Fields of interest

Religion, scholarship and cult in first-millennium Babylonia; the city of Uruk in the Hellenistic period; an analytic and comparative approach to Mesopotamian rituals. 

I am currently preparing a PhD thesis about the Anu cult of Hellenistic Uruk. In particular, it will offer a detailed analysis of the nocturnal fire ceremony (TU 41), its historical context, possible calendrical setting and religious and social functions.

Education

2012 – present: PhD research at Leiden University 
2009 – 2012: PhD research at WWU Münster 
2000 – 2007:  doctoraal in Ancient Cultures, VU, Amsterdam

Employment

2012 – present: teacher of BA- and MA-courses Assyriology, Leiden University 
2009-2012: research associate, Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’, WWU Münster

Teaching

2013: seminar Academic Skills & Research Materials of the Assyriologist 
2013: survey course History of Ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia I 
2013: seminar History of Ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia II 
2013: BA-course Akkadian: first-millennium Babylonian temple rituals

Publications

‘The Cult of Ereškigal and the Pantheon of Seleucid Uruk’, in: M. Dietrich, W. Dupré, A. Häußling, R. Schmitt eds., Die "dunklen Seiten" Gottes. MARG 21 (Münster 2013) 59-71

‘Uruk in hellenistischer Zeit: Tradition und Neuerung’,  Antike Welt 3/2013: 34-37