This episode, Abi and Sarah bring you our interview for Season Two with the wonderful Hardeep Dhindsa (*trumpet fanfare*). In our fascinating chat with Hardeep, we cover issues like the discipline divides in the UK, whiteness and Classics, and why most Classicists are “afraid of post-modernism”. (Honestly, anything this side of the eruption of Vesuvius is all a bit much for us).
Hardeep is a PhD student at King’s College London, studying Whiteness and Classics in 18th century British Art and Looting Culture. He has presented several papers that deal with issues surrounding de-colonisation, classical pedagogy and white-washing, and is currently writing a chapter for the upcoming Routledge publication: Handbook of Classics and Post-Colonial Theory ...
Phew. *audience ooohhs and aaahhs*
To be honest, we just had a great time because Hardeep is a delightful human, but we also learnt so much from him and there’s loads to think about in this episode about where Classics stands as a discipline and in modern British identities. And we do this, all within an episode that brings you art (just can’t help ourselves), Troy and Troy: Fall of a City, studying in Rome, The Carter’s Apeshit, and Hardeep just generally ticking all of our mythological boxes (we’re looking at you Polyphemus and Sarpedon).
Plus, if you weren’t already aware of it, we’ll be shouting about Hardeep’s Red Bubble shop and sticker magic (*cough* please make jumpers *cough*) which bring the much-needed colour back into Classical sculptures ... and then some. You can thank us later: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Neo-Classicist/shop
So grab yourself a cuppa and bask in the warmth of this lovely interview.
Oh and don’t forget to follow Hardeep on Twitter for some cracking, thought-provoking, and comic content: https://twitter.com/_HardeepDhindsa. Also, watch the video for Apeshit by The Carters, right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbMqWXnpXcA&feature=emb_title
The first feature this week comes from Hardeep’s paper from the 2019 ‘Classics and Race’ conference at St. Andrews (link below) and the second feature comes from his MA dissertation (which gave this episode its title!): ‘A White Lie: Renaissance Italian Identity in the Reception of Virgil’s Aeneid’.
References:
Dhindsa, H. (2020) ‘What Studying Classics Taught me about my Relationship with Western Civilisation’, CUCD Bulletin: 49. Read the full article here: https://cucd.blogs.sas.ac.uk/files/2020/03/DHINDSA-What-Studying-Classics-Taught-me-about-my-Relationship-with-Western-Civilisation.pdf
Virgil, Aeneid, c. 19 BCE
This week's cover image is by Hardeep Dhindsa himself - The Grotto at Sperlonga!