Mythical Hope 1 - what I plan to do on this blog during autumn 2019

I have been collaborating with Professor Katarzyna Marciniak for several years now - Katarzyna is the Principal Investigator of Our Mythical Childhood, for which I'm creating activities for autistic children. Quite regularly, we are struck by coincidences which take place connected in some way with the project. Earlier today, I was contemplating a theme for set of blog postings for the next few weeks. The topic I was considering was around 'Mythical Hope,' the first of three themes for the project team's collaborative research. While I was doing this, I began rooting round in my office desk to have a tidy-out and I pulled out a lanyard which turned out to be mine from the Our Mythical Hope conference in Warsaw in May 2017.

Here it is, in the photograph at the start of this posting, along with the conference information that was attached to my conference bag, also found in my desk. For this rest of this posting, I shall elaborate on the coincidence while also introducing what I'm planning to blog about in upcoming postings.

Earlier this week, I met a group of students for the first time. These are the new first-years in Classical Civilisation and Ancient History at Roehampton who will be taking a module I convene on ancient Athens ('History and Myth'). During the class, I mentioned this blog while we were discussing how the module will be assessed, which is either by a reflective journal or a video diary. I mentioned my blog as an example of the kind of writing that might be found in reflective academic work rather than in more traditional academic books and articles. But the students were interested in the topic of the blog, including why I came to develop a project on autism and classical myth. As a result, I have decided upon a particular focus for the rest of September and into October and perhaps November too.

This will be to reflect on why I began the blog in 2009 and how it has developed since then. This seems a suitable way to close out the first decade since I got started. My plan is to focus around the theme of Hope as noted above. This was the first of three steps where, as Katarzyna phrases it in the conference booklet for Our Mythical Hope, we explore "the role of Classical Antiquity as a marker of changes on a regional and global scale" (p.16). Over the weeks, then, I'll look back at what prompted the blog, how it grew, and how it took a 'Mythical Childhood' turn, and - from there - a Herculean one.

Soon - hopefully in the next post (I think I write the word 'hope' quite a lot when I blog...), I'll put out some reflections on the potential of Hercules as a bearer of hope, though not hope as some might expect it to be phrased in relation to autism...
 

Getting colourful and creative at 'Diversifying Public Engagement' during FIEC/CA 2019

Too often when I am caught up in the moment of a particular event I don't think of taking or requesting photos - and then I wish afterwards that I had. Working though the photos from an event that took place a couple of months ago in London, I wish that I'd taken more than the handful that I did manage. I especially wish that I had taken a photo of just how messy the table, pictured here before the event began, eventually became: as visitors used the pens, paper, stickers and line drawings I had set out. I wish this because this could have captured just how lively the event became.

By the end, I was happily drained - after meeting with a series of people who came by, some of them because they were curious about what the things on the table could be, others because they had sought me out specifically.

The event was a public engagement showcase organised by Emma Bridges and Zena Kamash. Here, several classicists displayed work relevant to their on-going projects. As more and more people dropped by, the energy levels kept going up in the room - and I ended up taking about my project many times, and some people had a go at doing the activities. One classicist came with her daughter, whose 'Virtue' is shown in the photograph to the right.

Among the visitors was Alastair Blanshard, whose book on Hercules has been somewhat of an influence on the activities. It was a lovely experience to explain the project to him, and for once I did think of having a photo taken.

Most of the visitors had especially sought me out because they wanted to find out more about the project - including because it chimes with their own interests or experiences. Several talked about their own experiences of autism.

Indeed, I would like to share a pattern that I have been observing. Autistic people keep saying encouraging things about the work I am doing; others can be more sceptical, asking things like: why I am doing something based on imaginative rather than factual material? or: why I am specifically designing activities for those with 'high functioning autism'? Those who share their experiences of autism with me don't pin down the activities in such a way - at least I can't recall this ever happening.

Two of those who came by wrote in my 'guest book.' Here are their words, written in the colours they selected to do this:

 

Really loved hearing about the project and all the attention and heart you put into it. Thank you for brightening the conference! 

