DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY
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Shushma Malik
Teacher and PhD candidate
Email: sm3614
Research
My doctoral research is concerned with the reception of the first-century AD Roman emperor Nero as an eschatological adversary in Christian works of late antiquity and its subsequent revival in the nineteenth century. In late antiquity Nero was named as the First Beast in the Book of Revelation and the eschatological adversary in the Sibylline Oracles and apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah. This afforded Nero a pivotal role in the ultimate destruction of the earth, the apocalypse. I explore how and why Nero in particular was singled out for this role in emerging Christian historiography and exegesis, and argue that this phenomenon cannot be studied in isolation but must be examined alongside pagan interpretations of Nero’s reign. The tradition of Nero as the Antichrist was revived in the nineteenth century in the works of Ernest Renan and F.W. Farrar amongst others, and this reception is fundamental to how the emperor is conceived of and talked about even today. My thesis specifically focuses on re-contextualising the religious discussions concerning Nero back into their historical context of Nero as a Roman emperor, both in terms of the late antique tradition of Nero as the eschatological adversary and the nineteenth century reception of Nero as the Antichrist.
I have wider research interests in the history and historiography of Imperial Rome, religion and religious identity in late antiquity, and the Neronian influence on the Decadent Movement of the nineteenth century, particularly Oscar Wilde.
I am supervised by Dr Shelley Hales.
Employment
- Co-Lecturer with Dr Shelley Hales: third year option Responses to Empire unit (CLAS30005) January – June 2011.
- Guest lecturer: 'Heroes and Villains in Tacitus' in first year option Literary Sources in Greek and Roman History unit (CLAS12320) March 1010.
- Guest lecturer: 'Decadence and Empire' in third year option Responses to Empire unit (CLAS30005) December 2009.
- Two-hour tutorial session for a MA student in Theories and Approaches to Reception and Historiography, December 2009.
- Marking Assistant: Literary Sources in Greek and Roman History (CLAS12320) June 2009.
- Marking Assistant: Hellenistic Greece (CLAS12382/22382) May 2009.
- Academic Reader for Dr Stephen D'Evelyn, Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition Cassamarca Fellow in Latin Language and Literature and their Reception, October 2009-February 2011.
Conferences
- Chair of the panel 'Receiving Religion,' To Receive is Never Neutral: A Multi-Disciplinary Workshop towards an Ethics of Reception, University of Bristol, 7 September 2011.
- Co-organiser of the Classics and Ancient History Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 29 June – 7 September 2010.
- Chair of the panel 'Giving a sign: Prophetic Language and Greek interpretation,' Classical Association Conference, University of Cardiff, 8 April 2010.
- Co-organiser of the Eighth BIRTHA Postgraduate Conference – What We Do, and Why: Interpretation and Methodology in Classics, University of Bristol, 9 September 2009.
Conference Papers
- 'Ultimate Corruption Manifest: Nero as the Antichrist in Antiquity,' Classics and Ancient History Senior Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 8 February 2011.
- 'Ultimate Corruption Manifest: Nero as the Antichrist in Late Antiquity,' Eleventh UNISA Classics Colloquium: Integrity and Corruption in Antiquity, University of South Africa in Pretoria, 22 October 2010.
- 'Nero and the Nineteenth Century: Ernest Renan and F.W. Farrar,' Classics and Ancient History Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 17 August 2010.
- 'Nero as Eschatological Adversary: An Intersection in Ancient History and Theology,' 2010 Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, Diverse Engagement: Drawing in the Margins, University of Cambridge, 28 June 2010.
- 'Nero's Rome as a Model for fin-de-siècle Decadence in the Life and Works of Oscar Wilde,' The 2010 Classical Association Annual Conference, University of Cardiff, 10 April 2010.
- 'Nero’s Rome as a Model for fin-de-siècle Decadence in the Life and Works of Oscar Wilde,' Classics and Ancient History Senior Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 30 March 2010.
- 'The Concepts Behind Luxury and Decadence: Ancient and Modern,' The Eighth BIRTHA Postgraduate Conference – What We Do, and Why: Interpretation and Methodology in Classics, University of Bristol, 9 September 2009.
- 'The Concepts Behind Luxury and Decadence: Ancient and Modern,' Classics and Ancient History Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 28 August 2009.
- 'Nero’s Rome as a Model for fin-de-siècle Decadence,' Sexual Knowledge: Uses of the Past, University of Exeter, 27-29 July 2009.
- 'Receptions of Nero in the Life and Works of Oscar Wilde,' Classics and Ancient History Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Bristol, 21 July 2009.
- 'Youth and Luxuria in the Imperial Household,' Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient History, University of Reading, 28 March 2009.
- 'Religious Identity as a Means of Unification in Third-Century AD Rome,' Thirteenth Joint Postgraduate Conference in Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol, 15 March 2008.
Publications
- 'Ultimate Corruption Manifest: Nero as the Antichrist in Late Antiquity,' Acta Classica Supplementary Volume, forthcoming 2012.
- I am in the process of revising the paper 'Nero's Rome as a Model for fin-de siècle Decadence’ for publication in the Conference Proceedings of Sexual Knowledge: Uses of the Past, held at the University of Exeter, 27-29 July 2009.
Awards
- Graduate Bursary: £250 for conference fee and travel to Triennial Conference 2011: A Celebration of Classics, University of Cambridge, April 2011.
- Hugh Last and Donald Atkinson Funds Committee, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies: £200 for conference travel to Eleventh UNISA Classics Colloquium 2010, Pretoria, University of South Africa, March 2011.
- Young Academic Residing Funding: £350 for conference fee and accommodation for Eleventh UNISA Classics Colloquium 2010, Pretoria, University of South Africa, September 2010.
- Bristol Graduate School Fund: £100 for travel of visiting speakers to Classics and Ancient History Postgraduate Seminar Series 2010, University of Bristol, June 2010.
- Classical Association Conference Bursary: £250 for conference fee and meals at the Classical Association Conference 2010, University of Cardiff, February 2010.
- Graduate Student Bursary: £200 for conference fee and accommodation at Sexual Knowledge: Uses of the Past, University of Exeter, June 2009.
- Postgraduate Bursary: £182 for accommodation, conference fee and meals at Identity, Representation and the Principate, University of St Andrews, June 2008.
- Thomas Wiedemann Memorial Fund Travel Bursary: £90 for travel to Identity, Representation and the Principate, University of St Andrews, June 2008.