Expert in the Natural Roman Cityscape
I began studying Latin at Stamford School, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, and continued my studies all the way from my first day at the school to my last. From there, I went to the University of Nottingham to complete first a BA in Latin, then an MA in Classical Literature, before a PhD in Classics, funded by the Midlands3Cities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.
During my MA, I chanced upon a tree in the account of Romulus’ and Remus’ exposure, and it quickly became a fascination. This tree, the Ruminal fig tree, went from being the topic of a five minute presentation, to a proposed case study for a short essay, then the focus of my MA dissertation, and finally the route into my PhD thesis, which was entitled ‘Living Trophies: Trees, Triumphs, and the Subjugation of Nature in Early Imperial Rome’.
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Over the course of my PhD, I was supervised between Classics and Geography, and a key characteristic of my research is the combination of both ancient materials and modern methodologies, developed outside the study of the ancient world. Now, I am applying the same methodologies in a new postdoctoral project, with the University of Nottingham Midlands4Cities Next Steps Postdoctoral Fellowship, which assesses the role of trees within buildings, and how the Mausoleum of Augustus’ relationship with its surrounding landscape has changed over the course of its 2000 year history, from its creation to its current restoration.
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Outside of academia, I have a wide range of interests, from field hockey to cross-stitch to forcing my experimental cooking on my very patient family. I also have a pair of cats and fill my phone with pictures of them.
