Rediscovering Our Humanity: Reading the Classics Behind Bars

Emily Allen-Hornblower

Classics Professor, Rutgers University

Emily Allen-Hornblower will moderate a public conversation with mass incarceration survivors Nafeesah Goldsmith and Marquis McCray. The program will include excerpts from Greek tragedies to ground the discussion about the role of the emotions in our lives, and the Humanity we all share. The ancient works will serve as an opening for dialogue regarding the life of the incarcerated before, during, and after prison, and the interconnectedness between all of us that storytelling and classical literature can bring to light.

Emily Allen-Hornblower is Associate Professor of Classics at Rutgers University. Her book From Agent to Spectator: Witnessing the Aftermath in Ancient Greek Epic and Tragedy (2016) center on ancient (and modern) portrayals of the human and factors of connection and disconnection between individuals and groups. She has been an on-air consultant for national television (History Channel) and NPR. Allen-Hornblower has also taught in medium and maximum-security prisons in New Jersey for five years, as part of NJSTEP (Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons).

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