Dan-el Padilla Peralta ’06 redefines the classics in new Forward Thinker video
“My name is Dan-el Padilla Peralta and I am a forward thinker.”
In one of the new videos produced by the Office of Communications to celebrate A Year of Forward Thinking, Dan-el Padilla Peralta ’06, an associate professor of classics at Princeton, discusses the importance of redefining the classics to become a more inclusive field of study.
“Classics is important because it has mattered to people who hold power,” said Padilla Peralta, a Roman historian who’s taught at Princeton since 2016. “What matters to me now is how we move from a space that has canonized certain experiences, certain literatures, to a more ecumenical understanding of how to make classicism an option for all communities.”
Padilla Peralta is one of nine faculty members who is featured in the Forward Thinkers series that explores the innovative ideas that are inspiring them to pursue paradigm-shifting research. To view the other videos, visit the YouTube playlist.
