Curriculum Vitae Ophelia Norris

Development/Career

• 10/2025-present: Postdoctoral Researcher, LMU Munich, IDK Philology.
• 10/2021-09/2025: PhD Candidate LMU Munich, Faculty for the Study of Culture (Jewish Studies). Funding: Elite Network of Bavaria/IDK Philology. Thesis title "The Jewish Catacombs: Afterlife and Community in Ancient Rome", supervised by Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck, PhD and Prof. Franz-Alto Bauer.
• 09/2020–08/2021 Graduate Honours Interdisciplinary Studies Student (Master’s Level), Utrecht University, NL
• 09/2019–08/2021 MA in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Medieval History Track), Utrecht University, NL
• 09/2016–08/2019 BA in History, King’s College, London, UK
• 2016 A Levels

Previous Employment (selection)

• 10/2020–11/2020 Student Assistant for Prof. Francesco Stella’s Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy Series Publications, Utrecht University, NL
• 04/2020–07/2020 Student Assistant of Dr. Janneke Raaijmakers in the Utrecht-Poitiers MEDNAME Project, Utrecht University, NL

Qualifications

• 07/2026 Conference Organiser, “‘The Righteous One will be Raised from His Sleep’: Conference on Post-Mortem Existence in Honour of Loren T. Stuckenbruck”, LMU Munich, Germany.
• 07/2026, Series Organiser, “Experiencing Holy Days around the Mediterranean in the Early Middle Ages I: Episcopal Responses to Holy Days in Gaul; II: Text and Materiality of Holy Days; III: Holy Days and the Commemoration of the Dead”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.
• 01/2024 Conference co-organisation with Sophie Seidler (ProLit, LMU) and Prof. Juliane Prade-Weiss (AVL, LMU), “Secular Saints: Practices of Awe and Veneration in Hagiography and Pop-Culture”.
• 07/2023 Leeds IMC Panel/Session co-organisation with Eduard Visintini (DFG-GRK; Mainz), “Marginality and the Written Word in the Merovingian World”.
• 09/2020–08/2021 Opleidingscommissie, Utrecht University (Scholarship).

Publications

Monograph:

• The Jewish Catacombs: Afterlife and Community in Ancient Rome [PhD thesis awaiting publication].

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

• “Keeping Up with the Kardashians as Modern Hagiography: Bodily Mysticism and Ascetic Practice”, in: (eds.) O. Norris, S.E. Seidler, and J. Prade-Weiss, Celebrity Saints: Practices of Awe and Veneration between Medieval Hagiography and Modern Pop-Culture. The Mediaeval Journal Supplements Series. Turnhout: Brepols, 2026 [accepted].
• “The Creation of Community through Epitaphs: The Case of Early Medieval Lyon”, in: eds. M. De Jong, I. Van Renswoude, and A. Diem, Connecting People: Saints, Relics and Communities in the Early Medieval World – In Memory of Janneke Raaijmakers. Renovatio: Studies in the Carolingian World 3. Budapest: Trivent Publishing, 2025. 234–253.

Editorial Activities:

• Norris, Ophelia, Sophie E. Seidler, and Juliane Prade-Weiss (eds.), Celebrity Saints: Practices of Awe and Veneration between Medieval Hagiography and Modern Pop-Culture. Turnhout: Brepols, 2026 [accepted].

Translations:

• English Translation of Vincent Debiais: “Introduction”. In: E. Ingrand-Varenne, E. Pallottini, J. Raaijmakers (Eds.): Writing Names in Medieval Sacred Spaces. Inscriptions in the West, from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 56. Turnhout, 2023.

Popularising Publications:

• with van Dijk, Teun, Visintini, Eduard. “Bellum Catilinae by Sallust”, ed. B. Jaski, in: Utrecht University Library, Special Collections (March 2021). Avaliable: https://www.uu.nl/en/special-collections/collections/manuscripts/other-medieval/bellumcatilinae-by-sallust

 

Presentations (selection)

• 07/2026 “Your Sleep Among the Righteous: Afterlife in the Jewish and Christian Epitaphs of Rome”, LMU conference.
• 07/2026 “‘Keep in Mind the Sinner’: Gatherings at Graves and Graffiti Offerings in Late Antiquity”, Leeds International Medieval Congress (IMC), University of Leeds.
• 07/2025 “The Creation of Community through Epitaphs: Jews among Christians and Pagans”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.
• 07/2024 “Sleep in Peace, Sleep with the Fathers: Wishes for the Dead in the Catacombs of Rome”, European Association of Biblical Studies, University of Sofia.
• 07/2024 “A Dolphin or Jonah's Whale?: The Challenge of Late Antique Funerary Images in a Multi-Religious Landscape”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.
• 09/2023 “Breath of life, soul of death: Interpretations of neṗēš, anima, and pysche in Jewish funerary texts of the Graeco-Roman World”, Allegories of Breathing Conference, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
• 07/2023 “Jewish Epitaphs in Merovingian Gaul: Identity and Identification”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.
• 05/2023 “Friends, I Wait for You Here. The Problem of Categorising the Catacombs of Rome”, New Testament Colloquium, LMU Munich.
• 06/2022 “Dis Manibus with Ethrogim: Composite Identities and Jews in the Funerary Epitaphs of the Late Antique Roman Catacombs”, Europaeum Classics Colloquium, Copenhagen.
• 06/2022 “Have Courage, No One Is Immortal: Imagining post-mortem existence in Judaism and early Christianity with perspectives from London, Utrecht, and Munich”, Ancient History Colloquium, LMU Munich.
• 07/2021 “Practiced but not taught: Categorising Relics in the Twelfth Century”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.

• 07/2023 “Jewish Epitaphs in Merovingian Gaul: Identity and Identification”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.
• 05/2023 “Friends, I Wait for You Here. The Problem of Categorising the Catacombs of Rome”, New Testament Colloquium, LMU Munich.
• 06/2022 “Dis Manibus with Ethrogim: Composite Identities and Jews in the Funerary Epitaphs of the Late Antique Roman Catacombs”, Europaeum Classics Colloquium, Copenhagen.
• 06/2022 “Have Courage, No One Is Immortal: Imagining post-mortem existence in Judaism and early Christianity with perspectives from London, Utrecht, and Munich”, Ancient History Colloquium, LMU Munich.
• 07/2021 “Practiced but not taught: Categorising Relics in the Twelfth Century”, Leeds IMC, University of Leeds.

Funding, Scholarships, and Awards

• 10/2024 €1200 Awarded to Fund the international interdisciplinary conference “Secular Saints: Practices of Awe and Veneration in Hagiography and Pop-Culture”, IDK Philologie/Elitenetzwerk Bayern, Munich, Germany.
• 10/2021 – 09/2025 Elite Network of Bavaria, PhD Candidate.
• 09/2020 – 07/2021 Scholarship: Oppleidings/Curriculum Committee (€400).