Jesch received her advanced education at Durham University and University College London. As a student at Durham in 1973 she co-wrote an article for Palatinate that accused the university of failing to attract candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds, and suggested that Durham was by now seen as a 'finishing school' for the socially privileged.[2]
She was keynote speaker at the 2015 Norse in the North Conference,[3] and is the Director of the Centre for the Study of the Viking Age (CSVA)[1]