As we wind down the evening ends with video messages from all over the world in support of the campaign.
Its been a long but successful day here at the Friend’s Meeting House. Make sure you follow the rest of the events with us at The Orbital, next edition out on Mon 19th September.
Well, its goodnight from me (@Laurenameliak) and goodnight from the News Editor Emily Pressnell (@EmPressnell.) Thanks for all your invaluable help today, Emily!
Congratulations to all that organised and participated in the event today!!
Sarah Honeycombe: “The world is shaped but what comes before us.”
“What is abundantly clear is that we don’t stop here, we can’t stop here.”
“The students are ready to speak up, but it is really important that it is not just students [....] we all have to keep working to save this department.”
Sarah Honeycombe: “Classics matters to the next generation.”
Sarah Honeycombe is back talking about what we do next……
And on a final note, a sparkling piece of advice from Natalie Haynes to the present and future students of Royal Holloway: “When somebody doesn’t want you to know something, it will always be something that you need to know.”
Natalie Haynes: “Everything is based on the Classics.”
“If you take Classics off of the syllabus [...] you are simply WRONG.”
The Save Classics at RHUL event in Euston = proof that Classicists can be funny, too!
In stitches……….thank you Natalie Haynes.
Natalie Haynes on why Classics is important: “Virtually everyone, it seems, who has a senior writing position in Soap Opera, has studied Classics and uses it all the time.”
Funny lady!
Author of The Ancient Guide to Modern Life.
Next up: Natalie Haynes (Classicist and Comedian.)
As the News Editor Emily Pressnell has just pointed out, what is really nice about this event is the huge amount of praise and respect that each speaker has for their fellow academians. There is a real community feel in this hall.
New speaker: Prof. Paul Cartledge (University of Cambridge and President of J.A.C.T the Joint Association of Classics Teachers.)
The Live Canon ensemble wish the Save Classics at RHUL campaign all the very best!
A performance from the Live Canon ensemble.
‘Classics as Living Word’ Helen Eastman (RHUL) is directing Live Canon.
Tom Holland: “I do urge you to fight hard.”
Prof. Paul Layzell’s proposal, “I respectfully suggest, is not going to feed into a great civilization.” Tom Holland.
“Paul Layzell has a vintage Rolls Royce parked in the garage and he’s going to replace it with a Ford Mondeo.” Tom Holland.
Tom Holland: “What all the speeches tonight have illustrated is the degree to which Classics remains a living tradition.”
Tom Holland is the author of novels that take us into the Ancient world.
Next up: Tom Holland, Classicist and Novelist.
Highlight of the day for me…….the Northern rasp of Tony Harrison’s voice as he read.
The room is in silence as Tony Harrison reads.
Completely in awe of Tony………………..
Tony Harrison: “I owe a huge debt to the Classics.”
Up next: the poet Tony Harrison…………much personal excitement for me as he is by far my favourite poet!!!!
Royal Holloway’s Artist in residence. Many of you may have come across his work at A-level or GCSE.
Of 157 Vice-Principals in 2009/10 only 52 had been in their job role for more than 5 years. Prof. Woolf says that: “Senior managers think in the short term because most of them are new at their jobs.”
“They don’t want a problem solved properly, they want it solved tomorrow.”
It is so exciting to be surrounded by so many great minds all in one room!
Prof. Greg Woolf: “We have a lot, collectively, to be proud of [...] we can hold our heads high.”
Prof. Greg Woolf: “The discipline is in excellent shape.”
According to Prof. Woolf, there are not even any weak Classics departments in the country anymore.
Prof. Greg Woolf: “There is no doubt that senior management’s sums are wrong in this case.”
Prof. Greg Woolf: “We are not just guardians of the past, we are guardians of the future; that is why we teach.”
Prof. Greg Woolf: “I’m here because I am appalled at what’s going on.”
New speaker: Prof. Greg Woolf (St. Andrews.)
Prof. Scodel speaks of the importance of putting your values first, and then working out your resources. She says it is essential to think in the long-term.
Prof. Ruth Scodel: “There is some hope [...] we won at Trinity College in Connecticut.”
New speaker: Prof. Ruth Scodel (Michigan.) A message from America!
What matters are “people, numbers and reputation.” Prof. kai Brodersen.
The success of the Classics department at Royal holloway depends on its excellent reputation.
