Dr Eleanor Janega

Historian. Broadcaster. Author.

About Eleanor Janega
Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian, specializing in sexuality, propaganda, apocalypticism, urbanity, and empire, in the late medieval and early modern periods. Her work aims to highlight the ways that our society has been influenced by the past, and more particularly, how it tells stories about history that aren’t actually true to justify our own desires.She is particularly known for her approachable and welcoming style of history, making complex concepts digestible and entertaining for non-expert audiences.
Janega’s work first gained public attention through her popular blog Going Medieval. Noted for its irreverent style and robust research, it averages around twenty-thousand views per months.Eleanor is the author of THE ONCE AND FUTURE SEX: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society – “A startling rethinking of why the medieval past still matters”. THE ONCE AND FUTURE SEX examines the perception of women in medieval society that radically demonstrates how little has changed between the ancient period and today. This timely and readable narrative explores the paradoxical expectations placed on medieval women, and the ways in which these women lived despite them. Download the media packShe is also the author of The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, which has been commended as ‘precise, informative, digestible and witty … an utterly essential volume for history buffs’.Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Time, History Today, BBC History, Slate, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other prominent venues.
Eleanor is also a noted broadcaster.She is the co-host of the hit podcast Gone Medieval, which covers all aspects of medieval history, and attracts close to one million downloads per month. Eleanor also co-hosts the podcast We’re Not So Different which examines the political aspects of medieval history and boasts forty thousand downloads per month.She is also the host and co-creator of several history series on HistoryHit TV, where she has been praised as “HistoryHit’s first break-out star.” Eleanor also appears regularly on television and podcasts across the anglophone world.
Born and raised in Tacoma, WA, she lives in London, England.