December 2024: date and venue TBC
As outlined here, an enhanced approach to teaching ancient war and peace is desirable for many reasons, not only to equip students of Classics to visualize ancient warfare and peacekeeping/peacemaking in more holistic ways but also to contribute to wider war and peace literacy, with real-world ramifications. Our inaugural workshop aims to bring together experts on war and peace studies (within and beyond Classics) with experts on pedagogy (from the school sector, peace education institutes, and pedagogic studies) to set the agenda for a five-year research and impact project, which will produce publications, develop training materials, design and pilot new teaching resources, and contribute to curriculum development and policy-making within Classics and other related disciplinary areas. Ranging across primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors, it aims to lay the groundwork for more focused research in subsequent years.
Taking place over two days, the workshop will be structured around 4 panels (current practice; war pedagogies for the future; peace pedagogies for the future; creative curricula), each with 3-4 speakers and substantial discussion time. We plan to intersperse discussion sessions with some short stimulations by non-Classicists on topics such as ‘militarism and education’, ‘peace education in practice’, ‘war/peace education outside the classroom’, and ‘teaching ancient war/peace in the digital world’. Crucially, we will also facilitate hybrid sessions with Classics teachers to bookend the workshop, to ensure input from start to finish from pedagogic practitioners. Our initial findings will be summarized in the first instance via a series of 4 blogs (aligning with the panels) on the Visualising War and Peace website. Our longer-term intention is for this workshop to help us develop a framework for a collaborative research and impact project going forward, which will involve major grant applications, a range of publications, the development of teaching materials and training resources, and recommendations for wider policy change across the sector.
Call for Papers
We welcome 500-word abstracts for proposed papers (c. 15 minutes speaking time, followed by 15 minutes of plenary discussion) on the following themes:
- Current practice/trends in teaching ancient war/warfare (and their effects)
- Current practice/trends in teaching ancient peace/conflict resolution (and their effects)
- Examples of good practice in teaching war/peace (within or beyond Classics, ancient or post-antiquity) and their effects
- Diversifying voices/sources/themes for teaching ancient war/peace
- Relating ancient war/peace teaching to modern contexts (challenges and opportunities)
- Diversifying approaches for teaching ancient war/peace (including creative pedagogies)
- Future goals for teaching ancient warfare and peace differently (desirable learning outcomes, assignment/assessment opportunities, skill-building, interdisciplinarity…)
- Future challenges for teaching ancient warfare and peace differently (training requirements, resource needs etc, assessment issues, etc…)
Please specify whether you will focus on primary, secondary or tertiary education (or a mix), and which geographical region(s)/educational system(s) you will be discussing. Papers based on teaching beyond the classroom (e.g. in the museum setting, in tourism, etc) are also welcome.
Please direct enquires to Dr Alice König at viswar@st-andrews.ac.uk.