by me in this recent blog entry.) The University has stated that various Classics related courses will be incorporated over a range of departments, and though that sounds a bit wishy-washy to me, perhaps the powers that be will come up with an acceptable arrangement, and I hope they are held to their commitment.

Having dared say, now, may I say; I bet if there was still a Classics department at Howard, at least one of its new appointments would be stealing into lectures at every opportunity and doing a sly course of study. Ta-Nehisi Coates could not help but be enthralled by gods and goddesses and the games they play, and mortal man and woman and the dead languages they speak. And all their shared conceits and contrary whims and delusions of grandeur – and some with hearts and souls that really are grand. Coates placement in the English Department may offer some promise that ancient narratives and ideas will indeed find a way into other courses of study – albeit in an interdisciplinary fashion.

Niche is nice, but …

…unfortunately, not only niche, but abbreviated. I thought I would be granted one admittance to the TLS this month – but no such luck! But, as far as I could read, the gist is; when Professor Beard was at school, girls were taught Ancient Greek without accents – pondering the rationale (!) behind that is really interesting indeed! Mind you, it didn’t do Mary’s brilliant career much harm; or maybe it did force the direction – after all, her specialisation did become that of the Romans and Latin does not have (at least not in written text) those pesky diacritical marks of Greek. And she does say, that to this very day, she feels somehow deprived, and is adamant it is a technique that must be learnt from the git go.

Where I am concerned, the truth of course is – with or without (accents) – it remains all Greek to me!

Not wasted though was this return visit to Twitter, for I picked up mention of a very new site, called Antigone, dedicated to making Classics accessible to a greater audience. A quick browse through suggests lots of good reading, and they are even able to offer help for those (like Mary!) struggling with accents.

The way to go!

An opportunity to write a few words on the magnificent Mary Beard will I not turn down!

As a field of study, “Classics” was an elite pursuit even before elite was a dirty word, and certainly doesn’t have it easy in the highly competitive environment of a contemporary higher education system that focuses more on career paths and professional development than on the humanistic (and less obvious) attributes and skill-sets attached to the study of ancient “systems” and “dead” languages. How I bemoan that I had not in my youth the imagination to contemplate such a dead end journey! Alas!

In this respect, as reported in The Guardian, Mary Beard’s (upcoming) retirement gift to Cambridge University, is a thoughtful and timely contribution. Acknowledging herself its relative modesty, Professor Beard does still hope that her gesture will, beyond the specific scholarships that will be offered, encourage broader interest and ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in the subject.

The way to go, Mare! – I do say. To wit, I dare say I hear the reply: Hold your horses, my dear – I’m old not dead, and ain’t goin’ nowhere! Or however that may be said in aforesaid language long said to be dead.

A classic black out

An op-ed piece …oh! excuse me – a “guest essay”… in today’s NYT alerted me to the demise of the classics department at the renowned Howard University. Two senior academics from the university defend the decision to scrap the department against criticism from without and within; the crux of their argument falling along financial grounds but also with the assurance of Howard’s continued commitment to the humanistic tradition through other departments – English, philosophy and history – and interdisciplinary paths. And, pointedly, that a H.B.C.U. does not have the luxury of NOT having to constantly review their academic programs and their viability (read: Endowment!) This, a jab in direction of what they believe to be unreflected criticism from elite sectors and the “ivory tower”.

Founders Library, Howard University.

As Howard is the only H.B.C.U. to have a classics department, its pending loss is more than unfortunate; my flitting around (digitally speaking) in the last year or so led me to believe there to be a growing interest and presence amongst minorities and women. I recall thinking that the success of some of the books being published and movies being made, suggested a renewed attraction amongst young people to mythologies and the ancient world and the stories they had to tell, and how they may be interpreted for the contemporary world. (I guess, if not zealous college recruitment, then the spectre of student loan repayments might in the end convince that computer science or bio-tech subjects are more prudent options!) On the other hand, after four years of Trump and more than a year of Covid, it is clear that the humanities have suffered the most in attracting funding, and at Howard it may be classics that loses out but elsewhere I dare say some other program.

Related, I think, are the rising tensions and the potential for conflict in classics institutes and in academic scholarship; a lot of which has to do with politics (hijacking by the right), gender (feminist or non-gendered renderings) and race.

On the latter, this is a particularly enlightening piece by Rachel Poser in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year; ostensibly about the young Princeton academic, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, and his experience as a Black student and scholar in classics. (In this respect, his opinion on the Howard decision and the future of university classics departments in general would not be uninteresting.) But Poser’s piece, beyond the personal Padilla narrative, explores the place of classics at the foundation of Western Civilisation, and what that means for the institutionalisation of ideas of race and the supremacy of Western thought in universities. Padilla says that means inherent racism and a myopic world view. I hope that is not true. Regrettably, Howard could have had an interesting role to play in a process of renewal – in making the Classics fit not just for this century but also the next.