Classics today: decentering and digitization
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Understand the concepts of classics and classical heritage and their cultural-historical background, including its colonial and hegemonic entanglements.
- Describe how digital transitions are reshaping the ways to preserve, transmit and communicate classical heritage.
- Collaboratively reflect on how digital approaches influence disciplinary power dynamics.
- Analyze how digital tools can foster inclusive and diversified interpretations of classical traditions
- Demonstrate an awareness of the digital tools and methods available for classical research as well as an ability to identify the most suitable to their objectives.
- Understand key concepts of citizen humanities and apply them to make classical heritage more sustainable and inclusive.
- Critically evaluate their own role as knowledge producers in classics.
- Design and present a small-scale citizen humanities project incorporating decentering and/or digital analysis.
Course Content
- Decentering and diversifying classical traditions
- Intersectionality and inclusive scholarship
- Citizen humanities for classical heritage
- Digitalization and AI applied to research and scientific communication in classics
- Group and individual project development
- Reflective and evaluative synthesis
Schedule Overview
Pre-course (remote):
- Readings on AntCom, intersectionality, and decolonizing classics
- Webliography listing the main digital tools presented during the course
- Completion of the module on Sci-Starter: Foundations of Citizen Science (1 hour)
- 500-word reflection: “Whose classics are we studying?”
Day 1 Introduction: Decentering the Classics
In the first module of our summer school we will go to the roots of the definition of classics, discussing phenomena of canonization and erasure and reflecting on how ways of reading and looking are built and consolidate through the centuries. After the lecture – and this model will aplled throughout the summer school, you will work in groups (ca 5 students) assisted by facilitators. The groups will be reshuffled at each module. If you want to prepare for the collective discussion, you can read in advance the two papers uploaded below under resources.
In the after-lecture session we will address phenomena such as:
- Survival bias vs actual importance
- Curricular bias
- Author-centered canon illusion
- Ideals of philological objectivity
In the afternoon we will also present the tools and templates you will used throughout the two weeks of the school to design your citizen humanities action.
Schedule of the day
10.30-12.00
Welcome – What is AntCom?
Lecture Whose Classics? (Aglae Pizzone)
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Ice-breaking activity – Discussion on the submitted reflections
14.00-14.45
Presentation of the action design canvas
14.45-15.00
Break
15.00-16.30
Collaborative workshop: Canon formation and erasure – case studies with discussion
Day 2 Intersectionality in Classical Studies: Class
In this module we will explore how social class shaped ancient societies and how class perspectives influence the way we study and preserve the classical past. Through ancient texts and modern reflections, we examine the visibility and invisibility of different social groups, from laborers and craftspeople to enslaved people and elite communities. We will try to understand how cultural records are created, whose experiences are preserved, and how processes of selection and interpretation shape our understanding of the ancient world.
After a lecture by Henry Stead and a round-table discussion, we will work directly on a series of texts that you can already find uploaded here below under resources. As a preparation you can also watch the 10 minute video linked below, presenting a remarkable archive of working-class culture from Tyneside in the Northeast of England. After watching it try to think about the following questions: what lessons could be learned of cultural loss and the contingency of the cultural record? How do the Greco-Roman classics fit into this cultural history?
Schedule of the day
9.30-10.30
Lecture Class, classics and cultural erasure (Henry Stead)
10.30-11.00
Break
11.00-12.00
Collaborative discussion
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Collaborative workshop: applying intersectional lenses (class) – Group work on the texts
14.00-15.00
Collaborative workshop: applying intersectional lenses (class) – Exchange of reflections
Day 3 Intersectionality in Classical Studies: Race and Gender
Building on the previous module’s exploration of class, this one-day session expands an intersectional approach to ancient texts and later works engaging with antiquity through the lenses of race and gender. Bringing together readings ranging from Hesiod to A. S. Byatt, we will examine together how identities, bodies, and relations of power are constructed, negotiated, and reimagined across time. Through collaborative group discussions and close reading, we will explore both how intersectional perspectives illuminate the diversity of the ancient world and how they can help understand the ways contemporary cultural debates leverage graeco-roman heritage. You will work in group on the texts uploaded below. If you want to get a taste of it, feel free to have a look at the texts before the start of the summer school!
