“Named after the Greek goddess of wisdom, the aim of Athena Society was founded in 2021 to promote curiosity about the past, present and future in an interdisciplinary way by creating better understanding of important under-represented issues. For IWD 2024, we launched our first issue of 'The Athena Society Journal' - a publication for students to write about their research on new perspectives in Classics, History and Politics.

If adults even have difficulty discussing gender equality issues with their own friends, family and colleagues, how can we bring young people together and help them to navigate this? Both male and female students often don’t feel empowered to talk about these issues amongst their peers. Athena Society was born to try and provide the kickstart to these conversations. Every school can join the Athena Society and set up their own local discussion groups by using and collaborating in the creation of our resources.

Athena Society groups provide a space outside of lessons in a relaxed atmosphere where students set the agenda themselves, deciding on research they want to do to try and understand big questions about society. The research that students undertake for the Athena Society help to illustrate how present issues are often the remnants of long shadows from the past. By bringing historical context to popular culture, students feel empowered to ask new questions about the media content they consume, develop the knowledge to think critically about new perspectives on old stories and discuss ways to be actively involved in positive societal change.”

WHAT WAS OUR IMPACT?

“From one motivated group of students in one classroom four years ago, we have grown into a movement that has encompassed students from multiple year groups and now multiple schools want to collaborate. Difficulty has been to keep momentum going, especially when key founder students have moved on to university. Also to engage boys in these conversations too - having male staff be involved in the group discussions has helped.

Also getting students to read articles rather than just social media posts can be challenging - we have an Instagram account @athenasocietyofficial but I often find cutting things for social media loses the nuance that the article has - instead we are using it to promote reading the journal itself now.”

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

“Sometimes we underestimate how curious students can be about the world. They want to try and understand why things are the way they are so that they can try to change things for the better. Being equipped with knowledge of the historical context of long-term societal issues has been a fantastic way to engage students in a way that feels 'safe'.

The key thing about Athena Society is that students decide what they want to research based on their interests/gaps in knowledge. They have gone beyond the curriculum, found hidden figures not in exam specifications, and pursued personal interests too. Classics is a subject not taught in many schools so it is another way to engage interest and show how old myths can be re-told in new ways.”

WHAT WOULD WE DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

“Start the Journal four years ago when we began!”