Dr Jennifer Cromwell is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University. She studied Egyptology at the University of Liverpool for her BA, MA, and PhD (focussing on Coptic legal documents from western Thebes in the 8th century CE), and before joining MMU in 2018 she held research positions at the University of Oxford, Macquarie University (Sydney), the University of Copenhagen, as well as the British Museum. Her research focusses on social and economic life in Egypt during the late 6th to 8th centuries CE, in villages and monasteries, and the study of Coptic papyri. From 2021–23 she is the principal investigator on a UK Research Institute-funded project, ‘Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging’ (with sociologist Dr Caitlin Nunn), which works with Manchester Museum, Sheba Arts, and migrant-background youth researchers (aged 16–24) in Greater Manchester to creatively explore the forced migration of ancient historical objects and what it means to ‘belong’.