In recent months, universities around the country have been fighting problems of racial injustice and inequity within their departments and classrooms. The Washington University classics department was no different, as they sent out an email earlier this summer condemning white supremacy and the use of classics to support such movements. However, some like Nina Bhatia, a senior and classics major, felt like more could be done.

Bhatia also served as Alpha Omicron Pi’s first Diversity and Inclusion chair for two years. She said she never really delved into how diversity and inclusion takes shape in classics. That is until she received that summer email.

“I did a bunch of Googling and I found that the classics, in general, is a very white field,” she said. “….There was a lot of reading on the subject of classics professors saying ‘we need to condemn racism and this is how we do it, and this is how we create antiracist courses and antiracist reading lists.’”

After doing this research, Bhatia felt inspired to help the department address larger problems within the discipline and build an actively antiracist community. This included creating an inclusive space for minority students and encouraging diversity in the field, while deploring and reversing the effects of the appropriation of classics by the alt-right.

With Marleigh Anderson, a fourth-year graduate student in classics, they planned a department dialogue centered around antiracism and the pursuit of racial justice within the field.

The discussion, which took place over Zoom on Friday, Oct. 2, was scheduled to last an hour, but, with over 20 attendees, went well over the allotted time. Several professors and other faculty members were present, as well as graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines. Attendees received several video links to watch beforehand about how racial injustice and inequity manifests itself within the discipline, as well as videos about how to be an effective activist in the field.

During the event, attendees were placed into four-person breakout rooms to discuss the videos and then brought back together to share their takeaways, with particular emphasis on action steps. Bhatia and Anderson mentioned creating intentionally antiracist classics courses and recruiting differently to have more diverse classrooms and departments. “I know Marleigh and I both believe that these dialogues are important and they should happen with great frequency, but they need action steps to back them up,” Bhatia explained. After the dialogue, a form was sent out to the attendees to submit action steps for consideration to the department.

While the dialogue was productive, Anderson felt it could have centered more on action. “I think our discussion stayed within the realm of discussion… but we were hoping to leave with more action steps as well, so that would be something to keep in mind for the future,” she said.

Although they haven’t planned out any future events just yet, Anderson and Bhatia are in conversation about the possibility of more programming. “I feel like honestly, we could have this event every week of the school year and there could always be something different to talk about,” Anderson said. “So, we came to the consensus that we wanted this event to spark discussion. We never saw this as being a one-and-done type deal where we have this event and no one ever thinks about it or talks about it again, but we wanted to get something started.”

For those thinking about planning similar events within their own departments, Bhatia advised that they should “look for people who are genuinely excited, not just people who are people of color. Not to say people of color shouldn’t partake in these things like obviously, they should, but that sometimes the onus of doing diversity and inclusion work is on people of color. It’s not our responsibility to educate others about our lived experience if we are not voluntarily taking up that mantle.”

Additionally, Bhatia encouraged those thinking about this work to realize time is of the essence. “I was a little worried and I think it’s nerve-wracking to reach out to professors who you don’t know anyway,” Bhatia said, “but I think people are receptive to having dialogues about racism and antiracism right now especially…. So I would urge anyone who is thinking of planning something like this for their department to reach out and not be embarrassed. Just go for it.”

While these conversations can be uncomfortable, Anderson and Bhatia both feel they are essential to paving the road forward. As Anderson explained, “I think for a long time the department has put out these kinds of statements… and I think it is good to put out those kinds of statements but at the same time it has to go past putting out these statements. There has to be more than that.”