Black Athena – 30 Years On

2017 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Martin Bernal’s controversial and divisive Black Athena, a challenge to what he saw as a white Eurocentric view of the origins of Greek civilization. For Black History Month, three scholars from the University of Roehampton’s Department of Humanities will take part in a panel that reassesses the legacy of Black Athena – why it mattered then and why it matters now, and what has changed; how Classicists reacted at the time, and how the growth of reception studies has modified that; how Black Athena can help students from diverse backgrounds think about the ancient world differently and find their own identity in relation to Ancient Greece. We hope that, by exploring the text through the lens of Black History, we can foster a fresh and nuanced approach to the work, and explore how despite, or perhaps because of, its divisiveness, it may currently be more important than it ever was.

Susan Deacy is Principal Lecturer in Classics; Tony Keen is Lecturer in Classical Civilisation; R. David Muir is Senior Lecturer in Ministerial Theology.