Ella is a Junior Research Fellow in Classics, specialising in the social and intellectual history of late antiquity, from c. 350 – 700 C.E. She has previously taught at Marlboro College, Vermont, and at Brown University (where she completed a PhD), and currently directs the Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Late Antiquity Network of the UK.
Her research stems from a central question: how would our understanding of the Roman empire change by taking seriously the intellectual cultures and traditions of some of its least powerful inhabitants?
She is currently working on a book, based on her PhD thesis, about the intellectual worlds of late antique shorthand-writers, and their role in shaping religious, political, and legal life in the later Roman empire. An article arising from this project has appeared in the Journal of Roman Studies, and further work is forthcoming with Brill. Her second book project, tentatively entitled Women who count: the nuptial curriculum in late antiquity, aims to investigate the ways in which women and girls across the social spectrum were trained to withstand the experience of late Roman marriage.
Select Publications
Kirsh E. ‘Etched into the Soul’: The Education of Shorthand-Writers in Late Antiquity. Journal of Roman Studies. Published online 2024:1-24. doi:10.1017/S0075435824000261