When Professor Curtis Dozier of Vassar College began documenting the appropriation of Greco-Roman antiquity by white supremacist hate groups, he realised that many aspects of the ancient past are, without distortion, congenial to contemporary white ethnonationalism. Indeed, he found that white ethnonationalists often reproduce ideas about Greco-Roman antiquity that have historically enjoyed mainstream currency, particularly where the study of Greco-Roman antiquity was associated with elite culture and politics. In this episode, Professor Dozier speaks to Shivaike Shah about his experiences documenting appropriations of ancient Greece and Rome on his website Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics. How far are contemporary appropriations of antiquity really ‘abuses’ of the past? And how has the history of Greco-Roman antiquity being used in support of violent, oppressive politics conditioned our own formation as scholars and admirers of the Classics?

To find out more about this topic, check out the reading list on our website: https://www.khameleonproductions.org/khameleon-classics/classics-and-the-modern-alt-right