Our new adventure

Along with other team members I received an email on Saturday morning from Katarzyna Marciniak, the Our Mythic Childhood Principal Investigator, that began "Today is the first day of our new adventure." The period of European Research Council funding began then - 1st October - and so today, Monday 3rd, is the first standard working day of the project. I've spent today's OMC time getting ready for what I anticipate as a pleasurable bureaucratic event - a meeting on Wednesday with colleagues in Finance and Human Resources to finalise the terms of the contract and the payment schedule. Then I'll be able to plan in earnest not only my autism research but also the entries that I'll be coordinating for the guide to classical antiquity in children's literature. Before Wednesday I'm planning to revisit notes I made at a disability and inclusive practice session that I attended earlier in the year on neurodiversity - what was said here helped confirm me in my thinking that research into autism has moved on since the late 2000s when I was first envisaging this project. I'll blog on this soon.

I'll end this posting with a brief mention of my colleague Rosemary Barrow who died recently and whose funeral is this coming Wednesday. Rosemary was one of several people to whom I mentioned my nascent plan for a project on autism and mythology and whose encouragement helped me realise that there was something here worth pursuing. I hadn't realised that, prior to starting her classical postgraduate studies, Rosemary had worked as a therapist in some capacity, She could straightaway see the potential for this research. This - and her subsequent interest - is one of the many things I'm remembering right now and that I believe will remain with me.

Getting going - AT LAST

I'm not sure that this is the most flattering photo of me - but when I received it along with other images from the conference where it was taken, I was struck at how intense I looked, and at how this fitted my memory of how I felt when I was making the impromptu speech that is imaged here. It was taken at a conference on Warsaw on children's literature and classical antiquity. The organiser of that event, Prof Katarzyna Marciniak, had just announced that several people at the conference, myself included, would soon be embarking on a five-year project exploring the role of classical antiquity as a transformation marker in children's and young adults' culture enabled by a successful bid for funding, led by Prof Marciniak, to the European Research Council. I had not been expected to be asked to say a few words about what I would be doing for the project - and at first I thought I would speak extremely briefly. But once I began speaking about something so special to me, I became rather impassioned. What I'm shown talking about is the area I'll be leading on - autism and classical mythology - which will explore how research into autism can be applied to stories from classical antiquity, with a view to creating resources for teachers.

Since then I've been waiting for the grant agreement to be finalised - and now, I'm delighted to announce that it has been! This means that, at long last, I'll be able start work on this project I've been planning since the end of the previous decade. I've been contacted recently by an autism specialist - and in the past I've had some fruitful correspondence with autism practitioners. Now I can start following up properly - plus I'd love to hear from further people with any relevant interests. I can hardly believe that I'm finally able to get going. Postings to this blog have been sporadic - now, at last, they will become somewhat more frequent. I'm due to begin work officially on the project in early October.

Autism and Our Mythic Childhood - funded project news

I've gone for a large, bold and even garish picture as the prelude to big news. Since I started this blog, I have kept reiterating that I am eager to get going on my research into autism and classical mythology. A key challenge has been trying to find space alongside other duties - some of which were on the 'desk' back in 2009 and are still there. But: I'm writing with news. I shall be able to begin work in earnest soon, thanks to funding from the European Research Council's Excellent Science scheme. I shall work on the topic as a member of a team of scholars, from several 'corners' of the world, exploring the role of classical antiquity in children's and young adults' contemporary culture. The team is led by Katarzyna Marciniak of the Universityof Warsaw. We received the confirmation that our bid had been successful earlier this year and have negotiated a starting date in October 2016. The funding period will last for five years - and so I shall be devoting a chuck of my working week to autism and classical mythology until 2021.

I'll now provide some details about the project and where my own work fits in. We will be pushing the boundaries of the newly-identified, but under-developed, research area of the reception of classical antiquity. We will treat classical antiquity not as some kind of distant, fossilised entity but as an ongoing lived experience, by offering insights into how the identities of children and young adults are formed though engagement with classical antiquity as they move towards and into adulthood. One component, Our Mythical Education, will trace the use of myths in school teaching. Another will be a guide to classical antiquity in children's literature. A further component will be a guide to autism and classical myth, where I shall bring together materials geared towards helping autistic children develop social understanding, social cognition and affective engagement. I hope, by doing this, to open up new ways of thinking about disability. I shall revisit classical myths - notably via the figures of Athena and the gorgon - to explore their potential to facilitate social cognition including imitation, joint attention, pretence and mental states. The Nashville Parthenon's reconstruction of Pheidias' statue, with Athena holding a gorgon-centred shield, as in the photograph above, is one piece of recent classical reception that I propose to explore.  The first step will be to undertake an academic study applying research into autism to myths. The next step will be use the potential of this research to underpin resources for teachers. I'm itching to get started!

