Classics hit Massey’s North Shore campus

Classics hit Massey’s North Shore campus

As Auckland becomes rapidly more cosmopolitan, studying ancient Greece and Rome has much to offer in terms of understanding ideas and issues of citizenship and cultural diversity, says Massey University Classical Studies senior lecturer Dr Gina Salapata.

The word ‘cosmopolitan’ is, after all, derived from the Greek word kosmopolites (or ‘citizen of the world’), says the Manawatū-based academic, who is spearheading the introduction of two Classics papers at the Auckland campus in Albany for the first time next year.

As there is strong interest at secondary school level in Classical Studies, she is thrilled that the Albany campus will be offering the first level-one papers as part of the Bachelor of Arts programme for those students who want to continue to pursue their interest at tertiary level.

Studying the 3000-year-old cultures of ancient Greeks and Romans in 21st century New Zealand is not as incongruous as it might sound, she says. Classical Studies is a multi-disciplinary field embracing history, politics, literature, language, art, philosophy, mythology, science, religion and more. Many of the ideas, teachings and institutions from ancient times – including drama and the Olympic games, atomic physics and the theorem of Pythagoras, law and democracy, even the concept of liberal education itself – underpin modern Western culture, and are also studied and embraced globally in the universities of non-Western nations.

“Just as New Zealand society is grappling with multiculturalism and meanings of citizenship, so too were the ancient Greeks and Romans”, says Dr Salapata, who is a Greek national.

“The Greeks and Romans had their own problems to do with politics, citizenship and governance – just as we do today,” she says. “And though aspects of their cultures – from gladiatorial contests and public executions to slavery – are unjust and cruel by today’s standards, it is worthwhile learning about how other cultures approached challenges and changes in their own contexts.”

Dr Salapata says Classical Studies is not fixed in the past as there are discoveries occurring constantly that shed new light on what we know. Recently, an un-looted tomb was discovered in Italy with artefacts from the pre-Roman Etruscan culture, and another tomb of a wealthy Mycenaean warrior containing a trove of precious artefacts was unearthed in Greece. Papyrus fragments containing never-before seen poems by the famous seventh-century BC Greek poet Sappho have also been recovered recently. Such discoveries provide opportunities for new interpretations and insights into the worlds of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Massey’s Classical Studies undergraduate programme’s 18 papers (with two new ones in the pipeline) have been specially developed around themes, and includes topics such as Love and Sexuality in Ancient Greece; the Pursuit of Happiness in the Classical World; the Trojan War; Greek and Roman Religion; and Greek and Roman Art and Society. Subjects such as slavery, war and homosexuality are also covered.

“You don’t have to look far to find examples of how the classics are still relevant,” she says. “For example, Radio New Zealand only this week interviewed Brooklyn-based theatre director, Bryan Doerries, who is the founder of the Theatre of War project. His company, Outside of the Wire, performs ancient Greek plays to returned soldiers, addicts, prison inmates and survivors of natural disasters. He believes that the great tragedies of the Greeks can help contemporary audiences deal with everything from the trauma of being in a conflict zone to end-of life care.

“And Hollywood has done wonders to popularise the ancient Greeks and Romans, not to mention our own Xena: Warrior Princess,” she says.

The first two papers at Albany (Greek Mythology, in Semester One, and The Roman Republic: Kings, Consuls and Conquest, in Semester Two) will be delivered virtually via video conference link to the Manawatū campus, with two wall-size screens and interactive tools, and with a tutor based in Auckland.

More papers and the appointment of a fulltime lecturer at the Auckland campus are scheduled for 2017. Dr Salapata and her colleagues Dr Jonathan Tracy and Dr James Richardson will also be travelling to Auckland to deliver some of the lectures from there.

ENDS

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