BUZZ
Was co-recipient of a $1 million grant in 2024 to apply ‘critical race studies’ to the classics
Princeton University’s so-called “champion of anti-racism in classics” will be headed to Arizona State University this coming August.
Dan-el Padilla Peralta “rocketed to classics stardom” as a Princeton undergraduate (graduating in ’06), and has since been “among the most prominent voices” demanding study of the classics “be transformed” or dismantled outright due to “its links to racism and white supremacy.”
The co-recipient of a $1 million grant in 2024 to apply “critical race studies” to said classics, Padilla told The Daily Princetonian his decision to move “reflects a long-standing desire to teach at a public institution.”
He noted his issue with Princeton’s “informal motto” of “In Service of Humanity” (it “did not fully align with [his] own sense of what a community truly geared towards the public would look like”), and said he had a “loss of faith” in the school’s “priorities” over the last few years.
Padilla specifically pointed to the university’s response to students’ “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” “faculty advocacy for rights of self-governance,” denials of professors’ tenure, and the need for more emphasis on mental health.
Padilla also “faced backlash from right-wing institutions” following a 2021 New York Times Magazine profile which notes “Classics was a discipline around which the modern Western university grew, and Padilla believes that it has sown racism through the entirety of higher education.”
That was the same year Princeton mandated freshmen to view an hour-long video about the university’s “systemic racism.” Padilla, one of the panelists involved, criticized Princeton for not doing enough for illegal immigrants.
In contrast to Princeton, Padilla said ASU seems “to be doing something very right in its commitment to inclusion.” He added “ASU has a fundamentally stronger connection to a public-service community,” noting its “’fundamental responsibility’ for the communities it serves, including ‘economic, social, cultural, and overall health.’”
Padilla will teach at ASU’s School of International Languages and Cultures, and he hopes to “scale” the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance studies’ “existing course offerings to include more on the ancient world.”
Regarding his sizable 2024 grant, Padilla and Brown University’s Sasha-Mae Eccleston said their work was vital given the “multi-pronged and multi-dimensional assaults against racialized communities, and on the teaching of race and settler-colonialism.”
MORE: Prof who criticized extra pay for black faculty labeled example of racism at Princeton
