Nicole Kimball

My research examines the changing nature of the witch archetype throughout history, beginning with Homer’s Odyssey and traversing texts from Early Modern Europe, the Renaissance, through to popular culture and contemporary fiction, including the Harry Potter and Charmed franchises. As a student of Classics as well as Classical Reception Studies, the focus of my study is on representations of Greek and Roman witches and the influence these have had on the archetype in later works. I am supervised by Professor Marguerite Johnson, and my co-supervisor, Associate Professor Caroline Webb, from the discipline of Literary Studies. I presented my research on the Classical influences on the Malleus Maleficarum in a paper titled, ‘Ancient Memories, Ancient Nightmares: Memory of the Witch in the Malleus Maleficarum’ at the 2019 Pacific Rim Latin Literature Conference.