Haley will teach and lecture to South African students and faculty on the classics. Also while in South Africa, Haley will participate in the Biennial Conference of the Classical Association of South Africa to be held at the University of the Western Cape, and also a conference dealing with Childhood in Antiquity at the University of South Africa.
"I see the trip as a way to build bridges and show South Africa classicists ways to reach out to black South Africans. There are lots of ways that classical history and ancient literature text can be used in South Africa," Haley said. Haley is one of only 12 classicists in the U.S. who are people of color, and one of only three women.
Haley's invitation resulted from a meeting in 1996 in England with Dr. Richard Evans, from the University of South Africa's classics department. At that time she expressed a desire to visit South Africa. "Since the dismantling of apartheid, classics departments have been in big trouble," Haley noted. "They had allowed themselves to be used as a tool of apartheid. Classics departments were being closed in lieu of more visible subjects."
She expects to lecture on her areas of expertise -- Rome and later Republican Rome, race and gender in the ancient world, and Cleopatra.
After earning her bachelor's degree in classics at Syracuse University, Haley went on to the University of Michigan, where she received her doctorate in classical studies as a Danforth Graduate Fellow. She has published articles in various classical journals, such as Historia, Classical World, and Classica et Mediavalia. In the last 18 years she has lectured at several colleges and more than 20 conferences. She joined the Hamilton College faculty in 1989.
