Group Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean, and at San Quentin

This semester I am teaching Ancient History in the College Program at San Quentin, together with UC Berkeley graduate students David Devore, Tim Doran, Lisa Eberle, and Tom Hendrickson. The course studies selected topics in the history of the ancient Mediterranean, focusing particularly on the development of a group identity among Israelites, Greeks, and Romans. Reading ranges from the Bible and
Homer to Greek tragedy, Herodotus, Vergil, and Tacitus.

The first day at work at San Quentin can be a pretty anxious one. The mere clanging of the heavy iron gate behind one is enough to create a few shivers. Entrance into the class on that first day with a room full of unknown inmates (for a course in ancient history at that!) can only raise the level of apprehension.

But the nervousness evaporates quite rapidly. The Prison University Project and the San Quentin authorities make a point of creating a genuine classroom atmosphere. No guards are conspicuous or in the immediate vicinity. The room is set up for educational purposes and everyone fits immediately into the role of instructor or pupil as in a university setting. The inmates in this context are simply students, polite, serious, and genuinely interested in learning.

Our experience in this ancient history course has been overwhelmingly positive. Students with little background in the subject (almost all of them) are eager to fill in the gaps, to gain knowledge of unfamiliar but intriguing material, and to offer their own thoughts on it. They also bring their own special experience to the classroom, with a comfortable self-awareness that is impressive. In response to a question about the different ways in which people express their identity, a student said “either as law-abiding or criminal”– a rather moving reply that few instructors or students outside that context would have thought to make.

On the whole, students have been conscientious and industrious. In individual conversations about written work, we have found them to be intensely interested in improving style, content, and analysis. In class, we get pointed questions, sometimes thoughtful, even searching ones.

To be sure, there have been ups and downs. On one occasion, we got little or no participation from students who had evidently paid no attention to the assignment. But this led to perhaps the most touching and welcome result. In the following session, without prompting, we received apologies, heartfelt, genuine, and sincere. Students paid tribute to the fact that we are donating our time and effort, expressed
contrition and a determination not to let it happen again. I don’t recall that ever happening from students at Cal!

Erich Gruen is Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at the
University of California, Berkeley