Feminine Power Exhibition

Over the last year or so I have had the honour of working with the British Museum alongside the Children of Artemis as a community consultant for the Feminine Power: divine to the demonic exhibition. Together we met with the curatorial team to provide insights for the section entitled, 'Magic and Malice', which drew specific attention to the fear of women's magic and witches during the Middle Ages.

Olivia Ciaccia standing in front of the exhibit
containing thanks to the CoA consultants

 

 

I plan to incorporate some highlights about the exhibition and receptions from the visiting Goddess devotees into my Tangible Heritage thesis chapter. In the meantime I have written a short blog post about the exhibition for Mainly Museums, which you can read here.

What have I been up to these last months?

As the chaos of the winter holiday and new year draw to a close (hopefully!) I thought it was appropriate to provide some updates about what I have been up to over the Autumn and Winter past.

- Following on from my trip to Greece at the end of September 2021 - where my partner and I consumed as much history 10 days would allow - I spent October finalising my Round 3 questionnaire and passing the ethics review before sharing it with potential respondents (Round 3: https://forms.office.com/r/90jCVUTKMn). 

- In October I submitted an article to the Children of Artemis's Witchcraft & Wicca magazine. Here I outlined my study and invited readers to participate. (At the time of writing I thought I would be unable to include my Sekhmet chapter in the thesis - but since realised that I can!) I also submitted an small advert to the Pagan Federation's Samhain issue of Pagan Dawn magazine.

Article in issue 36 of Witchcraft & Wicca magazine.

- In November I received peer reviewer and editor comments for an article I submitted to the Pomegranate Journal back in December 2020. I spent this month implementing the comments and suggestions, and ended up editing more than I had anticipated.

- Thanks to the Keil Scholarship award, of which I am a recipient, I was able to partake in an online course by GIRES entitled 'Introduction to Digital Humanities'. It is my hope that such courses will upskill me for a future career in the heritage industry.

- December was primarily occupied with personal matters and the winter holidays.

- This January I have been editing the final draft of my chapter for the Women in Classical Video Games edited volume, following peer reviewer and editor comments. Happily, I submitted this today!

This week I am due to submit documentation for my second Annual Progress Monitoring (APM), supporting my continued PhD candidature. As soon as February arrives I will be returning my full attention to the thesis itself. My next steps are:

• Reach out to more Goddess Communities, feminist and organisations, and religious studies organisations, advertising the project and questionnaires.
• Make progress on my reading list for Chapter 6 (Engagement with Heritage & Scholars).
• Start drafting paragraphs into Chapter 6.