Schedule of the day
9.30-10.30
Lecture What does Medusa look like? Reading race and gender between antiquity and the present (Aimee Hind Scott)
10.30-11.00
Break
11.00-12.00
Collaborative discussion
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Collaborative workshop: applying intersectional lenses – Group work on the texts
14.00-15.00
Collaborative workshop: applying intersectional lenses – Exchange of reflections
Day 4 Citizen Humanities: Rethinking Engagement
With this module, the course moves into its practical phase. Having critically examined our approaches to the Classics, we will now explore new ways of engaging with wider audiences through Citizen Humanities. The lecture will introduce the principles, methodologies, and challenges of this approach for practitioners and researchers working pre-modern cultural heritage.
The one-hour online module available in the preparation plan, to be completed before the course, is designed to provide an initial introduction to the topic. For those wishing to explore the subject in greater depth, an additional publication is available here below under the course resources.
The lecture will be followed by a demonstration of good practices through poster presentations by the AntCom doctoral researchers, who will showcase how they have successfully engaged different communities with the Greco-Roman past. You will walk around through the posters and you will get the chances to ask questions to the early career researchers who implemented the actions. In the afternoon, participants will begin planning their final group projects, supported by the course facilitators. The posters will remain available on display for the whole duration of the Summer School.
Schedule of the day
9.30-10.30
Lecture Premodern Humanities and Citizen Engagement (Thomas Kaarsted)
10.30-12.00
Get inspired by AntCom Citizen Humanities projects: poster demonstrations
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-13.30
Working with the Action Canvas
13.30-14.30
Brainstorming idea in groups assisted by a facilitator
14.30-14.45
Break
14.45-16.00
Individual Planning: Imagining a Citizen Engagement Plan
Day 5 Citizen Humanities: Applying it to Classics
In the first four days of our summer school, you engaged with models and approached, and there was much to reflect on. It is time now to let it sink and start thinking about how to make use of all the new information. Today will be devoted to reflection and project design through assisted group work. Groups will be reshuffled once again and, with the help of our facilitators, you will start filling it your action canvas. In the afternoon you will pitch your idea to the group. A pitch is a 2-minute presentation for your citizen humanities project-idea, where you need to showcase your plan in the most effective and convincing way. We will listen to the pitches and you will give feedback to each other first, before receiving feedback from us. The pitch will serve the purpose to test if your idea is viable to be developed in week 2, or if you need to change your angle/target/topic etc.
Schedule of the day
9.00-12.00 (with a 30 min break 10.30-11.00)
Rewriting and Reimagining the Classics — Assisted group work and creative design.
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-13.45
Pitch and peer to peer feedback
13.45-14.00
Break
14.00-14.45
Pitch and peer to peer fedback
14.45-15.00
Break
15.00-15.45
Pitch and peer to peer feeback
15.45-16.30
Intructors’ feedback
Day 6 The digital transition and the democratization of manuscript studies
In the second week of our summer school we will get more practical. Today we will how medieval parchment fragments hidden in early book bindings are transformed into accessible digital heritage. Through lectures, hands-on IIIF training, presentations of SDU’s Special Collections, and visits to digitization and biocodicology labs, you will explore methodologies for preserving, studying, and sharing manuscript and ancient textual heritage. These approaches demonstrate how the digitization of manuscripts contributes to the democratization of classical heritage and provide practical foundations for designing citizen humanities projects that engage the public in the discovery, documentation, and interpretation of historical sources.
You can prepare by having a look at the fragments of Cicero’s De Natura Deorum AntCom PhD student Charlotte Epple digitized and made available to the broader community. You will find the original materials on display during the introduction to SDU special collections.
Schedule of the day
9.00-10.00
Lecture From Textual Heritage to Digital Heritage (Aglae Pizzone and Lars Boje Mortensen)
10.00-12.00
Workshop on IIIF (Panagiotis Leontaridis and Giacomo Marchioro)
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Presentation of SDU Special Collections and display sample exemplars
14.00-15.00
Visit to SDU digitization and biocodicological lab/infrasctructures
15.00-16.30
Individual work assisted by the school’s facilitators
Day 7 Machine learning and the classics
AI has introduced new challenges and new opportunities, changing radically our daily and work practice. Practitioners and researchers working on Graeco-Roman heritage are no different. In today’s lecture we will tackle head on what means engaging with the humanities in the age of AI. In the more practical session, you will be introduced to one of the most groundbreaking application of AI to classical philology you can be found out there: Logion, a “Natural Language Processing tool that aids the restoration and elucidation of premodern Greek texts”. You will get the chance to discuss its applications directly with the founder and the developer of the tool. You can have a look at the project preentively, by clicking on the link below under resources. You are also required to download the tool on your laptop before the lecture by using the second link under resources.
