Larissa Henrique dos Santos Lemos

Larissa Henrique dos Santos Lemos
I am very happy that I received a Study Award for my thesis and that I can expand my research during a PhD programme.
Name
Larissa Henrique dos Santos Lemos
Current role
PhD candidate and winner of the Study Award

'For my master thesis, I wanted to understand slavery through the lens of emotions. How could people keep and trade other people?  Did they feel something in doing so? And if so, what? Through texts and letters from writers like Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger, I gained insight into how Roman slaveholders emoted to slavery. Take Cicero. In personal letters he showed emotions of care for his slave Tiro. He refers to Tiro as mi Tiro (my Tiro) exactly how he refers to his upper-class friend Atticus (mi Attice).'

'Emotions are in the center of our century. We are all talking about emotions. We have been talking about our mental health during Covid-19, stress in the work environment, loneliness, anxiety and more. This is a perfect time to look at the past and study the emotions that were present then. And slavery is an important topic to keep talking about, considering that consequences of former slave societies still affect us today.

I am very happy that I received a Study Award for my thesis and that I can expand my research during a PhD programme. As a child, I read books about Alexander the Great, the Crusades and the Romans, but I actually obtained a Law degree in Rio de Janeiro where I am from. I only started to study History in an academic level in the Netherlands. I moved here to pursue a MA in History. I began with a pre-masters in Nijmegen and after that I started my first master. I enjoyed it so much and wanted to get better in historical research. So I started the research master. Thanks to the help of good, enthusiastic and kind teachers, I have learned a lot in the last years.'