SASA's Teaching Ancient Studies: Continuing Education Reading Groups are small, informal discussion groups for K-16 educators. These groups offer a platform to earn continuing education units (CEUs) while exploring diverse topics in ancient studies. Each Reading Group is designed by its Group Leader, who curates engaging materials – including scholarly articles, primary sources, and multimedia resources – to foster lively discussion and enrich participants' perspectives. These materials are provided to participants beforehand and hosted on the designated Google Classroom for each course. At the weekly sessions, the Group Leader facilitates the discussion and may provide additional context to enhance understanding. While the first offering of these sessions took place in June, we plan to make them a yearly tradition alongside our text-in-translation reading groups.
Description: A slide from Teaching Ancient Egypt. Using a tomb painting as an example, participants explored how to creatively use these works of art in the classroom. In this case, exploring using them to engage with the natural world, or ancient religion. The blue box indicated educational standards that would apply to these topics.
For this summer, we were able to offer 6 sessions this summer due to a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. These groups were:
Pakal’s Legacy: The Boy King of Palenque and His Mythical Narratives (Led by Dr. Catherine Nuckols of Mesoamerican Studies Online)
DiscOdyssey: An Ancient Voyage Through Modern Sounds (Led by John Hayden)
Imperial Encounters: Material Culture under Roman Rule in Egypt (Led by Louise O’Brien)
Sexuality and Power in the Ancient World (Led by Yentl Love- The Queer Classicist)
Decoding the Past: A Guide to Reading Archaeological Maps (led by Habiba Hussein El-Tayeb)
Teaching Ancient Egypt (Led by Paige Brevick)
Exciting Additions!
For this summer, Google Classroom was a new addition to our reading groups because we wanted a space where people could interact with the material and each other. We also want these groups not only to explore topics covered currently in classrooms, but also to explore teaching strategies and frameworks.
- Examples: DiscOdyssey helped link modern music with the classical world to encourage students to make these connections in their own modern lives. Sexuality and Power introduced and helped participants apply Queer Theory to the ancient world.
Description: Screen grab from the Google Classroom for Sexuality and Power in the Ancient World. Not only did participants have assigned readings, but group leaders were also able to add additional materials that related to conversations that occurred during weekly sessions
Description: A slide from DiscOdyssey during a session where participants discussed the classical references in pop music. This slide takes images from Ariana Grande’s God is a Woman music video and explores the different visual references to the classical world including- the
Participant Feedback
Below is some participant feedback from various people who loved this initiative and their reasons why.
“It was an excellent way to learn more about ancient history with specificity and to connect with other people who are passionate about ancient studies.”
“The tour of ancient themes in a range of musical genres was expertly presented in a brilliantly informative and engaging way. I highly recommend the leader and course and will happily participate again anytime! Thank you so much for inspiration, discussion and challenge to think more widely and to make connections”.
“I really enjoyed embarking on the "DiscOdyssey" lead by John Hayden and hosted by Kara Brown. The "DiscOdyssey - Ancient Voyage Through Modern Sounds" SASA CUE Reading Group allowed me the opportunity to stop and reflect on how the roots of Classical poetry were still actively being used in modern music and performance art. Such discussions allow modern researchers/students/etc., to remember to empathize with the past humans we often study as set data points and static time stamps. Would highly recommend taking the chance to join a SASA CEU Reading Group, or any SASA lecture, regardless if you know nothing or "everything" about Ancient Studies. Everyone deserves the chance to learn something new.”
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