Latest WCN News and Activities
August 2022
23-26th August 2022 Sutton Trust Summer School
In August Dr Grigsby led a stream of the Sutton Trust Summer School here at Warwick, introducing 18 students from widening participation backgrounds (students traditionally unlikely to attend university) to Classics as part of a joint offering between Classics, History of Art and Film & TV. Dr Grigsby created this innovative mixed discipline stream three years ago with Dr Sarah Walford and Dr Matt Deeny and it continues to be popular. This year the common theme in the three disciplines was sport, with Dr Grigsby leading sessions on the ancient Olympics and sport as a mirror of Ancient Greek society.
As part of the week, students created videos (below) to highlight what they had learned and which demonstrated evidence of the three strands working together.
Students at work on their group projects
Videos made by the students as their group projects can be viewed here - https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/staff/denny/sutton2022/
August 2022 - WIE Collaboration and Co-production fund - photographing of coins
The WCN has secured £3000 from the WIE to undertake a project to strengthen the relationship betwen the Dept of Classics and Warwickshire Museum. The money will be used to develop an engagement project on the Roman coin hoards displayed at Market Hall Museum. Over the summer of 2022 the coins of one of the hoards are being photographed by Warwick PhD student Campbell Orchard. Our aim is to increase public engagement with these remarkable objects and to undertake new research to bring these objects to life. Find out more about this project as it happens here.
June 2022
29th June 2022 - A. G Leventis Ancient Worlds Day
Following on from the huge success of our 2019 and 2021 A. G. Leventis Ancient Worlds Days, we were excited to be able to hold an on-campus A. G. Leventis Ancient Worlds Day on 29th June 2022. Despite continuing difficulties with attending events for many schools with the pandemic, we were pleased to welcome over 100 students and their teachers to attend from schools across the country.
The day was organised with the general theme of 'Games and Festivals' to tie in with the Commonwealth Games 2022 which took place in the summer of 2022 in Birmingham and surrounds (including some events here on campus at Warwick). Our focus was to take the topics covered in the Classical Civilisation and Ancient History GCSE and A-level curricula and to expand upon these, looking especially at links to ancient games and festivals, drawing on our lecturers' specialities and interests. Videos of the day’s talks can be viewed here Games and Festivals: A. G. Leventis Ancient Worlds Study Day 2022 (warwick.ac.uk)
28th June 2022 - WAPCE Awards – Dr Grigsby receives award for engagement work with WCN
Dr Grigsby receiving his award from Prof Scott
In July Dr Grigsby received a Warwick Award for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE) for his outreach and engagement work with the WCN. Without the funding received from the A. G. Leventis Foundation none of Dr Grigsby’s work with the WCN would be possible. As such Dr Grigsby would like to thank the A. G. Leventis Foundation for the continued support they provide and which allows the good work of the WCN to continue to grow. You can read more about the award winners here Awards 2022 (warwick.ac.uk)
The commendation for Dr Grigsby read as follows:
‘As Paul’s Head of Department wrote, “Paul has been the central pillar of our community and public engagement work, organising, supporting and delivering multiple events to a range of different audiences”. Paul has been instrumental in setting up the Warwick Classics Network, the website for which has garnered a reputation as a high-quality teaching resources hub. It was chosen by the national charity Classics for All to host its national resources, providing free access to a range of Classics learning materials for all. Paul has developed and delivered two large annual public engagement events as well as supporting and encouraging others to support a variety of off campus engagement events and activities. Paul’s work directly supports the Warwick student experience and success through the module ‘Public engagement in Classics’, helping students to develop their own skills and knowledge in making Classics accessible to others. Paul also sits on two WIE learning circles, supports multiple public engagement URSS projects, and works actively with Widening Participation, to ensure his knowledge and skills are supporting the development of colleagues and students across the University. His work also goes beyond the university, winning a WIE collaboration and co-production grant to work with Market Hall Museum, part of Heritage and Culture Warwickshire, to develop a research and engagement project on two Roman coin hoards, strengthening the university’s relationship with its neighbours and communities.’
May 2022
20th May 2022 - Faculty of Arts Building Official Opening
As part of the official opening of the Faculty of Arts Building, the Delphic Garden at the University of Warwick was inaugurated in a ceremony with special guests, speeches and an ancient Greek libation. The Delphic trees central to the garden are Cyprus saplings from Delphi gifted to the University from the Greek Press Association, in recognition of Professor Michael Scott’s work in the study of Delphi and his wider contribution to public engagement in ancient history.
