An Introduction to Me (Jess Nipper)!

Hi (wow, that’s not very academic, let’s try that again).

Hello (is that better? Let’s just go with it for now).

My name is Jess, I’m one of the graduate historians contributing to this blog, and I thought it might be nice to just write a few words to properly introduce myself. I know Saxon is writing a general introduction to us all and to this blog, but I wanted to let people know my specific interests and areas of past research, what fields of research I hope to progress onto, and where I eventually want to end up career wise.

So, my areas of research; I’m primarily an imperial Rome kinda gal, with a specific focus on the Flavian emperors between AD 69 and AD 96, as well as gender studies within the imperial period, in particular looking at the masculinisation of female Christian martyrs and their presentation in later martyrologies. These two areas of study were where I focused my research for my BA and MA dissertations respectively, and despite all the blood, sweat, and tears shed over them I am still passionate about these periods of Western History.

I’m not entirely sure why I love Roman history so much, it’s just always where my heart has lain; when I was a child I read Caroline Lawrence’s middle grade series The Roman Mysteries, and I suppose these sparked me lifelong love affair with everything Roman. In fact, I only finished reading this series this year with it’s followup mini series, The Roman Quests, and it’s safe to say that my fondness for these characters sowed the seeds of interest in the Flavian dynasty. The story of a single family rising up from middle class Roman society to become emperors and rule over such a vast empire, questions of how they managed to seize power for themselves amid civil war, how they retained that power, and why it all went south for Domitian in the later first century AD still ignite such an excitement in my chest that I feel giddy whenever I get the chance to discuss this family and their exploits.

Rome is my specialism, but I also find gender studies a fascinating field of historical inquest, something which I share with Emrys on this blog. Where her specialism lies with queens and queendom, mine lies with the women of lower social classes. I would very much like to expand my knowledge of religious persecution into the medieval period, and how women were viewed in such circumstances; an easy period to hone in on would be the witch trials of the late medieval and early modern periods, but I am always digging for more examples, more histories, more stories to be unlocked and discussed.

Other areas I enjoy researching and discussing are:

•        the history of medicine and healthcare

•        the history of science and the development of scientific processes

•        the mythology of ancient Egypt - I would like to look into Egyptology more, seeing as I haven’t really read up about it in nearly a decade, it would be nice to get a refresher

•        homicide laws in ancient Greece and the Roman Republic - I did a whole module on this in my third year at uni

•        the literature of the ancient poets, and how these works were used as propaganda, and interpreted by their readers then and now

•        military history - especially within the ancient world and early medieval period (largely battle tactics, weaponry, impact of battles/wars on the local population/societal structure)

So that’s me, a classicist who dabbles in almost every other historical period, but who is most definitely a lover of ancient Rome at heart. I look forward to writing for this blog and sharpening the old historical pen again.

Until next time,

 

Jess Nipper.