I would just like to point out Edith Hall’s fantastic purple Audrey Hepburn-esque gloves!!!! Not just a Classicist…….a trend-setter too.
Prof. Kai Brodersen: “There are three things that matter, first and foremost people matter [...] universities are made of people.”
Prof. Kai Brodersen continues with Messages from Europe.
Ineke Sluiter says that the proposals send a “terrible signal” about the importance of Classics.
“This is not just any Classics department.”
“I would urge the administrator not to do anything irreversible. Once you destroy it, you will not get it back.”
Royal Holloway’s Classics department is important for all the institutions in the Netherlands with which it collaborates.
New speaker: Prof. Ineke Sluiter ‘Messages from Europe.’
Ineke Sluiter got on a plane this morning all the way from the Netherlands just for the meeting today!
On a final note Prof. Maria Wyke states clearly: “We at UCL and King’s would be completely impoverished without Royal Holloway.”
Prof. Maria Wyke: A message from the University of London.
“It is a community [....] the discipline as a whole needs Royal Holloway.”
Prof. Maria Wyke (UCL) is now talking about the “intellectual and social collaboration” within the University of London’s Colleges, how important and how successful it has been.
Paul Layzell’s proposals will affect the whole of the University of London, and not just Royal Holloway.
Prof. Anne Sheppard: “I am very proud to be the head of department at the moment.”
This year coming, places are being offered on the basis of one A and two B’s at A-level, unlike CCC’s in the Eighties when Prof. Sheppard first started. If anything, this shows that academic integrity has increased.
This year coming, there will be 80 undergraduates, 15-16 MA students, and 30-40 Phd students in the Classics department. The department is now stronger and more exciting than at any time since the merger.
Looking back, Prof. Anne Sheppard realises what a long way the department has come since the merger with Bedford College.
Prof. Anne Sheppard on watching the department grow.
Prof. Edith Hall: “It’s a tipping point.”
Huge applause for Prof. Hall’s rousing call to action.
Prof. Edith Hall: “Classics has had more applicants than any other department this year, bar Management.”
Prof. Edith Hall: “Staff have been terrorised about their livelihoods and forced into a consultation period with guns at their heads.”
Edith feels that Royal Holloway’s history has never been properly celebrated.
Prof. Edith Hall is back introducing the line-up for tonight. She has just pointed out that we are live blogging and that Royal Holloway is following!
And we are back! Revived by coffee and ready to keep you all up-to-date.
A great turnout so far! With many captivating speakers.
We are heading out for sustenance……..back at 7pm with much more including poet Tony Harrison and novelist Tom Holland.
“Thieves – watch us grow.” The final words of the wonderful performance which could easily be interpreted as an analogy of recent events.
A comical performance of the Classical story….
Royal Holloway students The Revenge of Dionysus.
Words from a passionate and clearly distressed speaker. Sarah Honeycombe has aptly represented the fears and concerns of many students and staff at Royal Holloway.
Sarah Honeycombe: “I cannot be proud of a university that does this.”
“What is abundantly clear is that this campaign must continue.” Sarah Honeycombe.
Sarah Honeycombe: ” Royal Holloway is about to say it [the past] just doesn’t matter.”
Sarah Honeycombe: “Royal Holloway is choosing to close Classics. They have made a very, very, very bad decision.”
Next up: Sarah Honeycombe Vice-president of Communications and Campaigns at RHUL Student’s Union is speaking about Classics and the undergraduate view.
States that she was proud of her place at Royal Holloway but can no longer be proud of the University.
Wishing now that I had taken a Classics degree; it might help me explain to you what Dr. Efi Spentzou is saying about modern literature!
Dr. Efi Spentzou on Classics and Feminist Voice.
Speaking next: Dr. Efi Spentzou (RHUL) Senior lecturer in Latin.
Did you know? Interest in Plato as a literary artist is very much back in fashion.
Prof. Sheppard talks about Dorothy Tarrant.
Prof. Sheppard has brought with her the ‘spirit’ of Dorothy Tarrant in book form (courtesy of Royal Holloway Library.)
Speaking now: Head of Classics and Philosophy at Royal Holloway, Prof. Anne Sheppard.
Dr. Nick Lowe: “Our subject tries to train us to live human lives in a human world.”