For the ceremony a libation in the style of ancient Greeks was performed by students of the faculty under the direction of Dr Grigsby. The students read the text for libation from a hymn of the ancient Greek poet Terpandros, who is considered as the father of Greek music and lyric poetry (7th century BC). Parts of this ceremony can be seen in this video from the day https://youtu.be/TvfxsJuvsN8
Students performing a libation beside the Delphic trees
18th May 2022 - Public Engagement in Classics Module Showcase event
Students from the PE in CLassics Module 2022
This year the WCN’s Dr Paul Grigsby and Professor Michael Scott introduced a new Classics module to eighteen 2nd/3rd year undergraduates called ‘Public Engagement in Classics’. Central to the module is a group project in Classics Public Engagement, and this year the six group projects that the students have created were:
- Hidden Histories – diversity workshops
- Roman Cookery workshop
- Classics Film/Book Review website
- Bringing Classics to the North - workshops
- ‘Bacchae Move’ - Taking our production of the Bacchae to Fringe
- Roman professions workshop
On 18th May our students put on a ‘Public Engagement in Classics Showcase’ on campus, presenting their projects to their fellow students and staff across the Faculty of Humanities and wider University.You can see some of the work the students created for the module here. The module has at its core the goal of helping our students engage with the wider community and bring the joy of Classics to a wide audience. We were very pleased to see that diversity featured heavily in these projects as well as a focus on schools as targets of these projects. These projects have helped us spread Classics even further across the country, with one of the projects, for example, targeting the north of England, an under-represented area in the teaching of Classics.
April 2022
29th April 2022 Classical Civilisation Teachers’ Day
54 teachers from 51 schools across the country attended our popular on campus teachers’ event on 29th April 2022. Events like these ensure teachers and their students continue to be able to study Classics and benefit from the expertise offered here at Warwick.
Feedback from 2022 day: Rebecca Tyreman Strode’s College –
‘A progressive, inviting and exciting place to study the ancient world. The lecturers seemed to be very passionate and knowledgeable and also approachable. I really enjoyed today, thank you for offering these days and offering up all the resources you do.’
Videos and resources from the event can be found through this link.:
20th April 2022 - Ancient Feasts at the Resonate Festival
Dr Grigsby led a series of workshops for families including mosaic making, pottery making, a Greek symposium, object handling, and Roman Cookery (below). The Roman Cookery workshop was a particular hit, with recipes including ‘Athenian cabbage’ and ‘melon and garum’ (the Roman sauce made of fish guts and fish blood). The Resonate Festival attracted thousands of visitors on campus with many families especially making it to the Classics offering in the Oculus Building.
Students Rhianna Pike and Jaya Sepion-Earp running the Roman Cookery workshop
Academics from the Dept of Classics and Ancient History created special videos on the theme of feasting which were screened at the event and can be viewed online through this link.
Dr Grigsby also worked together with over 20 local Coventry schools to create a giant mosaic on the theme of feasting, some panels of which were displayed at the event beside our new Faculty of Arts Building.
Some panels of the Coventry ‘giant mosaic’ created by local schools
19th April 2022 Roman Coventry and Music at the Resonate Festival
To kick off the Resonate on-campus Festival, the Dept of Classics and Ancient History here at Warwick hosted an exciting night of ancient Greek and Roman music.
(Above) Barnaby Brown and Stef Conner performing at Warwick Resonate Festival 2022
This event was organised by Dr Francesca Modini with the help of Dr Paul Grigsby of the WCN and built on the research of Dr Modini on ancient Greek music. This was an entertaining and virtuosic show spanning centuries of musical traditions, from the ancient Greek through to the Medieval period. Acclaimed musicians Barnaby Brown and Stef Conner (above) transported a very engaged audience back to the Roman-era and early modern Coventry, with a program which included the kind of melodies which could have been heard across the ancient world and in Roman Britain on instruments like those popular in the Graeco-Roman world.
The event combined concert performances of ancient pieces with interactive sessions, with the audience singing along enthusiastically in ancient Greek and joining in with the earliest Medieval version of the Coventry carol. Dr Grigsby and Dr Modini are also hoping to organise a workshop on ancient music in the coming academic year for our local and regional schools.
March 22
March 22 -Education Choices Magazine
The WCN featured in the March issue of Education Choices Magazine. Click below to read all about our work.
