

Dan-el Padilla Peralta, "Classicism and Other Phobias" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Jul 30, 2025
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a classics professor at Princeton and author of "Classicism and Other Phobias," explores the intersection of classicism and racial politics. He argues that traditional views of classicism often marginalize Black expressions and suggests a reimagined classicism rooted in insurgence and emancipation. Delving into the histories of ancient Greece and Rome, he examines their ties to colonialism and their impact on Black narratives. Featuring insights on Black classicism and art, Padilla Peralta calls for a fundamental shift in understanding classicism.
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Childhood Discovery Shaped A Scholar
- Dan-el Padilla Peralta recounts finding a book called How People Live in Ancient Greece and Rome while living in a NYC shelter as a fourth grader.
- That early encounter sparked his lifelong interest and curiosity about why Greek and Roman cultures were so valorized.
Classicism Is A Process, Not Just A Label
- Classicism is a process that assigns prestige, temporal remove, and membership in a tradition to certain works.
- Padilla Peralta emphasizes classicism as an ongoing multi-century mechanism, not just a label for texts.
1492 As A Turning Point For Classicism
- Padilla Peralta locates 1492 as pivotal to classicism's global rise and the overrepresentation of European forms.
- He ties that rise to settler-colonial and slave-trade dynamics that devalue other cultures.