Dear Susan, this project is so special. It means a lot to me that there are people supporting (but maybe it’s not the right word)- better: LETTING autistic children know the classical heritage on their terms – and find ways to express their inner worlds on their terms. This is making the world a more colourful and creative place – I love this – Thank you.

"It's all Greek to me": 10 years on

In my previous posting, I said that I intended in a future one to reflect on something raised by a reviewer for a book proposal on my Choice of Hercules activities for autistic children. Here, I shall do that reflecting.

I shall keep it broad. The anonymous reviewer raised points I shall be taking on board. But before sharing my responses to these points, I had better share them initially with the editors of the series in which the book would appear. I do hope that it will be acceptable at some point to reflect in this blog on the various issues. Many academics spend a lot of time reviewing book proposals, manuscripts and journal submissions. This work informs, and often makes a huge difference to, work that goes on to be published. But the reviewer’s words, often insightful and full of ideas and suggestions, don’t get ‘out there’ to a wider readership beyond a necessarily general acknowledgment from an author often in an opening footnote or endnote. Plus: as reviews are often done anonymously – as in the present case – few people will know the name of the scholar who has done all this key work.

For now, then, I shall pick up on a general point that was made. The reviewer was asked for their view on what they see as the likely market for the series within which the book would be published. Their response was that the series might be part of initiatives aimed at bringing new groups of students to classics programmes.

It could be that some of the children go on to study Classics. Indeed, the sense I get, from anecdotal evidence, is that an encounter of some kind with Classics, whether in class or though some other means – such a video game, film or book retelling classical myths – can build to a decision to study the subject at university. My book’s goals, however, are focused around engaging autistic children rather than with a view to getting more students onto classical programmes. The goals that I set out in the proposal are:

• To present a series of activities for autistic children which fit current thinking around supporting autistic children by including the exploration of individual interests and passions, one of which can be myth.
• To show how classical myth can facilitate communication and engagement for autistic children, by utilising the characters of myth as ‘gateways’ to understanding, identifying, contextualising and conceptualising oneself and others.
• To empower autistic children by drawing on their strengths as well as addressing some of the sources of distress they may encounter, such as the sense that their actions are always beyond their control. Linked with this, the activities seek to offer an alternative model for articulating experience and for making sense of the world.
• To utilise the potential appeal of Hercules for autistic children, including as a character who performs feats that others cannot and yet who experiences what they might recognize as emotional overload and distress.
• To demonstrate relevant aspects of the ‘Choice of Hercules’ myth including reasons for choices and what choices mean in a given contexts; the concept of causality, namely of assessing the consequences of such decisions in light of the past and future of the ‘Choice’ narrative.

The reviewer comments that students they have taught have “even” included “those on the autistic spectrum.” The use of “even” might suggest that an autistic student studying classics is something unusual – at least at the reviewer’s institution. This is the point I want to respond to here.

In the early days of this blog I reflected on what appeal classics might have for autistic students. In two postings from spring 2009 – over a decade ago! – I shared the draft, and then the final, version of the abstract for a session that I was preparing along with a colleague in the – then - Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit at Roehampton for the  2009 Learning and Teaching conference. The title was originally: "‘It’s all Greek to me’: Making learning happen for a Classical Civilisation undergraduate with autism"

I subsequently I shared the final title (where ‘autism’ switched – wish I could remember why! – from ‘autism’ to ‘Asperger Syndrome’:

‘It’s all Greek to me’:
Making learning happen for a Classical Civilisation undergraduate with Asperger Syndrome

Susan Deacy, School of Arts
Bridget Middlemas, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit

Here is the abstract:

 The session’s title aims to get across the bewilderment that can be a feature of initial forays into the study of Humanities subjects. During the past decade or so, an increasing number of students with disabilities have entered higher education, including those with Asperger syndrome (AS). AS is an autistic spectrum condition, which can result in often subtle differences in aspects of social behaviour, communication and application of mental flexibility. It is more common in male students (Brown & Miller, 2004; Martin, 2008).

