STARR: its origins and future collaborations
Anna Coopey is a PhD student within the School of Classics and the School of International Relations at St Andrews. She works on anti-fascist receptions of antiquity in the literature of Occupied Greece, between 1940 and 1945.
Here, Anna discusses STARR – a new seminar group which began meeting in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.
In September 2024, Peppa Pig was painted on a pot, printed on paper, and pinned on the post-board in the doorway of Swallowgate – the hallowed halls of St Andrews’ School of Classics. She was put there for an express reason: to advertise the beginning of a new seminar group, St Andrews Reception Research, christened as STARR.
I studied at the University of St Andrews for my undergraduate degree, between 2019 and 2023. After a brief defection to the University of Oxford for my Masters, I returned to a department sorely lacking in a strong classical reception community. My poison of choice, classical reception is an emerging field in Classics. It embraces interdisciplinarity and fluidity, dragging our ancients forward to see how later eras have moulded and minded them throughout thousands of years. It is accessible, critically diverse, and startlingly relevant to modern culture. Its practitioners at the University of Oxford, up in the APGRD attic (or down in the basement), are a lively bunch of bright and thorough scholars, whose own WIP group I was fortunate enough to exist within during my year there. And so, I thought: why not see if we can nurture a bit of that spark up here, in our little corner of Fife?
It turns out that we certainly could. STARR has been, frankly, surprisingly popular! There has been a strong turnout for all weekly talks, roundtable discussions, pub visits after each paper to keep the conversation flowing, and even a group trip to see Gladiator II in November (it wasn’t very good…). Our speakers have hailed from the postgraduate cohorts in multiple departments (IR, Modern Languages, Art History, English) and multiple universities (King’s College London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Chicago). They presented on topics as diverse as Modern Hellenism, Dragon Age 2, online fanfiction, anti-fascist (and fascist) appropriation, James Joyce, and Chinese opera. We’ve had undergraduates, staff members, and even the occasional member of the public attend, both online and in-person. Discussions have been constructive, fascinating, and engaging for all involved. This could, perhaps, all be put down to the biscuit selection – and to my own hilarious (and excessive) emails – but I’d like to think that it’s something else. Something to do with the nature of classical reception itself.
Classical reception is inherently community-building. It bridges subject boundaries – or, rather, blurs them. It allows for scholars to stretch the confines of their disciplines and explore the classical world we all love so much in new and exciting ways. Those without Latin and Greek are able to step into a space where they will not be penalised for that. They can take part in a non-judgemental and constructive conversation exploring ideas as specific as why Prometheus is important to revolutionary movements, and as broad as how much historical accuracy really matters in drama and film. This is what STARR has been able, I think, to provide: a weekly place to dip your toe into different parts of Classics and see if you like the temperature. In an academic environment where subjects like Classics are being systematically reduced and removed from university and school curricula, it is this expansiveness, this embracing of the potentialities of Classics, that we should reach for, rather than leaning into insularity. Not only that, but in a cultural environment such as today’s, it is crucial that we examine our own uses and abuses of the past, so that we can remain alert to any despots and dictators doing the same. We need that critical eye. If that can be brought with a custard cream and a cuppa, it’s certainly worth it.
In stark contrast to the current state of the world, STARR’s future is looking bright. This year, we began a collaboration with the University of Oxford’s classical reception WIP group, hosting a speaker from Glasgow and beaming them over to Milly Cox, Constance Everett-Pite, and the rest of them in the Ioannou Centre. As I write this, for next week, we have the reverse planned, and look forward to virtually welcoming an Oxford speaker to Swallowgate. We hope, in the coming year, too, to expand this to in-person collaboration, and, if funding allows, will be sending a speaker each up/down. Since Oxford was very much where STARR germinated from, it feels fitting that we would keep this strong cross-institutional and cross-border bond going. I have greatly enjoyed being able to keep in touch with the vibrant community down south. We also hope to expand these bonds to other universities, both across Scotland and the rest of the UK, and abroad. With existing connections and attendees in London, Chicago, China, and Spain, we certainly have the opportunity to. Perhaps, Peppa Pig will go (more) global.
In the long haul – and perhaps in a pipe dream of plentiful funding – we hope to host a short workshop or conference in St Andrews, in the style of the 2024 Next Generation of Classical Studies conference, hosted by SACRA. Yet I’m perhaps getting ahead of myself. Ultimately, STARR has been a joy to convene, a joy to attend, and a joy to watch flourish into a group of scholars who genuinely care about each other and our research. I am immensely grateful to our Butts Wynd Regulars for their consistent support, to SACRA for their help with publicity (and their purchase of that first fated packet of bourbons), and to the department for allowing us to take over S11 every Thursday. And, of course, thank you to all those on the various mailing lists I bombard, twice weekly, with the info for the next talk.
And to think that, without Peppa Pig and a printer, this would not have happened. Ah.
Originally published on “St Andrews Classics” the School of Classics blog.