We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Sears, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics, has been awarded a Cultivating Disagreement Curricular Development Grant by WashU’s Civil Society Initiative.
The Cultivating Disagreement grants support faculty in developing curricular innovations—new courses, modules, or materials—that foster a culture of reasoned disagreement on campus. Recipients receive a $600 stipend and present their work at the Civil Society Initiative’s spring symposium, scheduled for Spring 2026.
Professor Sears’s well-established record of creative teaching and interdisciplinary innovation aligns beautifully with the grant’s mission. Since joining the Department of Classics as Lecturer in 2018 and becoming Senior Lecturer effective July 1, 2024, she has distinguished herself through her commitment to pedagogical excellence and curricular experimentation.
Her recent teaching innovations include transforming Latin prose instruction through role-playing games, which she presented at the 7th Annual WashU Language Teaching Fair (August 22, 2025). In this model, students embody political figures from the Roman Second Triumvirate, crafting Latin prose in dynamic, narrative contexts.
Building on that momentum, Professor Sears has also developed a new first-year seminar, CLASSICS 1900: Republic or Empire? Recreating Roman Politics of the Second Triumvirate, set to launch in Spring 2026. This course invites students to explore ancient Roman politics via role-playing exercises—though it will not include a Latin language component.
The Cultivating Disagreement grant presents an exciting opportunity to expand her innovative teaching methods further—encouraging students to articulate and defend diverse perspectives within classical studies and beyond. The support will empower her to develop course structures or materials that facilitate respectful, critical dialogue on contested issues.
Professor Sears’s scholarly interests span ancient music, papyrology, Latin poetry (especially Ovid’s Metamorphoses), and ancient magic, and she is currently completing a textbook on Greek and Roman music for University of Michigan Press.
Next Steps
Presentation: Professor Sears will share insights from her project at the Civil Society Initiative symposium in Spring 2026.
Curricular Development: We anticipate her course innovations will further enrich Classics curriculum and foster a vibrant, inclusive learning environment.
Please join us in congratulating Rebecca Sears on this well-deserved achievement—and we look forward to the creative and dialogic possibilities her work will bring to our community.