Humanities subjects, Classical Civilisation included, are among the programmes found appealing to many autistic students. The session will discuss the various challenges faced by disability coordinators, tutors, student services and the programme team in creating an accessible and inclusive learning environment for students with AS, and also reflect on the student experience from the viewpoint of such students. Teaching methods pioneered in Classical Civilisation at Roehampton encourage and even expect students to take an active role in the learning process e.g. though group work and oral presentation, a focus which risks alienating autistic students. The session will consider what support might be required to enable successful completion of one of the modules offered to first year students, 'Introduction to the Study of Greek Literature'.

The module outline will be discussed in the light of ensuring that sessions are able to address the learning needs of all students in the group. What is the most effective way for us to ensure that the learning outcomes have been met? How will the students’ voices be heard? Is there anything that we might do differently? Good practice guidelines will also be made available for review

[End of abstract!]

Back in 2009, then, I was taking a different view of autism and studying Classics from what the reviewer’s appears to be. Their view – conveyed by that “even” - seems to be that it is unusual to be teaching an autistic classics student. A decade ago, I was asking why it was that increasing numbers of autistic students were attending university, or at least were attending Roehampton University.

Now – a decade on, and in spurred on by the reviewer’s comment – I’m going to revisit the issue of what the appeal might be for autistic student to study Classics.

I intend to try to find out what the figures are for autistic students studying classical subjects. I wonder, too, whether it would also be possible to survey autistic graduates to ask them why they chose a classical degree and what their experiences were at university.

The postings from March and April 2009 are here  (“It’s all Greek to me”) and here (“Making learning happen for a student with Asperger syndrome”). A couple of years later, in March 2011, I wrote a posting “Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Perseus and Athena,”based on an article I’d written for CUCD Bulletin, which bears on this topic. The images in the current posting are copied over from these earlier postings.

 

 

Susan helps Hercules via time-slip fantasy

As I have mentioned in several recent postings, there is a prevailing view – among many – about autism. This is that autistic people don’t have much in the way of an imagination.

But autistic people have can have a rich imaginative life! This can be stimulated by such things as video games, and fantasy literature, and the area dealt with in this blog: classical myth. In this posting I’m going to make a few, preliminary, comments on autism and the imagination in connection with the Show and Tell event at Cardiff University at the end of last month. Thus, as well as continuing to look at autistic people’s imaginative lives, and where myth can fit, I am going to be picking up from where I left off in the last posting but one which reported on the Cardiff event.

 

That posting concerned various things that came out of other participants’ show and tell items. This one concerns mine: the book Helping Hercules by Francesca Simon. I took it along for several reasons. One was that it is a book I’d borrowed from the University of Roehampton library: the site of last year’s show and tell. Another is that that book concerns various classical mythological characters, not least Hercules, who figures in the first and final stories and whose importance is referenced in the title.

Among the other reasons is this – when I first noticed the book some years back, in the old Schools Experience Library at Roehampton, I took off the shelf and opened it because I was intrigued by the title. Then, turning to the first page, I found that that the first word was ‘Susan.’ So, I’d gone from finding a book on Hercules to finding that a key character - the hero no less – was my namesake.  

The book's cover promises ‘The Greek myths are you’ve never heard them before.’ Indeed, each chapter sticks to key features that recur in ancient versions of each chosen myth, but with the spin that the what happens in each is shaped by the experiences of Susan. This is 'time-slip fantasy.' Susan comes into possession of a magic coin which transplants her to and from ancient Greece. Each time she goes to ancient Greece, she arrives just in time to aid a particular hero – always male – to perform some task. For example, it is thanks to Susan that Hercules manages to clean the Augean Stables by diverting two rivers.

 

Here I get to a further reason why I made this my show and tell item. The book presents mythological ‘facts’ while also doing something that – I’m thinking – could have potential in relation to the activities I’m designing for autistic children. Simon's innovative take on classical myth might serve as a prompt for children to engage in imaginative ways with mythological themes and characters - and to relate these to their own experiences.

I've commented previously, here for example, on the role that books on Hercules might play in the activities I'm designing. For more on Simon's book - which I aim to add to the list I am sporadically building of children's books which might complement the activities - I recommend Allison Rosenblum's entry on Helping Hercules in the Our Mythical Childhood Database. The entry includes a summary and analysis which manages to be succinct while presenting the book’s subject matter and exploring its use of antiquity for children. It’s thanks to one of the generic aspects identified in the entry that I’ve become aware of ‘time-slip fantasy’ as a distinct genre.

