Renske Janssen
Researcher
- Name
- Dr. K.P.S. Janssen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- k.p.s.janssen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-3020-064X
Renske Janssen is a postdoctoral researcher in Classics and Ancient History, with a particular interest in Roman law, administration and religion.
Fields of interest
- Roman law and administration
- Ancient legal thinking
- Roman Imperial politics
- Religion in the Ancient world
- Early Christianity and Ancient Judaism
- Greek and Latin literature and culture
Research
Renske Janssen's research is positioned at the intersection of law, classics and ancient history, and is characterised by a focus on the ways in which people in the ancient world perceived, and engaged with, systems of law, morality and power. She was awarded a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship in early 2022, for which she is currently based at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Legal History.
Her research project, titled "More laws, more problems? The role of (Roman) law in society according to Cornelius Tacitus", is focussed on legal thinking in the works of the Roman author and magistrate Tacitus, which provide invaluable insights into the ways in which educated Romans could perceived the law, and how they viewed its role in wider society. The project will analyse the way in which Tacitus discussed the origins and role of the law, its beneficiaries and its application, and connect this thinking to the wider legal discourse of his time. This interdisciplinary approach will shed a light on legal thinking among educated non-experts in the Roman Imperial Period, and will as such look beyond the professional sphere of the jurists, whose specialist work has long dominated scholarship in the field. As such, it allows for new insights into wider societal thinking about the role of law during a period in which attitudes towards the Roman legal system were starting to change in both the provinces and the imperial administration.
Curriculum vitae
Dr. Janssen obtained her MA in Classics at Leiden University, and defended her PhD on the legal position of marginalised religious groups in the Roman Empire ("Religio Illicita? Roman Legal Interactions with Early Christianity in Context") at the same university in September of 2020. From 2019 to 2022, she was active as a lecturer in Ancient History at Leiden University and VU Amsterdam. She is also the initiator and editor in chief of the blog- and vlog series "Roads to Rome" ("Wegen naar Rome") which is organised alongside the annual Week of the Classics ("Week van de Klassieken") and is focussed on representations of the Ancient World in popular culture.
Researcher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Griekse T&C
- Janssen K.P.S. & Pelt N.T. van (2024), Royal epistolary courtship in Latin? : Arthur Tudor’s “love letter” to Katherine of Aragon at the Archivo General de Simancas and Francesco Negri’s Ars Epistolandi, Renaissance Studies 38(2): 245-264.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2023), Waar rook is, is vuur?: Christenen onder Nero, Leidschrift 38(1): 37-49.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2023), Religious status in the Roman Empire: Christians to the Lions?, Ancient History Magazine 43: 16-19.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2023), Review of: Ziogas I. & Bexley E.M. (2022), Roman law and Latin literature. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Journal of Roman Studies 113: 206-207.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2023), Tacitus over recht en krom: nadenken over recht en samenleving in antieke bronnen, Lampas. Tijdschrift voor classici 56(2): 176-196.
- Janssen K.P.S. (24 October 2022), Ledas under occupation: Hozier’s Swan upon Leda. Antiquipop . Lyon: Fabien Bièvre-Perrin . [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2022), Whose Persecution? Early Christianity as a metaphor in contemporary American political discourse. In: Beerden K. & Epping T. (Eds.), Classical Controversies. Reception of Graeco-Roman Antiquity in the Twenty-First Century. Leiden: Sidestone Press. 43-58.
- Janssen K.P.S. (26 March 2022), So You Think You Can Govern (Your Province)? Een Spoedcursus Romeins provinciaal Bestuur (Lecture). Leiden: Alumnidag HSVL.
- Janssen K.P.S. (17 June 2022), Christenen voor de Leeuwen? Vroeg Christendom in een Romeins juridische Context (Lecture). Leiden: Faculteitssymposium Geesteswetenschappen.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2021), “All turned on us like Beasts": Legal Negotiation and the Persecution of Lyon and Vienne. In: Tiwald M. & Zangenberg J.K. (Eds.), Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside: Essays on the Urban and Rural Worlds of Early Christianity. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus no. 126. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 299-319.
- Janssen K.P.S. (12 April 2021), Brutus is een flexibel Mens: 'Wegen naar Rome' - Week van de Klassieken 2021. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2021), Vervolging vanwege religie in het Romeinse Rijk, Tijdschrift voor Religie, Recht en Beleid 12(2): 68-81.
- Janssen K.P.S (2021), Christenen in Bithynia-Pontus: De correspondentie tussen Plinius en Trajanus als context voor de christenbrieven, Lampas. Tijdschrift voor classici 54(3): 330-350.
