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Ancient World: Racecraft

Module description

How did ‘race’ come to be an important part of the contemporary world? Has race always been a criterion for categorising people and organising social difference, as it is now? Questions of this kind will be at the core of this module which will look at how social difference was organised in ancient worlds. If we take our jumping off point that Greeks and Romans did not have a concept of race that maps neatly onto our notions of race, how did they organise social difference? And - where did ideas about race come from if the Greeks and Romans thought so differently about it? To answer these questions, youwill look at ancient and modern ideas together in order to appreciate that race is neither a fixed or nor timeless way of categorising and making hierarchies between people. Instead, race is ‘crafted’ (as argued by sociologists Karen and Barbara Fields). You will be thinking about race in the ancient world as crafted in particular ways to support modern ideas about whiteness, empire, and civilisation.

No prior skills, knowledge or experience are required to take this module, only willingness to examine its origins and effects with curiosity and a sensitivity to others’ lived and ongoing experiences of racism. This module is suitable for non-specialist students, and is recommended for interdisciplinary pathways: joint honours students are warmly welcome.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to equip you to describe and analyse contemporary ideas about race in a critical way and to recognise that these ideas are culturally contingent. Therefore, you will be able connect contemporary ideas about race with colonial world-making practices.  You will also gain an understanding that race is not a portable analytic to the ancient world, and will instead learn how ancient societies arranged social difference to various ends. By looking at ancient material and the analysis of racecraft, you will be able to reflect on their own racialised positionalities, and come to understand that race does not carry ontological heft.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Recognise, describe and critically analyse ancient texts, and objects
• 2. Describe a sophisticated understanding of critical frameworks about race, specifically ‘racecraft’.
• 3. Understand and critically analyse how whiteness works in the disciplinary history of Classics and Ancient History, specifically in the Black Athena debate.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of modern notions about race as interpretations of the ancient material, with awareness of your own assumptions and values
• 5. Demonstrate advanced academic and library skills specific to Classics and Ancient History
• 6. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical and the theoretical issues raised by ancient texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate independent study skills in research and the presentation of findings
• 8. Select and organise relevant material and present this in coherent written and/or oral form with a strong argument
• 9. Manage your own time and meet deadlines

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introducing racecraft as an analytical framework, race as social construction within ideological framing rather than an ontological fact.
• The Black Athena debate: why it was controversial, what have the responses been within Classics, and why was it a missed opportunity to discuss the ideological commitments of the discipline.
• Representations of Blackness in ancient literary and material culture including Homer’s Aethiopians and janiform vessels.
• Case study of the Fayum portraits: Egypt under Rome and how determining race is poorly served by looking phenotypical analysis.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic roots of Civilization Volume One: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785 – 1985. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1987.
• Karen and Barbara J. Fields. Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. London, Verso Books. 2022
• Denise McCoskey. Race: Antiquity and its Legacy. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012
• eds Rebecca F. Kennedy, C. Sydnor Roy, Max L. Goldman, Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World: An Anthology of Primary Sources in Translation. Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Press, 2013.
• Sarah Derbew, Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2022.
• ed Denise McCoskey A Cultural History of Race in Antiquity. London, Bloomsbury. 2023
• eds Mathura Umachandran and Marchella Ward Critical Ancient World Studies: The Case for Forgetting Classics. London, Routledge Pres, 2024.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ‘Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Methods, Sources, and Assessments’ https://classics.barnard.edu/race-and-ethnicity-ancient-mediterranean-world-methods-sources-and-assessments

Key words search

Race, empire, racecraft, coloniality