I’ll end with a look ahead to what I’m planning for upcoming postings. I am going to post soon on what happened at another event I took part in over the summer: a workshop showcasing public engagement initiatives at the FIEC/CA Congress in July. Also, I’ll be writing a posting which picks up on where this current posting begins – by responding to a ‘myth’ about autism. This new posting will also return to a topic I’ve commented on in earlier blog postings, mostly from several years back, concerning who Classics is ‘for.’ These reflections will be prompted by something that came up in a reader’s report on a proposal I submitted for a book on the Choice of Hercules activities. The report came in last week and includes an assumption that not many autistic people study classics at university. So – after looking today at one ‘myth,’ autistic people’s supposed lack of an imaginary life, I’ll move to another, namely that students on classical degree programmes are unlikely to be autistic.

 

 

Creating worlds and discussing emotions: Dr Fiona Mitchell's workshop for Specialist Autism Services

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Creation of the Universe,
National Gallery of Art 10606. Details here

This posting concerns something I've been meaning to write about since earlier in the summer: when Dr Emma Bridges sent me a link to a report on a recent workshop that I might be interested in. This was because it concerns an initiative that relates to my interests in classical myth and its appeal for autistic people.

The workshop was led by Dr Fiona Mitchell, now at the University of Birmingham, whom I remember well from visiting her previous place of work. Here she had developed a range of teaching activities which came at classics from innovative angles, such as via a study of monsters.

The workshop was on creation stories and it was run for Specialist Autism Services in Leeds. The report mentions one area that has got me especially intrigued, namely a discussion of emotions in creation stories and how they might relate to those experienced by modern people:

"Some gods get angry when they don’t get enough sleep; the extent to which the gods of some traditions embody and represent things like anger and lust; the consequences of the emotions of the gods (e.g. Demeter’s sadness is the cause of winter; angry gods sometimes cause devastation)."

There could be much potential here - including for thinking about the potential for ancient myth to engage autistic people thinking about emotions. There is a fit, for instance with the discussion of creation myth I reported on at the recent Show and Tell at Cardiff. Plus, as I've mentioned in several blog postings, such as this one, one of the goals of the activities I am developing concerns the emotions that might be stimulated by Hercules as he experiences a strange place where he needs to make a difficult choice.

Also, in a tweet from soon after the event, Fiona mentioned how the creation narratives might lead to reflections on 'how we might create our own worlds.' On the webpage created specially for the workshop, Fiona says, further to this:

"If you were going to make a world from scratch, how would you do it? What would your ideal world look like? What would you make people out of? How would you make people differently? If you created the world, would you rule it too? Or just let it run itself?"

There might well be a fit here with another aspect of the activities, discussed here for example (scroll around two-third down) namely to draw on the love of fantasy common among autistic people.

In short, Fiona's work looks wonderful - and I'm going to write to her about it right now.
 

Showing, telling and escaping to other worlds: some reflections on a classically-themed show & tell at Cardiff

Robin Diver's Playmobil Egyptian temple
with statue from Roman Coliseum pack on top

The current edition of Your Autism (National Autistic Society, Autumn 2019) includes an interview by an online gamer, QueenE. In response to the question 'What do you do in your spare time besides gaming?' she answers: 'Books and games are my two biggest passions because you can lose yourself in whatever universe you're in. They're like escaping' (p. 26). This posting concerns something similar: the potential, as an autistic person, for losing oneself in an imaginative world - here, the world of classical mythology.

In my previous posting I said that I was about to head off to Cardiff for an event where participants would be showing and telling classical-themed things. I said there that I hoped that the event would help me develop my ideas for a show and tell component for the resources that I am preparing for autistic children. I'll share some ways in which these hopes were realised - and I'll illustrate this posting with some of the artefacts that were shared by participants.



Karen Pierce's show and tell item:
Playmobil Demeter from the recent
Greek Gods series

I shall also follow up on something I mentioned in another recent posting - the one I wrote after an event in Liverpool where I presented on my autism and classical myth activities. As I mentioned in that posting, one of the participants said that she was surprised that the activities focused on myth, that is, something imaginative rather than something 'factual.' 

