Blog post Part of special issue: Flipping the deficit narrative: Working-class people in UK higher education

How classist is Classics?

Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University Lilah Grace Canevaro, Senior Lecturer in Greek at University of Edinburgh Mirko Canevaro, Professor of Greek History at University of Edinbrugh 8 Oct 2025

In this contribution to this BERA Blog special issue we report the findings of a national survey which investigated how far current demographics of the Classics teaching and learning community represent wider societal demographics. At a time when Classics charities suggest ‘Classics is for the many, not the few’, how close is the discipline to walking the talk?

In the UK, Classics encapsulates the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans; their languages, cultures and interaction with peoples living across, and beyond, the Mediterranean. Two strands of deficit thinking are particularly prominent in Classics: i) ‘proper’ classicists read ancient languages, and ii) ‘proper’ classicists studied Latin and Greek at school. Those who attended schools where classical subjects weren’t offered and who embarked on ab initio learning at university are often perceived to have lesser academic status. Yet, Classics is a discipline with a long history of working-class engagement and achievement (see Hall & Stead, 2020).

‘Students who attended schools where classical subjects weren’t offered and who embarked on ab initio learning at university are often perceived to have lesser academic status.’

From 2022–23, the Network for Working-Class Classicists (NWCC), alongside the Council for University Classical Departments and the Classical Association ran the UK Class in Classics Survey. With 1,206 respondents (including school and college teachers, university students and academic staff), it revealed startling class disparities in the UK Classics community.

The survey results are fully analysed in the UK Class in Classics Report 2024. The report has six key findings, illustrating the deficit narrative in Classics.

Class composition of the discipline

Those from managerial and professional backgrounds are heavily overrepresented among Classics students, and even more among academic classicists and Classics teachers (around 70 per cent) compared to the overall workforce (around 37 per cent), with working-class backgrounds significantly underrepresented.

Leaky pipeline

While postgraduate respondents show greater class diversity than undergraduates (28 per cent from working-class backgrounds), much of this diversity is lost in the transition to academic positions. And representation of working-class backgrounds declines steadily through the senior academic ranks, nearly disappearing among professors (11 per cent versus 82.5 per cent from managerial/professional backgrounds).

Class, EDI and intersectionality

Class intersects with other axes of inequality like gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability, compounding disadvantage. The data shows that class-blind EDI approaches have proved inadequate, with gains disproportionately benefiting those from managerial and professional backgrounds. Class is rarely discussed in university Classics departments and EDI conversations do not embrace class as a protected characteristic. This is detrimental to working-class staff and students who often face compounding disadvantage at these intersections.

Money

Financial constraints disproportionately exclude working-class students and staff. This manifests in barriers to conferences, resources, field trips and activities that require out-of-pocket expenses. Precarious contracts and gaps between study/employment exacerbate the issues. Financial barriers start early, with chronic underfunding of state schools, continuing throughout educational and career progression.

Fitting in

Working-class classicists face barriers when they are expected to fit into the dominant middle-class paradigm. These include classist slurs, accent bias, cultural exclusion, imposter syndrome, lack of working-class role models and assumptions that the ‘ideal’ classicist is privately and then Oxbridge-educated, with vague notions of ‘fit’ (used in appointment procedures) concealing class bias. These exclusionary norms constitute a ‘hidden curriculum’ that pushes working-class staff and students out of Classics.

Barriers to progression

Working-class and state-school students face pressure to ‘catch up’ with middle/upper-class peers who have more prior knowledge of Classics, creating barriers in language learning and impacting confidence. This contributes to ‘gaps’ in the Classics pipeline, with working-class students more likely to drop out due to financial constraints and feelings of not belonging. While outreach activities bring students in, they often operate from a deficit model rather than valuing working-class perspectives. More ‘inreach’ is needed to create genuinely inclusive environments that recognise the distinctive strengths, experiences and knowledge that working-class students bring to the discipline.

What now?

Our report is the first study of class demographics and experiences of class-based discrimination in an academic discipline. We hope that it will spark other similar studies and improve the way that schools and universities collect and use social class data.

The report offers a series of recommendations which schools, universities and policymakers should consider, and implement, wherever possible. These include:

systematically collecting class data
rethinking EDI initiatives
getting Classics into more state schools
creating different routes to studying classical subjects
investing in outreach
recognising how class background can determine student experience and progression
challenging assumptions about money and advocating for increased funding
tackling class-based bias and discrimination.

By implementing these recommendations, institutions can begin to dismantle classist structures and create a discipline that truly values diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This would not only make Classics more equitable but would enrich the field by incorporating the unique insights that working-class scholars bring to the study of the ancient world.

References

Hall, E., & Stead, H. (2020). A people’s history of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 to 1939. Routledge.

Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Professor

Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University

Arlene Holmes-Henderson is Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University where she holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship (2022-2024). After studying Classics at Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge, Arlene qualified as a schoolteacher and taught in high schools for more than a decade before returning to academia. Arlene has conducted international comparative research in the USA as a Fulbright Scholar, in Australia as a Churchill Fellow and in New Zealand as an Erskine Fellow. She is Vice-Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network with national responsibility for Arts and Humanities and is an expert advisor to international governments, parliaments and assessment agencies. She leads several research projects at Durham including an interdisciplinary project with colleagues in Education, English and Psychology, 'Shy Bairns Get Nowt', which investigates the relationship between oracy, persuasion and employability. Arlene was awarded an MBE for...

Lilah Grace Canevaro

Senior Lecturer in Greek at University of Edinburgh

Lilah Grace Canevaro is Senior Lecturer in Greek at the University of Edinburgh. She publishes in the fields of Greek Literature, Comparative Literature, Literary Theory and Classical Reception, and is co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press book series Ancient Cultures, New Materialisms. She founded, with Mirko Canevaro, the Network for Working-Class Classicists and co-authored the UK Class in Classics Report 2024.

Mirko Canevaro

Professor of Greek History at University of Edinbrugh

Mirko Canevaro, FRSE, MAE, is Professor of Greek History at the University of Edinburgh. His research has been funded by, among others, the European Research Council, UKRI and a Philip Leverhulme Prize. He is author or editor of 15 books and the author of some 75 articles and chapters. He is co-founder of the Network for Working-Class Classicists and co-author of the UK Class in Classics 2024 report.