New ECR Affiliate: Jessica McKenzie

Jessica is an Early Career Researcher in Ancient History and Archaeology. They graduated from The University of Queensland with a BA (Hons) in Ancient History and Archaeology and a Diploma of Languages in 2015 and received her MPhil from UQ in 2018. Her research interests include the relationships and tensions between space, identity, and material culture in ancient Sicily and South Italy, the Mediterranean Sea as a medium for connectivity, and the constructions of community identities in ancient texts.

Jessica has recently submitted her PhD thesis at Macquarie for examination, titled ‘The Strait of Messana in the Roman World: Connectivity, Space, and Identity between Italy and Sicily (300 BCE – 400 CE)’, and is now working to expand the theoretical framework established in this study to other straits and liminal waterways in the ancient Mediterranean.

Jessica also manages the SPQR Roman History series of seminars, lunches, and reading groups at Macquarie, and is a founding member of the Macquarie Graduate Researchers Union.

CACHE looks forward to following along Jessica’s career and welcomes them to the CACHE community for the duration of their ECR affiliation.

Jessica McKenzie is a sessional Teaching Academic in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University. For more on Jessica’s work, follow them on Twitter.

Image by Jessica McKenzie 2023.