Hello! My name is Lynsay O’Hara and I am currently in my fourth year at Carleton University, and I am majoring in History with a minor in Archaeology. I am from the Ottawa area, however I lived in Rome, Italy for three years due to my parents being in the Canadian Armed Forces. It was living in Rome where my love of history began; first with ancient history and then I began to discover Medieval history, which I can now safely say is my favourite (though any history will pique my interest). Though Medieval history has stolen my heart, ancient Egypt will always hold a special place as it is what first grabbed my attention into the wonderful world of history. The beautiful images on tombs and towering statues of Rameses II are originally what grabbed my attention, and then books (fiction and non-fiction) continued my interest in ancient Egypt, which led to Cleopatra and then to ancient Rome, which inveterately led to the Renaissance. Once I started researching the Renaissance, I wanted to know how these people lived before their ‘rebirth’, and so began my thirst for knowledge on all things Medieval.
My interests (other than studying history) include mostly reading about, you guessed it, history. I mostly enjoy historical fiction, however I dabble in fiction and YA (Young Adult). My favourite novels are the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon- I highly recommend these books, however if you do not enjoy reading books that contain 900+ pages then they are not for you. My absolute favourite novel however, is Nefertiti by Michelle Moran. I also like to write in my spare time- mostly fiction at this point, however it is a dream of mine to publish a book one day, whether it be a fiction one or an academic novel discussing the lives of Medieval women (Merovingian queens, to be more exact). On this note, I am also hoping to begin my Masters’ next year, which ideally will focus on Medieval Studies.
I absolutely cannot wait to begin diving into the digital history world! This will be my first class in digital history, so it definitely will be interesting. The manuscript I have chosen is stunning and I am very much looking forward to studying it further and revealing its Medieval secrets! My progress on this can be found/followed on my twitter account (or if you just want to enjoy some Medieval memes that’s cool too).