Critical race theory will be applied to the classics thanks to a $1 million grant given to two Ivy League professors.
The Mellon Foundation granted the funds to Brown University Professor Sasha-Mae Eccleston and Dan-el Peralta, a Princeton University professor, for their “Racing the Classics” fellowship. The Princeton professor has criticized ‘whiteness’ in classics.
Neither responded to two emailed requests for comment sent in the past two weeks. The College Fix asked for more information on the program, including if the goal was to inspire activism against current representations of classics.
Specifically, The Fix asked about a failed effort at Brown to remove Greek and Roman status on campus because they represented white supremacy. Activists called their campaign “one step in a broader project of decolonization by confronting Brown’s institutional and ideological legacies of colonialism and white supremacy.”
The fellowship program, which will begin in 2025, continues a project the two began with a conference in 2017.
