Our Mythical Childhood...

Matylda Tracewska, Our Mythical Childhood (2013, mixed media on cardboard)

The project regards the reception of Classical Antiquity in children’s and young adults’ culture... We consider the intersection between these two fields to be a vital space where the development of human identity takes place, both in previous epochs and in our times. Indeed, each of us has gone through the experience of childhood and many people have had contacts with Classical Antiquity as a cultural experience – transmitted as it is all over the globe and across the ages via education, through myriad interpersonal contacts, and today owing to the charm of global popular culture. Hence, the ancient tradition has built a familiar code of communication understandable in local and global contexts alike. Owing to the support from the ERC Consolidator Grant (681202) we study this phenomenon and its consequences for contemporary societies worldwide.

A major methodological innovation consists in the application of regional perspectives without the pejorative implication of regional as inferior. On the contrary, we recognize it as extremely valuable, for in this sense, Classical Reception Studies serve as a mirror of transformations around the globe. This vision is reflected also in the project’s structure. We are an international team of scholars from the University of Warsaw (Poland), which is the Host Institution, and from the Bar-Ilan University (Israel), the University of New England (Australia), the University of Roehampton (UK), and the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon). We believe deeply in citizen science and broad collaboration with scholars as well as other members of the society. Thus, the dissemination aspect is very important to us. We lead several social media profiles and four scholarly blogs. Our aim is to contribute to establishing a new holistic model for work in the Humanities in international cooperation – a model on the frontiers of research, education, and culture, Our Mythical Community.

Katarzyna Marciniak (PI)

Environmental statement: 

Through the whole project we strive to implement environmental friendly policy, with due respect to Nature. For instance, we try to reduce our carbon footprint by limiting our travels for the Project’s face-to-face meetings: we actively use the Internet tools and communicators and we meet once a year only, for a longer period (ca. one week of intense face-to-face work). We make efforts also to broaden our knowledge in this respect in order to be aware of the emerging needs and to try to implement new available solutions, in the firm belief that together, we can all make a change.