Conference Review Series © : ‘Sounds Like Being Autistic: How and why classical myth resonates with autistic children (and adults)’
How and why I changed my perspective of Greek Tragedy because of Professor Susan Deacy
By Emma Astra AKA The Disabled PhD Student
30/3/2023
You might think this review is late in the day, considering the conference was in September 2022 and now in March 2023. But let me put some context to the reason.
Context:
I attend great conferences, whether in-person or online, and I learn a lot through them. What I term as ‘learning through experience’, which I write more about and will put a link here to once published. There is rich information, knowledge, and expertise coming from such conferences. You can sometimes get a recording of an event if you are lucky, but reviews are hard to find as you would for books or TV shows. To try that concept out, I wrote a review about the Naidex disability event (which can be found here), and the practice of writing these articles escalated from there.
The initial thought of conference reviews came after going to Susan Deacy’s autism conference in September called ‘Sounds Like Being Autistic: How and why classical myth resonates with autistic children (and Adults)’. I thought this was blooming good and shouldn’t get lost in the academic landscape. Then I found this Medium platform to make this article possible through an interconnected person, which I will discuss in another article.
Setting the Scene:
Let me set the scene. I’m an ex-social worker, a mature student doing practice-based Media, Sociology, and Communication Research. Nothing to do with Greek Tragedy. So why was I here at Susan’s conference? Well, firstly, my research is on disability (lived experience). Secondly, a close family member who came with me to the conference that day was diagnosed with autism later in life. But I have a trauma with Greek Tragedy, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the event. How wrong was I in the end……..
You might be wondering what this ‘Greek Tragedy’ trauma is. Well, you see, my undergraduate degree was in World Humanities. A great experience in the end. I chose the degree because it was the only face-to-face evening degree over three years, which is unavailable now. The degree was modular. I was looking forward to modules such as Intercultural Relations, Islamic Civilisation, and Media, but I certainly wasn’t looking forward to the Greek Tragedy module.
The degree was every Monday evening, but once a year, we had an intensive one-week experience at Oxford. The catering staff looked after us well. The Greek Tragedy module was taught whilst there. I was never a big drinker, only at rare social occasions, and now a t-total. But that afternoon, I took the free wine from lunch and was sozzled through that Greek Tragedy class. It kind of made the experience more tolerable. Greek tragedy is a metaphor for my whole education journey. A story about that can be found within my Medium platform, for example, this one here.
Susan Deacy’s conference on 14/09/2022 was held via the Archaeology and Ancient History department at the University of Leicester, with the afternoon session being an available hybrid. I will talk about in another article why hybrid events are so important for people with disabilities.
Attending Professor Susan Deacy’s conference day at The University of Leicester changed my perspective of Greek Tragedy and education. Suddenly, I became interested in Hercules. I have also learned a lot from Susan Deacy’s style of conference delivery.
Susan Deacy’s Conference:
Susan’s day went like this: informal drop-in session 11 am–1pm. Then lunch followed by tea and biscuits pre-conference get-together at 3 pm and a more formal conference session from 3.30 pm. People could go to one or all of the day’s events.
The informal drop-in is from 11 am–1 pm.
The whole day was accessible by anyone from the university, not just archaeology. This brought real diversity and perspectives. The informal drop-in was brilliant. We all sat around in a circle, almost like in support groups. Each had our own story, and Susan was interested to hear everyone’s story and the connection of why they were there that day. I learned a lot about people’s backgrounds. One person there was Professor Andrew Hugill from the university, whose website can be found here, and his Autistic Professor blog can be found by clicking here. Andrew was saying he got diagnosed with autism later in life but, from early childhood, could recite the Latin bird names by heart and read the Aeneid by age 9. I thought, blo*** hell, I couldn’t even digest the Aeneid at 27 when reading it as part of the Greek Tragedy degree modules.
I also learned that the University of Roehampton has got rid of the Classics, and she finds herself at the ‘crossroads’ like Hercules. I was intrigued by this ‘crossroad’ concept, which was explained later.
Susan showed an image of Hercules in a chimneypiece at The University of Roehampton. Susan’s article about this can be found here. The university has erased classics from its architecture, like smoke to hot air, yet physically remains embedded in the architecture — such a Greek Tragedy in itself.
I learned from that morning just how diverse archaeology as a profession is as I got to know others from their department that morning.
Lunch:
Lunch provided another informal opportunity for anyone who wanted to join her. That is a fantastic attribute. It’s those casual conversations that the most connecting and experience arises.
The conference in the afternoon:
She was captivated by the onset. Susan had a great skill of making the conference interactive and engaging without the pressure of participation. Everyone had a Hercules sheet to colour in if they wanted, which was a project done with autistic children at school. All the adults in this conference room were captivated and started to add their individuality, colouring it in, including me. There is something very therapeutic about colouring in, which has become very big the mindfulness therapy agenda. Ironically Susan had to endure the annoying sound of a generator when she was talking about the sensory issues of people with autism, which I thought she coped with well.
Now, the story she told of Hercules was interesting, which can be found in the above image. Instead of choosing the woman on the right with all the ‘fruits’ of life, Hercules chose the hardships on the left to fight a war. In the background, we see a big mountain to climb. At those crossroads, he chose the difficult journey even though he could have chosen the easy route. That difficult journey somehow made him more powerful, more interesting, and more thought-provoking in my eyes. He seemed to accomplish lots of real change for people during his life. Hercules suddenly became my hero.
Susan said the following points, which I wrote on the back of the image:
Above image: Like looking at the Hercules painting, you can take that paradox to other things in life. For example, what was the journey like when going to a new place, and what did you notice? There’s so much I reflected on about this notion with my disability journey, what I call a pilgrimage explored in other stories such as this one here.
I reflected back on my choices throughout life, even before my disability. Why the choices? I explore some of them in articles such as The Proverb Story here.
I suddenly had an interest in Hercules because I could relate to him. I am not in any way, shape, or form a hero like Hercules. But he tells a story of the hard knocks of life and the power of such stories. It also has excellent power in the Sociology of seeking Social Justice. But more, I had finally engaged with the classics because of Susan Deacy and realised this connection.
I am not autistic, although I have dyslexia and dyspraxia, which can sometimes be classified as Neuodivergent (a description of neurodiversity can be found here). I have other disabilities through a chronic health condition, which I have reflected on in many stories. But even my pre-disability had similar connections with Hercules’s concept of harrowing journeys and choices. Other people I have met going through adversity or difficulty in life also seem to have a similar connection to this Hercules correlation.
I reflected on Professor Hugill’s comment earlier in the day about The Aeneid and my memories of the Aeneid book, which I had to read through my traumatic Greek Tragedy undergraduate degree module. Today I resurfaced my dusty Aeneid book from my bookshelf. Thanks to the internet, which wasn't around during my degree, it can help translate and help with the education of reading such complex text (for me, it is difficult for others to find it). More than that, Susan could enable people to make the classes relatable. I suddenly have an interest in re-reading the Aeneid……….
Thank you, Susan, for a brilliant and enjoyable day. I hope you collaborate with the University of Leicester at future events with which you are an Honorary Fellow. The format of the conference day was refreshing, and the concept of Susan having plenty of time to engage (and have conversations) properly is a phenomenon.
One of Susan’s books to buy can be found here. And her research blog project can be found here.
This article is part of my Conference Review Series by Emma Astra AKA The Disabled PhD Student ©, which can be found by clicking here. My wider PhD research project can be found by clicking here.
