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Special Release - Johns Hopkins University Student Discussion on Race Before Race

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This special release is a recording from December 2022 with Dr. Nandini Pandey's class at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).


In the episode, you'll hear Lexie and Dan discuss with the class their preconceived notions before the course, things they wish they could tell future students, (de)constructing classics, perspectives on how the ancient world intersects with their modern interests, and of course, a reading of the poem Ozymandias by the whole class.


If you are an educator, or even a student, interested in working with The Ozymandias Project in your classroom, please reach out to us via email at theozymandiasprojectnfp@gmail.com. Or if you want to support our work, please give the podcast a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, share an episode with a friend, follow our social media [ Instagram | FB | Twitter], or support us on Patreon!


Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.


About the class:

Race Before Race: Ethnic Difference in the Ancient Mediterranean is a First Year Seminar (FYS) at JHU which explores premodern constructions of race, ethnicity, and ethnic difference, focusing on Asian, European, and African civilizations around the Mediterranean basin between 1000 BCE – 500 CE. It will introduces students to the multiculturalism and polychromy of the ancient Mediterranean world, hones their ability to interpret and contextualize primary sources (both literary and visual), and survey ancient and modern ways of theorizing human difference. It also examines the role that classical Greece and Rome played in modern racecraft and Western imperialism, along with recent calls to ‘decolonize’ the curriculum. This course hopes to give students a wider historical frame in which to understand race and racism, as well as the cultural politics around "classics," revealing both as dynamic and historically situated discourses that have been used to exert power, to include or exclude, and to build communities. The course is taught out of the Classics department, but students of all disciplines are welcome to enroll as they do not declare majors until the end of their first year at JHU. Students were invited to join this recording as an alternative course assignment.

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