 

Embedding equality and diversity in the classical curriculum

In a posting of a few months ago, I mentioned that I was writing a toolkit for Classics practitioners for the Higher Education Academy's Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum project. The guide has just been published and is available here! 

Information on the project, and links to the other guides, is available here.

Classical myth and World Autism Awareness Day



Cellini, Perseus with head of Medusa,1545.
Details below

There is something about designated 'Days' to encourage reflection on the specific issue being marked. Today, World Autism Awareness Day, has set me reflecting on my evolving thinking around autism and where I see my work potentially leading.

I began this blog back in 2009 to report on my unfolding thinking about autism and classical mythology, aware that it would be some time before I was able to devote myself fully to the project – and since then my thinking has been developing in sophistication including in ways that I did not envisage when I was getting started. This has included not just thinking about the pedagogy of autism,[1] but also about disability more broadly – and how, for instance, a Disability Studies approach to classical myth can help challenge notions of bodily perfection via a focus on the numerous different bodies that recur in classical myth, including deformed bodies such as that of Hephaistos, and monstrous bodies, such as that of the gorgon – and also the lost body of Metis, swallowed by Zeus and kept within his own body.[2]

What initially motivated me to work on how classical myth might help reach autistic children was hearing from a special needs teacher in a state school in the UK that she had observed that autistic children typically respond well to learning about classical mythology. I have since heard that this view matches that of teachers who work with autistic children, including teachers who have contacted me on having read my blog.  What I would like to do is therefore as follows – use my experience researching classical mythology towards developing resources for teachers.  And What I would ideally like to hang this around is the figure of Athena.  One reason for wanting to do this is that I have explored mythological representations of Athena in a range of publications,[3] all of which focus on what it is that is distinctive about this mythological figure, and what this tells us about various issues in ancient Greece such as what how the ancient Greeks constructed notions of self and otherness, and how images Athena hover between various extremes.

I should like to use this previous research to explore how, for instance, the goddess is connected with bodily perfection and good health (for instance as Athena Hygieia (‘Health’) yet her face/eyes can become the face or glare of the gorgon, for example when, roused to fury, she becomes gorgopis (‘gorgon-eyed’),[4] and when she creates the aulos, plays it for the first time and casts it away when she sees her reflection with puffed out cheeks.[5]  I should also like to revisit, from a disability studies perspective, a story I have written on which concerns how, when Athena hears the wailing lament of Medusa’s sister Euryale, the goddess creates a music piece for the aulos[6] – in one respect Athena is transforming a gorgonic noise into music; in another respect this is Athena imitating a gorgon voice and performing (even embodying) the sound of the monster.

By setting out my previous research into Athena, I see that I have already started to outline another reason I would like to use Athena-Gorgon myths as a focus.  These myths blend such seeming opposites as perfection and monstrosity – and therefore they strike me as a way towards helping autistic children develop social understanding, social cognition and affective engagement.  Little is known about autism in spite of the advances in understanding, diagnosis and treatment over recent years, although there is consensus that it involves challenges concerning social behaviour, communication and application of mental flexibility and abilities that can include attention to detail and a methodical approach to given tasks.[7]  One appeal of Greek myths is their apparent fixed (and so reassuring) nature – where each character seems to have specific traits, and where stories are rigidly sequenced. However, classical myths were also endlessly flexible – in the ancient world stories were ever being revised and changed to meet the needs of each new audience. What I would seek to do is to capture both the sense of structure of myth and this endless capacity for variation and invention – after all it is this variability of myth that has been tapped into by centuries of postclassical users down to such innovative uses as the Percy Jackson novels.

I would like to use representations of Athena and Gorgon – including the quest of Perseus, with Athena’s support, for the Gorgon’s head – to explore various means to facilitate social cognition including in imitation (for example of actions, sounds and facial expression), joint attention (e.g. looking at people or objects – following the gaze), pretence (e.g. responding to people in particular roles) and mental states (e.g. linking events and behaviour and exploring gaps between reality and appearance).  In the first instance, I would conduct an academic study that applies research into cogitative and emotional capacities and autism to myths that concern Athena and the gorgon.  The next step would be to use this to underpin resources for teachers – such as a set of activities for use with their students.  This might include making masks (including of the Gorgon’s body-less head whose serpentine hair, boar’s tusks and huge mouth make it an ideal topic for a mask), and activities aimed at developing affect and imitation. 

I'll keep reporting on my progress...