- Janssen K.P.S. (7 December 2021), So You Think You Can Govern (Your Province)? Een Spoedcursus Romeins provinciaal Bestuur (Lecture).
- Janssen K.P.S. (23 September 2020), Religio illicita? Roman legal interactions with early Christianity in context (Dissertatie. Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s): Zangenberg J.K. & Ligt L. de.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2020) Identiteiten in Veelvoud. Review of: Pohl Walter & Wieser Veronika (2019), Ancient and Early Christian narratives of community . Historiography and identity no. 1. Turnhout: Brepols. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 133(2): 374-376.
- Janssen K.P.S. (30 January 2020), Curse and Comfort: Classics and the First World War. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2020), LUCAS Explains #2: What would happen to Brexit negotiations if the EU put the Roman emperor Trajan in charge? (Leiden Arts in Society Blog). [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2020), De vaart der volkeren: Jeruzalem in de hellenistische periode. In: Bent J. de & Hart T. (Eds.), Jeruzalem, Jeroesjalajiem, Al-Quds: de heilige stad door de eeuwen heen . Zenobia no. 7. Hilversum: Verloren. 63-78.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2020), Whose persecution? : early Christianity as a metaphor in contemporary American political discourse, Conference on Classical Controversies. Conference on Classical Controversies 11 November 2020 - 13 November 2020. Leiden.
- Smits L.A. & Janssen K.P.S., The Crux of the Matter: The Truths and Fictions of Crucifixions. The Crux of the Matter: The Truths and Fictions of Crucifixions. Leiden: Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2019), Is this Sparta? Historiciteit in Zack Snyder’s 300, Frons. Blad voor Leidse classici : .
- Janssen K.P.S. (2018), 'Bedenker van misdrijven, veroorzaker van rampen': Diocletianus en het christendom. In: Hekster Olivier & Jansen Corjo (Eds.), Diocletianus: tussen eenheid en versnippering. Nijmegen: Vantilt. 57-70.
- Feenstra N.H. & Janssen K.P.S. (8 February 2018), Napoleon’s stolen sea monster: repatriating cultural objects. Leiden: Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (25 October 2018), Digging Deeper. Leiden Arts in Society Blog: Leiden University - Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Polak S.A., Feenstra N.H., Smits L.A., Anli Z., Hendrikx S.M., Janssen K.P.S., Kessel L. van, Travers E. & Volkmar A. (Eds.) (2018), 'Landscape in Perspective: Representing, Constructing, and Questioning Identities'. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference no. 6. Leiden: Leiden University Library.
- Smits L.A., Feenstra N.H., Polak S.A., Anli Z., Hendrikx S.M., Janssen K.P.S., Kessel L. van, Travers E.M.A. & Volkmar A. (Eds.) (2018), Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference, "Landscape in Perspective : Representing, Constructing, and Questioning Identities". Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference. Leiden: Leiden University Library.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2018), 'De Alexandrijnse knoop: het Jodendom en de rellen van 38 n. Chr.', Amsterdam: Interklassiek Symposium 2018 - Geloof en Bijgeloof, 18 May 2018. [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2018), 'Allen gingen als beesten tegen ons tekeer: Romeins bestuur en vervolgingen van Lyon', Amersfoort: Najaarsvergadering Stichting Oudchristelijke Studiën, 13 October 2018. [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2018), 'De Alexandrijnse knoop: het Jodendom en de rellen van 38 n. Chr.', Utrecht: Bijeenkomst Jonge Judaici - Vervolging en Verzet, 5 November 2018. [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (27 April 2017), Who’s with me? Cultural Identity and the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE. Leiden: Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (31 August 2017), Dancing on Ruins: Rome’s political afterlife. Leiden: Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Polak S.A., Praal F.E.W., Laporte K., Damme Y.A.A. van, March A. de, Feenstra N.H., Janssen K.P.S. & Mitchell E. (Eds.) (2017), 'Breaking the Rules: Artistic Expressions of Transgression'. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference no. 5. Leiden: Leiden : Leiden University Library.
- Janssen K.P.S. (2017), 'All turned on us like Beasts: Political Negotiation and the Persecution of Lyon and Vienne', Leiden: Conference Urban Structures of Early Christianity, part I of Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside, 3 May 2017. [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2017), 'I do not want to be offensive towards my contemporaries: Religion and Politics in Claudius' Letter to the Alexandrians', Athens: OIKOS Masterclass Culture as Politics in Antiquity, 15 June 2017. [other].
- Janssen K.P.S. (15 September 2016), The Emperor's New Laws. Leiden: Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Janssen K.P.S. (2016), 'For the Perpetual Tranquility of your Province: Pliny the Younger's Christian letters in Context', Ravenstein: International PhD-days (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Oxford University and OIKOS), 15 October 2016. [other].