SHANNON HOPPER- Graduate Historian
ACADEMICALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY
I am a graduate historian specializing in military and political history, with particular focus on strategy, doctrine, and intelligence in modern conflict. My academic work examines how institutions interpret information, develop strategic assumptions, and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, often with far-reaching consequences. My bachelors degree is also in History, with a focus primarily on international relations.
This website serves as both a portfolio of my formal research and a space for ongoing historical inquiry. Here, I present academic essays, longer-form projects, and developing work alongside more accessible commentary on historical themes and debates. My aim is to bridge rigorous scholarship with broader engagement, making complex historical issues both analytically precise and approachable.
My interests are especially oriented toward nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe and Japan. More specifically, French and Japanese military thought, and how it relates to imperialism during the two centuries. However, I approach history not simply as a study of past events, but as a discipline concerned with interpretation, how narratives are constructed, challenged, and revised over time.
As I continue my graduate work and move toward professional research and publication, this site will grow alongside it, reflecting both completed scholarship and the evolving questions that drive it.
PERSONALLY
Outside of my academic work, I spend much of my time playing and studying guitar, watching documentaries, and spending time with my husband and children. I love camping, hiking, and spending time in nature, as well as various forms of literature, especially classical literary works. My favorite non-human is my dog, who enjoys accompanying me on outdoor adventures as much as she’s allowed. I am. currently studying both French and Japanese simultaneously, both for professional and personal enrichment.
I love to cook and have steadily been honing my skills as a formidable home chef. Growing up in the restaurant industry, I always considered food to be a form of medicine. Battling a virus? Homemade chicken broth soup. Mentally down and out? Savoury pot roast coming right up! While I primarily cook Italian, Mexican and Japanese cuisine, I have recently began exploring some other cultures culinary delights, such as Mediterranean and French.
I am wholly engrossed in Japanese culture and history, so it is far from just the food I love. (Though who can help but love a traditional shoyu ramen or sushi roll?) I also have been focusing heavily on not only speaking the language, as mentioned above, but also learning to read hiragana and katakana. Japan is likely the number one nation on my “bucket list”⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅
