Janina Ramirez
Birthday: Born in 1980-07-07 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Deathday: Alive
Dr Janina Sara Maria Ramirez (pronounced [ja'nina]; née Maleczek; born 7 July 1980), sometimes credited as Nina Ramirez, is a British art historian, cultural historian, and TV presenter. She specializes in interpreting symbols and examining works of art within their historical context. Ramirez went to school in Slough, Berkshire. She gained a degree in English literature, specializing in Old and Middle English, from St Anne's College, Oxford, before completing her postgraduate studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York. She completed a PhD on the artistic and literary symbolism of birds, which led to a lectureship in York's Art History Department, followed by lecturing posts at the University of Winchester, University of Warwick, and University of Oxford.
TV Credits
Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings
Character: Self - Presenter
Through this three part series Art Historian Dr Janina Ramirez tells the story of the Medieval monarchy as preserved through stunning illuminated manuscripts from the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection....
Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War
Character: Self - Presenter
The Hundred Years’ war between England and France gave us the victories of Crecy and Agincourt, and made the reputations of Edward III and Henry V. It gave France a national heroine in Joan of Arc. But, even now, the jury is out as to its causes and outcome. Was it the final swansong of a redundant knightly class whose only reason for being was to fight? Was it a battle over ever more important territory to the emerging economies of England and France? Or was it the painful birth of two distinct...
Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez
Character: Self - Presenter
Janina Ramirez travels in the footsteps of some of the world's greatest explorer-archaeologists revealing how our understanding of the sites they excavated are still shaped by their interpretations....
Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries
Character: Self - Presenter
Janina Ramirez discovers how monasteries shaped all aspects of medieval Britain and created a dazzling array of art, architecture and literature, a story of faith, sacrifice, violence and corruption....
Pointless Celebrities
Character: Self
Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman present a celebrity version of the general knowledge quiz in which contestants try to come up with the answers that nobody else could think of....
Art on the BBC
Character: Self - Presenter
Four young British art historians delve into six decades of the BBC archives to discover the powerful way in which television influences our understanding of the world's greatest artists....
Handmade in Bolton
Character: Herself - Presenter
Shaun Greenhalgh and Dr Janina Ramirez research and remake a selection of precious objects from the past using traditional materials and methods....
An Art Lovers' Guide
Character: Self - Presenter
With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of cultural highlights. So what should an art lover see on a flying visit? Art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on entertaining and revealing cultural city breaks, offering surprising new insights into famous locations and uncovering hidden gems and untold stories, as they discover how religion, revolution and trailblazing individuals can shape the art - and ...
Movie Credits
Apples, Pears and Paint: How to Make a Still Life Painting
Character: Self
The history of still life painting with oil paints...
Britain's Most Fragile Treasure
Character: Presenter
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and it was the creative vision of a single artist - a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists. The East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window onto the medieval world and the medieval mind - tel...
The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci
Character: Presenter
Janina Ramirez explores the BBC archives to create a TV history of Leonardo Da Vinci, discovering what lies beneath the Mona Lisa and even how he acquired his anatomical knowledge....
England's Reformation: Three Books That Changed a Nation
Character: Self - Presenter
To mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Janina Ramirez tells the story of three books that defined this radical religious revolution in England....
Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons
Character: Self - Presenter
In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindis...
The Viking Sagas
Character: Self - Presenter (as Dr Janina Ramirez)
Dr Janina Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to find out about one of the most compelling of the great Viking stories - the Laxdaela Saga. This hour-long film explores how the unique literary achievements of the Saga writers were possible at a time of such immense cultural, political and religious upheaval....
The Search for the Lost Manuscript: Julian of Norwich
Character: Presenter
In this hour-long documentary, Dr Janina Ramirez tells the incredible story of a book hidden for centuries in the shadows of history, the first book ever written in English by a woman, Julian of Norwich, in 1373. Revelations of Divine Love dared to present an alternative vision of man's relationship with God, a theology fundamentally at odds with the church of Julian's time, and for 500 years the book was suppressed. It re-emerged in the 20th century as an iconic text for the women's movement a...
Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age
Character: Presenter
Medieval historian Dr Janina Ramirez looks back to a time when British craftsmen and their patrons created a new form of architecture. The art and architecture of France would dominate England for much of the medieval age. Yet British stonemasons and builders would make Gothic architecture their own, inventing a national style for the first time – Perpendicular Gothic – and giving Britain a patriotic backdrop to suit its new ambitions of chivalry and power. From a grand debut at Gloucester Cathe...
Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery
Character:
In 2009 metal-detecting enthusiast Terry Herbert discovered the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure in the UK. Dan Snow travels across the old Kingdom of Mercia to unravel the secrets of the Staffordshire Hoard....