By Joshen Mantai
UC Santa Barbara graduate student Julio Vega doesn’t see his field of Classics as a way of living in the past. Instead, he hopes to share with students the forward-thinking principles in classical literature. In particular he is researching modern interpretations of gender and environmental theory. Vega focuses primarily on empowering students from underrepresented groups in the Classics field, encouraging them to grow confident in their contributions to academia.
Vega has been awarded UCSB’s prestigious Dean’s Prize Teaching Fellowship, by the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. It is a way to reward doctoral candidates for excellence in teaching with a stipend for the development of a seminar created and taught by the winner.
Vega’s seminar is titled “Classic Antiquity and the Environment: Poetry and the Construction of Nature.” It will be offered to upper-division students next winter.
Vega will also teach “Intensive Elementary Ancient Greek” this summer as a part of the UCSB Historically Black Colleges and Universities program with Howard University students, created for collaborative research and mentorship with potential Ph.D. candidates.
In a recent interview, Vega discussed his passion for teaching, his personal connection to ancient texts, and the contemporary lens he uses to analyze literature.
Classics graduate student Julio Vega has received the Dean’s Prize Teaching Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year. Photo by Jill Title.
Q: How were you introduced to the UCSB-Howard University Initiative? What do you think you can offer students?
A: I was introduced to it only a few months ago from my advisor Helen Morales, and was asked to be a part of it. Its mission is to help students from underrepresented groups in academia integrate, which is important to me, being from an underrepresented group myself.
This program will empower students to genuinely think of themselves in the world of academia. We all struggle with “imposter syndrome,” and I struggle with that still and would like to work through this struggle with my students.
Q: What are some personal teaching techniques that you employ in your classes and sections?
A: What I’ve learned during the process of writing about my teaching philosophy is that it comes back to setting up class for students to genuinely feel that their research is important. Classics is a highly problematic field, and a lot of the literature we go over is rife with difficult issues. I encourage my students to push back, and I walk into class asking what they think to create more of a discussion.
Q: Why do you think gender interpretation and environmental theory are important to study in classical literature?
A: Nature has typically been terribly constructed by old white men as “feminine” in ancient literature. It’s important to innovate what we have, and part of that is bringing in students who have fresh perspectives on ancient texts. This is what makes the field exciting.
Similarly, shifting these texts to feminist readings in turning the perspective away from Odysseus and to Circe and other female characters is important. Why should we read these stories the same outdated way?
Q: What inclined you to return to study in the Department of Classics at the graduate level?
A: I remember graduating UCSB in 2013 with a Classics degree, and having no idea of what I was going to do. These epic stories like “The Odyssey” really spoke to me in trying to find your way home and arriving at these different places and the feeling of not belonging.
I always used to cringe when I had to explain in diversity fellowship applications why my life is so different from other people’s. It’s this very awkward but necessary thing you have to reflect upon, and it’s only been recently where I’ve seen that these stories appeal to me on a subconscious level of not belonging. I think it was me not wanting to confront the mountain that is my own feeling of self-worth in this field that I didn’t see myself in.
Joshen Mantai is a second-year Environmental Studies major. She wrote this for her Journalism for Web and Social Media class.