From the eyes of Rome to the voices of young people: a way to present Classics through a University Extensionist approach

Abstract

This article analyses a didactic experience of University Extension in Classics, which was oriented to the academic community of Secondary School Level and taught virtually during the months of August and September 2020. This experience entitled “The others in the eyes of Rome” focused on the representations of four countercultural otherness in Roman society –the political monster, the witch, the barbarian, and the sick–, through the analysis of Latin texts from the Republican and Imperial periods. This activity, within the framework of the “Filo y Secundarios” Programme coordinated by the Secretariat of University Extension and Student Welfare (SEUBE) of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the University of Buenos Aires, pursued a double objective. On the one hand, to introduce young students to the working tools of the Philological method and, in consequence, to draw them into Classics; on the other hand, to encourage the dialogical exchange, the collective construction of knowledge and the appropriation of classical texts by young Middle-Level students. Hence, this article presents the didactic sequences, the theoretical discussions and the contributions of a new experience of Extension for Classical Studies.