Reproduction of a 19th-century ceramic votive shrine from Cerreto Sannita, Campania. On display in the Museo Civico della Ceramica Cerretese.

Reproduction of a 19th-century ceramic votive shrine from Cerreto Sannita, Campania. On display in the Museo Civico della Ceramica Cerretese.

Greetings! Thank you for visiting my website. I work in the Department of Classical Studies at The Open University in the UK. This is my personal research site, where I’ll be posting some of my work on votives, memory and the evolving religious landscape of Campania, Italy.

This coming year (October 2023 - October 2024) I have a Senior Research Fellowship from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. During this time I will be completing a book on the Catholic Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, focusing in particular on the Shrine’s evolving relationship with the archaeological excavations of the neighbouring ancient city of Pompeii, and with the wider Vesuvian landscape. The book will be published by Oxford University Press, as part of the Classical Presences series (exp. 2025).

I hope you enjoy looking round. You can find more details of my research, teaching and public engagement activities on my Open University webpage.

Jessica Hughes

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Religion and Memory in the Valley of Pompeii
Religion and Memory in the Valley of Pompeii

Work in progress - book project 2023/24.

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Gods' Collections
Gods' Collections

An ongoing, collaborative project, which looks at accumulations and collections in sacred spaces around the world.

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Material religion in Pompeii
Material religion in Pompeii

An open access edited volume about material religion in Pompeii, published in Autumn 2021.

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A Sense of Disruption
A Sense of Disruption

Contribution to a 2020 ‘In Conversation’ piece on “Sensual Religion” for the journal Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Beliefs. The other essays in the conversation are by Professor Graham Harvey, Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou, and Dr Patricia Rodrigues de Souza.

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Tiny and Fragmented
Tiny and Fragmented

A 2018 book chapter about tiny and fragmented votive offerings from the ancient world.

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Sensual Religion: Religion and the Five Senses
Sensual Religion: Religion and the Five Senses

A 2018 book co-edited with Professor Graham Harvey from OU Religious Studies

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Votives and Souvenirs
Votives and Souvenirs

A 2017 article (originally published in the journal Religions of the Roman Empire) about votives as 'souvenirs of the self'.

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Studying Votives across Cultures
Studying Votives across Cultures

A short reflective piece on votives - part of a 2017 conversation on 'Votives: Material Culture and Religion'.

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Fractured Narratives
Fractured Narratives

A 2016 book chapter about object biographies and Roman votive offerings.

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The Icon of the Madonna dell'Arco
The Icon of the Madonna dell'Arco

Extract from an interview with Padre Gianpaolo Pagano.

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Ex-votos at Pompeii
Ex-votos at Pompeii

Interview with Monsignor Pietro Caggiano about the votive offerings in the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in Pompeii.

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Yves Klein's Ex-voto to St Rita of Cascia
Yves Klein's Ex-voto to St Rita of Cascia

A short essay written for the Material Religions blog.

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Classical Reception in the Presepe apoletano
Classical Reception in the Presepe apoletano

A 2015 book chapter about the history and symbolism of ruins in the 'presepe napoletano' (nativity scenes from Naples).

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Self Evidence
Self Evidence

A post written for the Wellcome Collection blog

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Memory and the Arch of Constantine
Memory and the Arch of Constantine

Slightly modified version of a 2014 article about the Arch of Constantine and its intersections with memory.

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The Anatomy of Ritual
The Anatomy of Ritual

Published in May 2017, this book brings together anatomical votives from four ancient contexts: Classical Greece, Hellenistic Italy, Roman Gaul and Roman Asia Minor.

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Remembering Parthenope: Receptions of Classical Naples from Antiquity to the Present
Remembering Parthenope: Receptions of Classical Naples from Antiquity to the Present

'Remembering Parthenope: Receptions of Classical Naples from Antiquity to the Present', co-edited by Jessica Hughes and Claudio Buongiovanni. A 2015 edited volume in the Oxford University Press Classical Presences series.

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Body Parts and Bodies Whole
Body Parts and Bodies Whole

This 2010 volume (edited with Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Marie Louise Stig Sorensen) grew out of an interdisciplinary Leverhulme-funded project 'Changing Beliefs in the Human Body', through which the image of the body in pieces soon emerged as a potent site of attitudes about the body and associated practices in many periods.  

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The Myth of Return: Restoration as Reception in Eighteenth-Century Rome
The Myth of Return: Restoration as Reception in Eighteenth-Century Rome

Pre-print version of a 2011 article about sculptural restorations, originally published in Classical Receptions Journal.

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Dissecting the Classical Hybrid
Dissecting the Classical Hybrid

A 2010 book chapter about the art of ancient (and modern) hybrids.

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The Temple of Hadrian in Rome
The Temple of Hadrian in Rome

A version of a 2009 article about the sculptures from the Temple of Hadrian (‘Hadrianeum’) in Rome.

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Fragmentation as Metaphor in the Classical Healing Sanctuary
Fragmentation as Metaphor in the Classical Healing Sanctuary

A 2008 article in the journal Social History of Medicine. Parts of this article were reworked in my 2017 book Votive Body Parts in Greek and Roman Religion.

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