The NWCC St Andrews is a student-staff initiative and operates with support from the EDIC as a platform of representation for those interested in socio-economic inequality in Classics. This is done through two methods, dialogue and data. The branch held a few open-forums last semester. At these meetings, we have enabled individuals to talk about personal experiences with socio-economic inequality and we have discussed what changes we can make in the School. Our main achievement to date is having made class a characteristic included in EDI, which we hope other schools and universities will follow.
For future events we will have the usual open-forum format. We also have some notable guest-speakers lined up next semester. Dr Lilah Grace Canevaro, one of the founders of the NWCC, will be coming along to visit the branch. This will be a great opportunity to pose any questions about the scope and goals of the NWCC beyond St Andrews. Furthermore, Pamela Dobson will be attending another meeting to speak about her professional role as the university’s People and Diversity Executive Officer and her own experience as a former Classics student. Concerning these meetings, it does not matter who you are or where you are from, as socio-economic inequality affects people in different ways. We wish for as many people to be involved as possible, so that this problem can be further recognised and acted upon like any other inequality; it is an education for all.
As it stands, SIMD data is all that is available. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks 6,976 localities across Scotland in deciles. Decile 1 contains the areas with the most deprivation (the lowest 10% on the ranking) and decile 10 contains the areas with the least deprivation (the highest 10% on the ranking). For reference, I come from a SIMD 2 locality. This data is useful as a rough indicator for the backgrounds of domestic students at St Andrews. However, due to the small proportion of domestic students in the School of Classics, we have been given permission through the EDIC to carry out our own survey that will cover all students. The UK Class in Classics Report 2024 provides a suitable framework. Our survey will follow a similar question style and will hopefully provide enough data for our own internal study of class demographics and experiences of socio-economic discrimination in Classics.
We are also organising panels for the CA/CAS Conference 2025. We have three panels in mind. The first will discuss the NWCC and alongside our survey cover the issue of socio-economic inequality in Scotland. The second panel will discuss the situation for international students in Scotland who also come from working-class backgrounds. The third panel will hopefully be constituted of primary/secondary/independent teachers of Classics as their input would provide a significant perspective often left out of tertiary level discussion. For a general abstract, these panels on Class & Classics can cover their own perspectives, and the themes of “What is a classicist?”, “Classics and pedagogy” and “Classical Reception”.
Finally, and importantly, we aim to have an outreach function. This is arguably the most positive side of what we can do. We have the immediate task of making Classics known as a viable field of study. To accomplish this we plan to have postgraduate researchers visit secondary schools across Scotland. For over twenty years now Classics has not been included in the syllabus at secondary schools in Scotland. As a result many teenagers aren’t even aware of the subject. Despite the fact Classics is not taught, there are valuable transferable skills from other subjects: English’s textual analysis, Modern Studies’ political insight, Sociology’s theoretical approaches, Art’s appreciation for material culture, and many others. To bring Classics to secondary schools in this way could allow for those who traditionally have not had a platform of representation, a way in and better legs to stand on. We hope that from our research and through our outreach we can create a more inclusive student body and extend the opportunity of studying Classics to those who could greatly benefit from it. As Jimmy Reid said, education is the key to unlocking one’s full potential; we should do our part even if it means that one person (who might otherwise have not) applies for university.