References

Fig. 1: Benevento Cellini, Perseus with head of Medusa,1545.  Bronze sculpture, Florence, Piazza della Signoria. B. ©Dragoneye Dreamstime.com

Brown, M. and Miller, A., 2004, Aspects of Asperger’s: success in the teens and twenties. Bristol: Lucky Duck Publishing.

Cosi, D. M. 1987. “Jammed Communication: Battos, The Founder of Cyrene, Stammering and Castrated.” in Grazia Ciani, M. ed. The Regions of Silence: Studies on the Dificulty of Communicating, Amsterdam: Gieben: 115-144.

Deacy, S. 1995. ‘Athena in Boiotia: local tradition and cultural identity’, in J.M. Fossey (ed.), Boiotia Antiqua 5: Studies on Boiotian Topography, Cults and Terracottas. Amsterdam: Gieben: 91-103.

Deacy, S. 1997. ‘The vulnerability of Athena: parthenoi and rape in Greek myth’, in S. Deacy and K.F. Pierce (ed.), Rape in Antiquity: Sexual violence in the Greek and Roman worlds: London: Duckworth:  43-63.

Deacy, S. 2008. Athena, Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series, London and New York: Routledge.

Deacy, S. and Villing, A. ed. 2001. Athena in the Classical World. Leiden: Brill.

Deacy, S. and Villing, A. 2009. ‘What was the colour of Athena’s aegis?’. Journal of Hellenic Studies 129: 111-29.

Dolmage, J. 2006. ‘Breathe upon us an even flame: Hephaestus, history, and the body of rhetoric’. Rhetoric Review 25.2: 119-40.

Dolmage, J. 2009. ‘Metis, mêtis, mestiza, Medusa: rhetorical bodies across rhetorical traditions’. Rhetoric Review 28.1: 1-28.

Grove, N and Park, K, 2001. Social Cognition Through Drama And Literature for People with Learning Disabilities: MacBeth in Mind. London: Jessica Kingsley.

McGregor, E., Núñez, M. Cebula, K and Gómez, J.C. 2008. Autism: An integrated view from neurocognitive, clinical, and intervention research. Malden, MA etc: Blackwell.

Martin, N. 2008 REAL Services to assist students who have Asperger Syndrome, Sheffield Hallam University Autism Centre http://www.skill.org.uk/page.aspx?c=61&p=150#HE

Powell, S. and Jordan, R. 1997. Autism and Learning: A guide to good practice. London: Routledge.

Rose, M.L. 2003. The Staff of Oedipus. Transforming Disability in Ancient Greece.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

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[1] Research that has informed my thinking to date includes Brown and Miller, 2004; Grove and Park 2001, Howlin et al. 1999, McGregor et al. 2008, Martin, 2008. Powell and Jordan 1997.
[2] On the alternative bodies of Hephaistos and Metis, both of which I intend to contrast with the bodily perfection often – though tellingly not invariably – associated with Athena, see Dolmage 2006, 2009.  Studies of disability in antiquity, including disability constructed in classical myth include Cosmi 1987 and Rose 2003.

[3] E.g. Deacy 1995, 1997, 2008, Deacy and Villing 2001, 2009.
[4] E.g. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 424, Alcaeus fr. 298.24.

[5] E.g. Athenaeus 616e, Apollodorus 1.4.2.

[6] Pindar, Pythian 12. 18-27, Deacy 1995.

[7] E.g. Brown and Miller 2004, Martin 2008.

Autism, empathy and dyspraxia

The other day, a student said something to me that has both shaken up and transformed my understanding of both dyspraxia and autism. He said that he had once heard the following defintion of dyspraxia as: "autism with empathy". Like any definition this can't allow for everything but it's made a lot of things make sense and I don't think I'll ever see autism or dyspraxia in the same way again - nor perhaps empathy.

Some very initial attemptions at finding the source of the quotation and putting this in the context of current research/debate:

Dziuk, M. A., Larson, J. C., Apostu, A., Mahone, E. M., Denckla, M. B., & Mostofsky, S. H. (2007). Dyspraxia in autism: association with motor, social, and communicative deficits. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 49 (10), 734-739.

Could dyspraxia be misdiagnosed as asperger's?

Selections from the Dyspraxic Adults site

Comments welcome!

 

End of Classics site and toolkit news

Happy New Year! A couple of quick updates

First: I've begun the process of pulling together my various blogging activities into a single site, The End of Classics, which includes links to this one plus my blogs on classical mythology and on Athena. Do please visit it! The address is here

Second: I've completed the HEA (Higher Education Academy) Equality and Diversity toolkit for classics practitioners mentioned in the previous posting. I'll supply the link once it's published.