Schedule of the day
9.00-11.00
Workshop with Jacob Murel: introduction to the NLP tool for classics “Logion”
11.00-11.15
Break
11.15-12.15
Lecture Being Human (and Humane) in the age of Artificial Intelligence (Barbara Graziosi)
12.15-13.15
Lunch
13.15-14.30
Collaborative follow-up on the lecture and the workshop
14.30-14.45
Break
14.30-16.30
Individual work on final presentations assisted by the school’s facilitators
Day 8 New tools, new connections: how to do sentiment analysis on ancient texts
Today’s session is dedicated to emotion theory and computational sentiment analysis. We will explore how emotions are expressed in language and how we can study them using computational methods, particularly when dealing with ancient or historical texts.
A key theme of the lecture is the challenge of applying modern sentiment analysis tools to sources that come from very different linguistic and cultural contexts. We will consider how meanings shift over time and why interpreting emotion in antiquity requires both technical approaches and humanistic insight.
In addition to the lecture, the day will include testing and live demonstrations. These practical sessions will allow participants to engage directly with sentiment analysis tools, experiment with real examples, and better understand how computational methods work in practice. The day will end with individual work on the final presentations.
Schedule of the day
9.00-10.00
Lecture Emotion theory and computational sentiment analysis: the challenge of antiquity (Eric Cullhed)
10.00-10.15
Break
10.15-12.00
Collaborative discussion and introduction to sample testing
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Sample testing of sentiment analysis
14.00-14.15
Break
14.15-16.30
Individual work on final presentations assisted by facilitators
Day 9 Discovering forgotten layers, uncovering biases – advanced manuscript imaging
Today’s lecture will focus on the PERCEIVE – Perceptive Enhanced Realities of Colored collEctions through AI and Virtual Experiences project, where the myth of white, discolored artworks was debunked for several case studies highlighting paintings, analogue photography, textiles and ancient Roman statues. Color degradation has been modelled with computational techniques and informed by analytical studies, and colors were reinserted there where they have faded. Specifically, we will look at the color reconstruction of statues from the Pompeii representing Venus now housed by the MANN museum. We will learn what type of data needs to be collected to understand the materiality of the statues from residual traces of pigments, and how the data needs to be processed to ultimately visualize physically-based colour reconstructions of the marble ancient statues. If you want to have a preview, click on the link available under resources.
Schedule of the day
9.00-10.00
Lecture White Light Contains All Colours: The Myth of Whiteness and the Spectral Life of Artworks (Irina Ciortan)
10.00-10.45
Linking theory and practice: the end of white antiquity – collaborative discussion
10.45-.11.00
Break
11.00-12.00
Demos and sample testing
12.00-.13.00
Lunch
13.00-14.00
Demos and sample testing
14.00-14.15
Break
14.15-16.15
Finetuning of presentations – individual work assisted by the summer school’s facilitators
Day 10 Rewriting and Reimagining the Classics
This is the module we all look forward to. Today all of you will give your presentations on your imagined participatory science projects. Each student will present their idea by using the canvas as starting point, building on the pitches and on the work carried out in the two weeks of Summer School. Each presentation will last 15 minutes followed by a conversartion.
Presentations will receive individualized feedback here on the platform, where you will upload the ppt of your final presentation using the assignment below.
In the last part of the day, we will ask you to fill in a short survey on the summer school to help us understand how we did.
Schedule of the day
8.30-10.30
First round of presentations
10.30-11.00
Coffee break
11.00-13.00
Second round of presentations
13.00-13.30
Lunch
13.30-15.30
Third round of presentations
15.30-15.45
Coffee break
15.45-16.15
Evaluation review and conclusions
16.15-17.00
Reception
Assessment
- Participation & Engagement (20%) – Active involvement in discussions, labs, fieldwork and peer review. Timing: Throughout
- Citizen Humanities project design (60%) – Active involvement in discussions, labs, fieldwork and peer review. Timing: Throughout
- Final Reflection (500 words) (20%) – Reflective essay on learning outcomes and personal development. Timing: Due 2 weeks after course ends