If you wish to get in touch with our administrative staff, please see the admin staff contact page.
Nikki Rollason
Honorary Research Fellow,
Contact
Biography
I studied at the University of Nottingham for my BA (Hons) in Classical Civilisation and MA in Ancient History. After a three-year period spent working outside of academia I completed my PhD in Classics at the University of Nottingham in 2013. Both during and after my doctoral studies I worked as a Teaching Affiliate at the university I was awarded my current position at the University of Nottingham as Honorary Research Fellow in 2015.
Expertise Summary
My general area of research is Late Antiquity, primarily understanding and negotiation of authority Late Antique Christian literature, and the use of clothing as a literary device in Christian and non-Christian Late Antique texts.
Teaching Summary
I have taught and continue to teach on a variety of modules offered by the department at all levels of undergraduate study. Although I am primarily involved in Roman history and culture modules, I… read more
Research Summary
I am currently in the final stages of preparing my first monograph for publishing with Ashgate. This is based on my PhD thesis and examines the use of clothing as a literary device in Late Antique… read more
Recent Publications
I have taught and continue to teach on a variety of modules offered by the department at all levels of undergraduate study. Although I am primarily involved in Roman history and culture modules, I also have experience in literature, visual culture and Greek history modules. These include:
- Ancient Faces
- Classics and Popular Culture
- Constantine
- Extended Source Study
- Interpreting Ancient Art
- Interpreting Ancient History
- Interpreting Ancient Literature
- Slavery in Roman Society
- The Christian Empire
- The Fall of the Roman Republic
- The Roman Empire in the East
- Women in the Greek World
In addition I have delivered lectures within some of the above modules and have taught both Beginners and Advanced Latin. I am currently supervising undergraduate dissertations on women in early Christianity, the development of Christian architecture under Constantine, and Theodosius' legislation against traditional Roman religions.
Externally to the department I have taught Medieval Latin at beginners to intermediate level.
Current Research
I am currently in the final stages of preparing my first monograph for publishing with Ashgate. This is based on my PhD thesis and examines the use of clothing as a literary device in Late Antique literature. Within the framework of the intimate and personal nature of both clothing and gift-giving (both of which underpinned social relationships in Roman and Late Antique society, but which are rarely considered together) this work demonstrates that when the imperial and court chlamys, the consul's trabea and the bishop's pallium appeared in Late Antique literature they were not functioning only as 'real-life' examples of gift-giving. Rather, they should be seen as devices used by authors to discuss authority in a period when authority was no longer necessarily found in the traditional locals of the earlier period.
Past Research
Past research includes the examination of Christian asceticism's appeal to the aristocratic women of the fourth and fifth century by considering it within the context of traditional Roman concepts of womanhood, in order to challenge the idea that asceticism provided these women with freedom from conventional gender-based social restraints.
Future Research
Future areas of interest continue to lie within the period of Late Antiquity, and will focus primarily on Christian literature, particularly the writings of Jerome.