Hello All! This is my first blog post I’ve written (ever, and for this project). I thought I could write both a little about myself and the project, as well as an update on my first two weeks of living in London since I’ve moved here.
A little about me: My name is Hilary, and I graduated from Johns Hopkins this May with both my BA (History; Classics) and MA (History). There, I specialized in studying two main topics. The first is the Atlantic World, referring broadly to the interactions among peoples and empires bordering the Atlantic Ocean itself from ~16th-19th centuries. The second is something called “classical reception,” referring to the study of how and why the texts, ideas, images and material cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome have been received, refigured, or adapted in different historical and cultural contexts.
Taken together, I’m interested in how historical actors in the Atlantic World engaged with classical antiquity. In undergrad, I studied anything from how Indigenous Mexican persons engaged with Ancient Greek sybils (more or less oracles) amidst the colonization of what is now Mexico City (Tenochtitlan); to how women in colonial Maryland published Latin poems; or even translating portions of the Iliad. My MA thesis was a bit more specific. There, I studied how Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren, and Catharine Macaulay—three eighteenth-century female writers of the Atlantic world—each employed a prose deeply rooted in the ideas and motifs of classical antiquity.
I loved writing that thesis so much, and the disciplines of classical reception and the Atlantic World more generally, that I applied for Johns Hopkins’ Meg Walsh Grant, which is awarded to one graduating senior to pursue an international, independent research project of their own design. I proposed I would continue research on Catharine Macaulay, a female British historian, while being based in London itself. While I had the opportunity to travel around America to access historical materials on all three women in my MA thesis, I felt that there was, and is, so much more work I can do by being based in England. To truly understand the British/American context in which Macaulay (as well as Warren and Wheatley) lived, I found it imperative I move abroad and travel across the UK to continue my work.
This website serves as the main hub of all my activity on Macaulay. Here, I intend to post both blog post updates on what it has meant, and means to move abroad, how to approach historical research, and any day-to-day basics of the archive and libraries more generally. So too will I post longer scholarly updates where I will dive into the writing of Macaulay and attempt to break down her philosophy for a larger, non-academic audience. Ultimately, I hope this work both allows others outside of the field of history to engage with the discipline and how it still remains relevant to this day, as well as maintaining a real and honest updates on how I’ve gone about this project and the transition to moving abroad.
Now that I’ve won the Meg Walsh Award, and now am actually living in London, I just celebrated my two-week anniversary. Somehow, it’s felt like both only 2 days and also a long 2 months that I’ve been here. Here are some of my main takeaways:
- London is huge
Just for context, I’ve spent time in London before (I studied abroad at the University of Cambridge), so I knew how big London was, but it’s one thing to visit and be based centrally and another to move here and have to commute. I live in Zone 2 (which is still close to central London, but by no means central) and I quickly learned no matter where I want to go, it’s always somehow 45 minutes away. Since moving here, I’ve been offered a space in a bike garage, so I intend to switch to biking as a primary mode of transportation to both cut down on commute times and save some money on transportation! - Making friends postgrad can be tough to navigate
I have been so lucky to move into a house full of 5 other very social friends but it’s been weird not being in a university setting where making friends is so much easier and expected. I knew a few girls from my time at Cambridge still based around London, as well as a few friends from Hopkins who have also moved to London, but I am otherwise starting from scratch. Facebook groups have been surprisingly helpful. I also joined a rowing club to make friends (given that we see each other up to 8x a week, I have a good feeling about getting close to my teammates). - Research in London is a bit different than research in the US
When I first was thinking about how I wanted to go about completing this project, I thought it would be most wise to be based in London so the British Library was easily accessible (quite comparable to the American Library of Congress). When I got here, though, I found that very unfortunately the British Library had suffered from a cyber attack, so almost all research (including requesting archival materials) has to be done in person. There’s been a shift in the field of History more generally toward the digital, so it’s been nice to come back to the physical act of research. The libraries here are gorgeous and it’s been refreshing to interact with staff and physical catalogues instead of computer-generated systems! - The weather is truly as unpredictable as it is stereotyped to be
This is pretty self-explanatory. Even when it’s sunny, it suddenly rains. It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit when I wrote this piece, and I wore a tank top outside because I was so excited it wouldn’t rain and was warm-ish (and I was right, the commute through the tubes was, in fact, rather hot). - London is expensive!!
London is so expensive. I’m living off of a generous grant, but it’s still been tough to manage expenses (especially with the ever declining currency exchange rate). That being said, it’s been fun to try out new grocery stores and rewards programs to minimize essential costs, taking advantage of railcard savings (I qualify for a 16-25 railcard, which is 33% off most forms of rail travel – I’ve even connected this to my Oyster card to lessen tube costs), and look into alternative transportation options (like my bike – the tube rates are crazy).
Those are my reflections for now, and this post is at no shortage for words. With that, I will continue with my reading list here at the British Library and prepare for some rowing tonight!