According to Dr. Lowe, popular culture matters in Classics because it makes us accountable, it invites us to confront our own thinking and engages knew ways of knowing.
Dr. Nick Lowe on why Classics in popular culture matters.
(1) It challenges and democratises ownership of elite culture.
(2) It channels mass engagement with the foundations of westernness, the roots Christianity, anthropological distance, preindustrial social values, and mythicality.
Nick Lowe speaks about the way that Classics has manifested through many different media.
Dr. Nick Lowe is a very energetic speaker!
Up next: Dr Nick Lowe (RHUL).
Berkoff argues that what we will lose will be this opportunity to become human through Greek Tragedy.
Steven Berkoff: “What is important is the Catharsis. Greek drama is a way of releasing such power, such emotion, that we become humanised.”
Berkoff talks of his involvement in the recent production of Oedipus at the Edinburgh Festival. He’s a great speaker!
Berkoff: It is from Greek culture that we learn to ‘express’
Now on the stage is actor Steven Berkoff.
Janett Morgan: In one small corridor we have many varied specialists (arts, archaeology, etc.)
She renders what the College Council is doing as “wanton cultural vandalism”!
Royal Holloway’s very own Janett Morgan speaks on Classics and the Material World. Opens by saying that she is “delighted to speak in defence of a subject and a past.” She argues that “we just can’t let the ancient world go”, and that “the stories have appeal to the everyday man in the street”.
Helen Eastman on Richmal Crompton, author of the Just William series: Richmal’s love of classics and classical education shines through in all of her work, she writes with “humanity and wit and a classicist’s understanding.”
Richmal is an example of another extraordinary Royal Holloway alumnus. Eastman asked “can we have a lot more of that please?” – rather than cutting the university’s classical successes short.
Dr. Fiona Macintosh said that Frances Stevenson was the first female to be a personal assistant to cabinet minister, and then Prime Minister, Lloyd George.
Dr. Macintosh finished by saying that Frances Stevenson would most definitely have supported this campaign.
Apologies for the break – a few technical problems!
Up next – Dr. Fiona Macintosh (Oxford)
Dr. Sarah Butler: For Sybella Gurney and her friends, Classics offered a way of saying ‘it doesn’t have to be this way.’
Prof. Richard Alston, as quoted by Dr. Sarah Butler – “Classics is no longer seen as useful unless we can show a utilitarian impact.”
Prof. Hall pointed out at the start that, apart from Indonesia and South Korea, Great Britain spends the lowest proportion of its national income on higher education in the world!
Professor Oliver Taplin hopes that this meeting, with the blessing of Anna Swanwick, will get the message to those making the decisions at Royal Holloway.
He also pointed out that the College Council has a responsibility for preserving the country’s education system, not closing it down.
Sorry for the gap – we had a problem with internet connection. Back up and running now!
Dr Justine McConnell says the importance of Classics is undoubtedly its ability to provoke and refute.
Sarah Parker Remond studied under Prof. Edward Spencer Beesly, the Latin professor at the time.
Dr. Justine McConnell (Oxford) has taken to the stage to talk about Bedford Alumni Sarah Parker Remond.
Latecomers are filtering in……the hall is filling up!
Prof. Pat Easterling: George Eliot’s life and work are an extraordinary example of the benefits of the study of Classics.
Prof. Easterling is pointing out the importance of Classics to the fictional writings of George Eliot. Eliot was able to integrate the separate areas of her study with her study of Ancient Greece.
Prof. Pat Easterling has taken to the stage to talk about the Bedford Alumni George Eliot.
Edith Hall says that if the College goes ahead with its proposals then it will give all universities the right to close departments on a whim.
The afternoon will focus on the specific history of Classics at Royal Holloway.
Lottie Parkyn, Phd student @ RHUL has just introduced Prof. Edith Hall.
Edith Hall has taken to the stage.
Sat in the main hall of Friend’s Meeting house. Gradually filling up here. Lots of purple!
Tune in from 2:15 this afternoon, when live coverage will begin!
Great updates – keep them coming!
Great job girls
Thank you for these updates ~ I was going to be there, but was unable to come at the last minute ~ you comments go some way to making up for it.
Thank you for your updates ~ I was going to be there but disappointingly was unable to go at the last minute ~ your comments go some way in making up for my absence ~ and purple is my favourite colour!