Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz recently participated in a panel on “Ethical Engagement and the Study of Antiquity” and a follow-up workshop at the University of Southern California.
Her talk focused on the ways in which the field of classics has responded to challenges from feminist criticism and from the emergence of minority discourses in the 1970s. She ended by discussing ways the study of antiquity can counter the conservative history of the discipline, developing in students the capacity for empathy and interpreting others.
Rabinowitz also presented a lecture titled “Rape, Race, and Refugees: Aeschylus’ Suppliants and Charles Mee’s Big Love” at UCLA.
This talk analyzed the ways in which the ancient play lends itself to intersectional approaches current in feminist criticism today.
At both institutions, Rabinowitz met with graduate students interested in social justice work, in particular the newly formed Classics and Social Justice Committee of the Society for Classical Studies.
