Wondering how to use your Classics degree? Department of Classics alumna Alison Innes (MA ’13) has been profiled in Brock’s Weekly Update. Now the Social Media Co-ordinator for the Faculty of Humanities, Innes shares information about humanities and why it matters. Her job includes managing the Brock Humanities Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and writing stories for The Brock News.
Among her formative travel experiences, Innes recalls, “My most memorable international travel has probably been the study tour of Turkey I did with the Classics Department in the summer of 2009. Being able to see places and objects that I had only ever seen pictures of was transformational. The textbooks rarely ever show you what the back of a statue or facade looks like, so I was looking behind things every chance I got! The trip also gave me a better understanding of how the ancient world connects through to modern day and the way ruins and archaeological discoveries continue to be a part of our societies today.”
Abstract: Perhaps the greatest difficulty of Democracy, ancient or modern, is that it requires ordinary people to make impactful decisions — often between unpalatable options. This talk examines a number of familiar Greek tragedies to demonstrate that the ancient Athenians attempted to solve this problem through theatre: creating a low stakes, experiential education wherein individual audiences members were allowed to listen to the clashing arguments of towering figures and ultimately choose between options which were at once both morally repellent and righteous. This focus on ambiguity, choice, and education further demonstrates the relevance of tragedy to contemporary society and government.
