Event time:
Thursday, October 15, 2020 - 5:00pm
Event description:
The semester’s first session of the American Classicisms working group will convene on Thursday, October 15 at 5 PM: https://yale.zoom.us/j/95416347773.
We plan to examine the pioneering life and works of William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926). Scarborough’s experience as a prominent intellectual and one of the first professional Black classicists in the United States draws together questions of race, the history of classical scholarship, and the history of American higher education.
In advance of the meeting, discussion leaders Katherine Ponds and Chris Londa encourage participants to read the following (if you have not received these, please email katherine.ponds@yale.edu or christopher.londa@yale.edu for the material).
a) Excerpts from The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough (ed. Ronnick 2005; specifically Chapters 8 and 28 with Michele Ronnick’s introduction.
b) The Works of William Sanders Scarborough (ed. Ronnick 2006). We’ve uploaded three files with selections of Scarborough’s essays. We welcome participants to read what interests them most, but ask that they be prepared to discuss an essay or two from the file marked “Education.” This file contains two essays on “The Utility of Studying Greek,” which we suggest all participants read.
c) Two book chapters for added context.
Cook & Tatum 2010 “The Making of the Talented Tenth”
Ronnick 2006 “William Sanders Scarborough and the Politics of Classical Education”
Please feel empowered to read as much or as little as you can manage. We recognize that we are circulating a lot of material, but have opted to err on the side of sharing the breadth of Scarborough’s work and allowing participants to explore.