This comment fits a prevailing view - that autistic people do not have much in the way of an imagination. But - and as QueenE's answer exemplifies - autistic people can have a rich imaginative life. This can be stimulated by video games, and also such areas as fantasy literature, and the area especially relevant to this blog's topic: classical mythology.
I have come away from Cardiff with plenty of ideas relevant to the project. These include the potential for the activities that I am designing to enable the users to get imaginatively involved in myth.
 

Robin Diver playing with Enuma Elish set created by former student at
Cardiff University for an independent study module. To quote Robin:
"The purple figure is Tiamat and the orange figure Marduk,
so I thought I'd make Tiamat fly at Marduk from above and give her an advantage!"

For one thing, several of the participants had brought along minifigures. This led to a discussion of just how creative children can be when they play with classical-themed minifigures. 


Playmobil Roman soldiers - as used by Kate Gilliver in her
teaching, including to prompt thinking about how ancient
warfare was conducted

Also, prompted by a presentation by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones about an extraordinary Enuma Elish Fuzzy-Felt pack created by one of his former students, we talked about the potential for Fuzzy-Felt, now out of fashion, to engage children, including in tongue-in-cheek ways. Watch this space for more on this topic whose applicability to the autism and myth activities could be extensive.
 
Another thing which I want to reflect on and which again came out of the (rich!) discussion prompted by the artefacts is that classical myth plays a part in fan fiction, including in fiction written by young adults. Here, I have learned, the approach of the authors to their material is typically innovative and subversive including in the creation of counter-narratives and though transgendering.

My own show and tell item was a book, Francesca Simon's Helping Hercules, which I took along for several reasons, certain of which bear on my autism and myth project. I'll make these the topic of a subsequent posting so as not to crowd this current one further.

So: there will be more to follow from me on topics raised in this posting. Also, Karen Pierce, who organised the show and tell will be blogging on it. I'll link to her posting once it's out.



What I'll be doing in Cardiff next week and why it might inform activities for autistic children

Next week, I shall be gathering in one of the libraries at Cardiff University along with a group of other academics interested in making sense of what classics means, and could mean – for children. This will include a morning session where each of us shares an object that in some way deals with an aspect of the classical world. It might be a book retelling classical myth say, or a mini-figure, or a board game.

When we held a similar event last year, in the Roehampton University library, things took a personal turn, when some of us – myself included – brought along things from our own childhoods.

 

The reason that I man mentioning the event in this blog is as follows. I have been wondering whether a comparable activity might be worth planning – to tie in with the activities for autistic children that I am designing. In thinking this, I am reflecting on a comment that Katarzyna Marciniak made at an Our Mythical Childhood workshop in Warsaw in May of this year – while participates were busy colouring in Choice of Hercules drawings.

 

I was talking there about one goal of the activities, which is to reflect on, understand and manage emotions, including what makes us happy, what makes us apprehensive and what makes us afraid. Katarzyna’s idea was that children could bring along something that has made them feel happy. It could be a picture from a holiday perhaps, which they could then talk about. So, in relation to this, I am wondering about whether to include a show and tell element in the activities for autistic children. 

 

Next week’s event might provide useful in letting me think about how and why this might work.

 

Also, I am wondering how far it will be worth adding a specifically classically-inspired dimension to what is shown and told. What will happen during the afternoon session in Cardiff could especially help with this. After sharing during the morning what we ourselves have brought, we will then have the opportunity to look at items from the archives, pick one and show and tell that.

 

This might form a model for a session for autistic children where, first they bring along something that, say, makes them feel happy, or some other emotion. Then, after that, they can be introduced to a set of Hercules-related artefacts. They go on to pick one of these and talk about it.

 

I shall have a better idea after the Cardiff event whether this can go anywhere – but I went form thinking that I would write very briefly on this when I started the present posting to feeling a strong sense, which grew while I was writing the posting, that there is potential here.

 

There is more information about the Cardiff Show and Tell, and last year’s event, here, on the Roehampton Classics blog. From this blog posting,  you will also see link a to Karen Pierce’s own blog where she reflects on what happened at the Roehampton event.