Our Open Letter

The London Classicists of Colour gladly welcome you all into January of 2023, where we celebrate almost 2 years of being a society, and more importantly, present our open letter to you. 

What is the Open Letter and why have we written it?
LCOC emerged in January 2021 as a reaction to the lack of EDI work completed in Classics departments in the Universities of London. There has been a need for increased pastoral support for students of colour, a decolonised and accessible curriculum, and better financial and material support for staff in decolonising the classical curriculum in Universities.

Inspired by our colleagues in the Christian Cole Society and other powerful voices who have delivered open letters to institutions in the past, we as the London Classicists of Colour deliver this letter to these departments in order to bring forth concrete and transparent changes. Our committee and student representatives are passionate about this message, and have been working hard within the society to provide events and resources to students in need of pastoral support and a desire to learn about decolonisation in Classics. However, our work as a small student society is not enough to enact change across the Universities of London, which is why we implore you to sign our Open Letter and show your support for the need to decolonise. Anyone can sign our open letter – you don't have to be a POC or affiliated with UOL.

Note:
​This letter is aimed at the institutions that are upholding values which do not support a decolonised Classical education. We support individual scholars and deeply admire the hard work professors and faculty members do to support students in Classics.

Read our letter

Sign our letter

A Thank You.
​As a committee we would like to thank you, our members, for attending our events, supporting us through donations and Redbubble, and engaging with the work that we have been doing. We would also like to thank the student societies and Classical community support groups who have provided us with a platform to share our work, and valuable advice about how to spread this message. We would like to thank our old committee members, the founders of LCOC and our 2021-2 student representatives, who helped us form the content of this letter. Finally, I would like to personally thank our academic co-officers, whose hard work have made this letter possible.

Reyna, President of LCOC