Mise*, emphatically

[dolorosa_12]

Since I've just gained a few new friends in the recent ATLA friending meme, I figured it was a good time to do an updated 'about me' post.




(Old photo is old. This is me at anya_1984 and jonjonc's wedding last year.)

I'm Ronni. I'm 26 years old, and come from Australia. Normally I study at the University of Cambridge in England, but I'm doing a year's exchange at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in Germany. I went over to Cambridge to do an MPhil in medieval Irish literature, and continued on there with a PhD. When I return next year, I will begin the third (and hopefully final) year of my PhD. As you can probably imagine, I'm obsessively geeky about medieval languages, literatures and history, in particular those of Britain and Ireland. I'm also interested in minority languages, such as Modern Irish, and every so often I'll be possessed with the urge to go galloping off to the Donegal Gaeltacht and speak Irish with native speakers and other students.

I used to be a newspaper sub-editor (or copy-editor, if you're from the US), and I've been writing book reviews (mostly of YA literature) for newspapers since I was 17. In Cambridge I work in a library, which I love. I'm a straight white woman in a relationship with the extremely wonderful M, who is currently living in Cambridge and whom I thus miss terribly. I'm a social democrat and an atheist, but have no problem with those who have different political or religious leanings to me. I try to be a good ally, but I have made, and will no doubt continue to make, mistakes - and please don't hesitate to call me out when it is necessary!

My blog tends to be a mixture of meta, linkspams and the odd rantpost about social justice issues. I tend to post in more detail over at my Wordpress blog when I want to write about something in a more substantial way. I am a literature student above all things, and I believe that just as all texts are worthy of our attention, no text is above scrutiny or criticism. Analysing and critiquing things is my way of enjoying them, although I can squee with the best of them.

As well as the Wordpress blog, I have (at the moment):
A blog about my experiences in Germany;
A fanblog for Sophia McDougall's Romanitas series;
An LJ comm (romanitas_fans) for the Romanitas series, which I maintain;
A Tumblr; and
A Twitter account.

Feel free to add me at any of these places.

I'm also a mod over at the awesome His Dark Materials fansite Bridge To The Stars. If you're a fan of Philip Pullman's books, you should definitely check it out!

The larger fandoms I'm currently involved in are His Dark Materials, ATLA, and Harry Potter. I lurk in The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Jossverse (Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity and Dollhouse), Daria and Pretty Little Liars fandoms but don't really participate.

I love my small fandoms: The Pagan Chronicles (sarcastic monastic runaway meets idealistic illiterate Templar knight - seriously the best thing ever), the BBC's Robin Hood, the Australian fantasy series Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody (post-apocalyptic world, mutants with superpowers), Sophia McDougall's Romanitas series (counterfactual story where the Roman empire never collapsed, with fantasy elements), Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon series and the books of Sara Douglass. I'm also really into YA literature, especially the stuff I read in Australia in the 90s, and am obsessed with 90s culture in general.

I'm also really into music and 90s teen movies, and obsessively quote song lyrics and film dialogue. I apologise in advance.

______________
*'Mise' is the Modern Irish word for 'me', with an emphatic suffix.

Comments

[lariren-shadow.livejournal.com]

Oh very pretty and I like the dress!

For like a second I thought about applying to Cambridge for grad school but then I realized I'd missed the application date (forgetting I was an international student for a second). I also probably wouldn't have been accepted.

Yay another Medievalist! That was one of the best classes I took and I've been trying to get more history books about the period to make me feel less dumb about the whole period.

I realize you're the second person I know who knows modern Irish. The other just did a summer course/seminar at Trinity College. But his field is modern Irish poetry.

I used to work at my college's library too. I miss it. A lot.

Daria! And I too really like YA literature and, echoing other comments I've read, realize that its where a lot of new and interesting things are happening.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Ooer, I didn't realise you were also a medievalist! What do you study at grad school, if you don't mind my asking?

The Cambridge application process is awful. I'm Australian, so I had to apply early too if I wanted funding. And I had to do it twice - once for my MPhil and once for my PhD. Both times the whole process took nearly a year.

Wow! I didn't do a summer course at Trinity, but I was doing a summer course in Dublin at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (in medieval and Modern Irish language, literature and history). Some people from that course were staying at Trinity, so I may have bumped into your friend at one point or another. Dublin is wonderful, but very, very expensive.

I'll hopefully be able to go back to working at my old library when I get back to Cambridge next year.

Yay for the Daria love! I adore that show. Also yay for the YA love!

(Sorry for the late reply, by the way.)

[lariren-shadow.livejournal.com]

I'm not a real medievalist. I've been studying early modern more but I'm actually more interested in the earlier part of the period which blurs into Medieval at times. Oh and England, early modern England but the Medieval class I took was literature from all over.

I remember looking it over and going "why are you so complicated?! Besides the obvious that you're an awesome school Cambridge but you could at least make this easier."

Oh that is entirely possible. He's awesome and I need to check to see how he is. I really want to say his focus is Yates but I could just be wrong because we talked about Yates once. I did end up having to explain to him a lot of the Reformation politics though.

I think I just need to own the whole Daria series.

I'm not much better with replies.

[elizabethtastic.livejournal.com]

Aw, your dress is very pretty, and in my favorite color, too!

I'm also very obsessively geeky about British and Irish history and literature, and I've always been fascinated by the Middle Ages. That Pagan Chronicles sounds amazing. What's it about, besides two boys meeting each other?

Hee, I also quote things obsessively, so I won't be bothered by yours!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm so happy to have found fellow history/literature geeks. And I always love getting people into the Pagan Chronicles. So, there are five books (http://www.catherinejinks.com/default.asp?PageID=65) (I've given the link to the first one, Pagan's Crusade) that take place over a time period spanning the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The first one is set in Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade, while the other four books are set in Languedoc in what is now France.

They're both hilariously funny, and also a really subtle look at the way religion has always been tied to political power (although Jinks doesn't beat you over the head with this and if you're interested in it, it really won't matter much), and the characters are amazing. There's a good, if small, fandom that mostly hangs out at pagansfandom.

Sorry for the late reply.

[iron-valkyrie.livejournal.com]

Huh, I think you're the first atheist I've seen pop up around here recently. So I'm not alone! Yay. XD

Either way, sounds like you're very interesting. :) I can't wait to get to know you~

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Thanks for writing your own intro post and reminding me that I needed to do the same!

Either way, sounds like you're very interesting. :) I can't wait to get to know you~

Thank you, and sorry for the late reply.