Making Neurodiversity Visible in Classics

As an autistic classicist, one of the things I’ve always struggled with is social interaction. In class, I teach students about Bourdieu and habitus and cultural scripts, while all the time feeling that, whatever the cultural script of our time is, mine got lost in the mail. I’ve spent my life pretending (without much success) to understand people and the codes that underpin their actions. The easiest solution for me has always been to hide because, when I’m on my own, I’m not uncomfortable, awkward, or afraid.

But hiding sends the wrong message and models the wrong behavior, as I realized when my son was diagnosed with autism, too. How can you advise a child to pretend to be like everyone else, because difference makes them a target? How can you warn them that their honesty will make them an outcast, their sensitivities will make them vulnerable, and their hyperempathy will make them a victim? How can you commit to inclusion in your professional life while accepting exclusion in your personal life?

Asterion: Neurodiverse Classics

Over the last few months, several OU Classical Studies students and graduates have been involved in setting up a new organisation called Asterion, which aims to represent neurodiversity in Classics.

For the OU Classical Studies Blog, Asterion Director and OU tutor Cora Beth Fraser caught up with two neurodivergent members of the Asterion Editorial Board, Hilary Forbes and Tony Potter, to talk about neurodiversity, OU study and Asterion.

Cora Beth: In setting up Asterion, I’ve been hearing a lot of late-diagnosis stories from people who’ve only found out in adulthood that they are neurodivergent. For many people the diagnosis explains traits and problems that go back a long way. It certainly has done for me. After I was diagnosed as autistic in my 30s, I could look back at my childhood and see all the quirks and difficulties that would have added up to an obviously autistic profile, if I hadn’t been trying so hard to hide them, and if autism hadn’t been so little understood in those days! How about you: when did you first realise that you experienced the world a little differently? 

ACCLAIM Interviews: Dr Cora Beth Fraser

Hello everyone, I am Adam Soyler I am a student at Roehampton university studying history. One of my modules required me to find a work placement. While looking for a placement I came across the Autism and Classical Myth project which uses classical mythology to help and stimulate autistic children in line with the Our Mythical Childhood project and the ACCLAIM Network. The project offered me a work placement and one of my tasks was to interview members of the Network. I hope you enjoy the questions and answers that were produced!!!!

In April 2021, I interviewed Cora Beth Fraser who teaches Greek and Roman Myth (among other topics) at the Open University. Cora Beth has always been interested in the intersection of Classics and Education. She graduated from Newcastle University in 2005 with a PhD in Classics, and gradated at the same time from the Open University with an MEd specialising in Primary Education. Cora Beth now has a third master’s degree too, with a particular focus on online accessibility. She is currently very actively interested in autism and learning.

Hello Cora Beth. My first question is: What got you interested in Greek and Roman mythology?

Difference and Perspective in Myth, with Cora Beth Fraser

In October, Peopling the Past brings you interviews and reflections from scholars whose work investigates monsters and demons in the ancient world, examining their meaning and symbolism and their deeper connections to human experiences past and present.

At Peopling the Past we occasionally feature interviews with educators and researchers who have founded amazing new projects dedicated to making history, archaeology, and related subjects more inclusive.

Can you tell us about Asterion and how it came about?

Asterion is a new organisation dedicated to representing and celebrating neurodiversity in Classics, based primarily in the UK, but with contributors from around the world. There are a lot of neurodivergent people in Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology, but we tend to be scattered. I’m autistic; but until recently I’d never met another classicist who was. The same goes for people with OCD, and ADHD, and dyspraxia, and dyscalculia, and lots of other differences. Because we’re often isolated, we tend to work through our problems alone – but recently a few of us got together and wondered if there might be a way to help one another.