This section is likely to expand in the future, as we are considering making available various papers on-line, but for now this is just a more basic introduction to our areas of study.
I graduated from Palm Bay High School in 1996 and enrolled at the University of Miami that autumn, double majoring in English and History. I had some wonderful professors -- to name a few: Dr. Hugh Thomas and Dr. David Graf in medieval and classical history respectively, Dr. Tom Goodmann and Dr. David Glimp for this and that in English literature -- and it was all quite good for me (other than doing fairly poorly in certain areas -- math, science, philosophy ... erk). Then I met Linda, with about a year or so to go for my B.A.'s, and I took off for Sweden. After several years of learning Swedish, I started up again at Gothenburg University in the Spring 2004 term, with quite a lot of credits from the University Miami carrying over. Indeed, I'm embarking on my Master's thesis in English Literature and after that's done there'll be no more than a semester or two left to actually get my M.A. degree.
I won't get down to nitty gritty details about my studies, simply because I sometimes can't make head or tails of it myself. I'd post some of the papers I've done, but other than my C-level essay on H.R. Haggard (which my supervisor has encouraged me to try and get published, and which I should probably get around to doing), most of my essays were done at the University of Miami and I sort of forgot to bring them with me to Sweden. They're probably sitting in a box in storage somewhere, waiting to be unearthed in years to come. I am, at least, considering using this site to post research materials, drafts, etc. of my Master's thesis.
Although I spent the equivalent of High School (gymnasiet) focusing on math, science and biology (naturvetenskaplig linje), this was primarily to ensure that I would have as many options as possible once I was finished, as it was the program that gave access to the largest number of university courses. Once finished, and before starting university, I studied English in Scotland for a semester. This course was finished off with the Cambridge Proficiency in English exam, on which I obtained a Grade A result. I then enrolled at Göteborgs universitet, where I started with a course in Archaeology before moving onto study primarily Classical History but also Latin, Greek, Rhetoric, Writing, Paleography and Translation. At the moment, I am waiting for my Master's thesis in the subject to be evaluated, following which I may apply for my degree. In Sweden, this requires having 80 credits in your main subject (which I will have once the thesis has been presented) and 80 credits in other subjects. I already have well over 80 credits in other subjects, but I may still end up studying some more before applying for the degree. First on the agenda is 20 credits of Literature and 20 credits of English, following which I may do another 10 credits each of Latin and Greek to bring those up to 40 credits each.
To some degree, however, these plans are dependant on whether or not I manage to get into the Classical History post-graduate program. As it stands, chances are slim due to there being funding for less than one student per year, so I may have to settle for continuing to bulk up my Academic resume while working part-time, hopefully as a translator, until I can manage to get into the program. If I do get in, my hope is that I would be able to continue combining my love of horses with my passion for Classical History, as I have done in the two 10-credit papers that compose my Master's thesis. Below, I have included the abstracts written for these two papers, to give an idea of what they are about, and in the future I hope to be able to provide the whole papers for viewing on-line.
Focusing on the two paired horse-burials from Dendra -- dated to the Middle and Late Bronze Age, respectively -- this paper attempts to explore aspects of the horse in Mycenaean society. To begin with, the Dendra horses are looked closely at, in order to investigate what they alone can tell us about the roles of the horse in the Mycenaean period and, in particular, about the roles of the four horses from Dendra.
Following upon that, the scope of the paper is widened and the Dendra horses are used to form the core of a broader investigation of the roles of the Mycenaean horse. To aid in this task, comparisons are drawn to similar finds. Additionally, pictorial, mythological and literary evidence is used to highlight various aspects of the horse and help in the attempts to answer such questions as when the horse was re-introduced to Greece, what functions the horse-drawn chariot served, what role horseback riding may have played and what symbolic and religious roles the horse may have filled in Middle and Late Bronze Age Greece.
The horse is one of the more popular motifs occurring upon the architectural terracotta reliefs that once decorated a variety of Etruscan buildings. While many of the depicted horses are shown harnessed to chariots, a large number are also shown ridden in processions, in what clearly appears to be races and in other, less easily interpreted contexts. The riders themselves are sometimes shown armed, sometimes unarmed, and a few are even depicted as mounted on one horse while leading a second.
This paper explores aspects of the Etruscan aristocracy and Etruscan horsemanship as illustrated by these depictions of mounted Etruscan horsemen. The primary questions that this paper attempts to answer are what activities these relief plaques are intend to portray, in what contexts both the relief plaques themselves and said activities belong and what purpose the actual relief plaques as well as the activities in question may have served in Etruscan society. Of particular interest is what significance they may have held for the Etruscan aristocracy.
