Latin inscriptions in the Ashmolean Museum: influencing curatorial practice and extending educational scope to new audiences

The core research component of our AHRC grant, 'Facilitating Access to Latin inscriptions in Britain's Oldest Public Museum through Scholarship & Technology', is a new edition of the museum's collection of 470 Latin inscriptions. Our work in storerooms & archives has uncovered unpublished inscriptions, has rediscovered inscriptions in the collection which were believed to be lost, & has resulted in new readings & interpretations of published inscriptions, through the use of modern digital technology. Both monumental & non-monumental inscriptions have the potential to offer insights into individuals' lives; it is this possibility for telling stories about the past that has proved effective in showing visitors to the museum how Latin inscriptions can change their views of Roman society.

We've collaborated with staff in the Ashmolean's Antiquities, Design, Conservation, & Education Depts to develop new displays in the museum, to design innovative events engaging the public in our research, to deliver a joined-up programme of public engagement using social media & digital resources along with public lectures & gallery tours, & a multifaceted engagement with schools that has offered resources & activities for primary & secondary schools, has delivered training for secondary teachers & museum volunteers, & has worked with the Cambridge Schools Classics Project to produce mini-films for use in classrooms for teaching GCSE Classical Civilisation. We have systematically evaluated the effectiveness of the different forms of public engagement, & continue to explore innovative pathways for impact, using feedback from participants to inform future plans.

Firstly, we shall organise 2 workshops for museum curators in the UK & Europe, to exchange knowledge about successful strategies for facilitating access to Latin inscriptions among the public. Secondly, we shall collaborate with Warwick Sutton Scholars to offer to school students from widening participation backgrounds an opportunity to learn new skills in order to be able to engage in their own research, & to learn about Roman culture & the Latin language, introducing to the Roman world pupils who do not have the opportunity to study classical subjects as part of their usual curriculum. Thirdly, we will adapt the educational resources which we have created for UK schools for use in North America and Australasia. With our guidance, more teachers will have access to primary source material that can be used for teaching classical civilisation & Latin language. Finally, we shall create a varied collection of replicas of everyday objects which bear Latin inscriptions of different kinds: these will be used by the Education Dept. for school visits & for touch-tours for visually impaired visitors. Somewhat speculatively, we would also like to explore the potential for such objects to stimulate groups of adults who suffer from strokes & dementia by taking artefacts out into the community & leading interactive activities about writing technologies.

Our research has highlighted the potential of unpublished & little-known inscriptions in the museum as sources for Roman social history. Several benefits will result from our proposed activities for different constituencies: professional curators in heritage management will be able to exchange ideas about best practice in facilitating public access to Latin inscriptions; our project will introduce school students in the UK from widening participation profiles who do not otherwise study classical subjects to the excitement of working with original artefacts, & will encourage them to develop skills in carrying out & presenting their research; educational resources created for the UK will be adapted for international use, & teachers will be supported in using Latin inscriptions in their teaching; our replicas will allow individuals to touch & interact with the objects, stimulating responses towards the objects & the social history behind them.

We aim to engage a wider variety of user communities in our research than could have been envisaged in our original proposal, in order to encompass museum curators in the UK & in the EU; school students from widening participation backgrounds who haven't had the chance to study Classical subjects at school; international school students & their teachers in North America & Australasia; & adults suffering from brain impairments. These pathways to impact have opened up during the course of our initial AHRC funding period (2013-2016) because of new collaborations developed during our project.
We shall hold 2 workshops to create dialogue between museum curators & epigraphers: one workshop will be held in Warwick for UK curators, & the other at the British School at Rome for European colleagues, in association with EAGLE (Europeana Network of Ancient Greek & Latin Epigraphy, a project funded by the European Commission). By holding these two workshops, we aim to exchange ideas with professionals from the heritage sector about ways of successfully facilitating access to Latin inscriptions for the public. Museum curators will benefit from the opportunity to exchange ideas on current activities & future plans, to discuss how the impact of public engagement can be measured, & to consider how collaboration with epigraphic scholars can open up new ways of contextualising Latin inscriptions.

By participating in the new Warwick Sutton Scholars programme, we will be able to direct our energies towards a completely new audience of school students, helping to inspire them to aim towards applying to University, by giving them a hands-on experience of research. Specifically, we aim to introduce a group of about 50 students to Roman history & the Latin language, via engagement with the Latin inscriptions in the Ashmolean. Participants will be students from Year 8 who come from backgrounds that are under-represented in higher education. The programme is open to schools from across the West Midlands. We shall offer a series of five day-workshops about the Roman world, focusing upon how students can benefit from engaging with primary sources, notably Latin inscriptions. We shall hold a series of Saturday workshops, including a trip to the Ashmolean, so that the students can develop research skills & transferable presentation skills, in investigating an inscription in the museum, & then writing up their research in poster form. Participants will also receive training in oral presentation skills & in how to present their ideas in poster format. This will be a new pathway to impact because it will be introducing the study of Roman culture & of the Latin language to school students who otherwise do not have the opportunity to study classical subjects at school, in contrast to our current educational programme which engages with schools where classical studies already exist in some form. This programme will generate educational resources which can then be used in other widening participation activities.

The reach of our educational programme will be extended to schools in North America & Australasia. We shall adapt our existing worksheets designed for GCSE & AS/A2 Latin, Classical Civilisation, & Ancient History in order to suit the different educational contexts. This will help teachers to become confident in using Latin inscriptions in their teaching in different ways, & enable school students to engage directly in primary source materials.

Finally, we hope to be able to make a distinctive contribution to the Ashmolean's programme that engages with adults who have suffered brain damage. By creating replica objects for individuals to touch & use (eg in producing stamped lettering on clay), & focusing upon the role of writing in everyday Roman life, we would like to explore whether connections can be evoked between past & present that might play some role in stimulating responses to their surroundings in stroke- & dementia- sufferers.