Since July 2024, I am the chair in Egyptology at the University of Mainz. Prior to this, I was a senior research fellow at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAI Kairo) where I was responsible for the photo archives and the representative in the region Thebes/Luxor and the head of the German House Thebes. The German House Qurna is now coordinated cooperatively between the DAIK and JGU Mainz.
Additionally, I belong to the Mission d’étude et de conservation Deir el-Médina and direct the (re)investigation and publication of the tomb of the sculptor Ipuy at Deir el-Medina (TT 217) and the development of an extensive new research platform called ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina (formerly University of Basel). I was a regular member of the excavation project at Deir el-Bachit/Dra’ Abu el-Naga, a Coptic monastery in Western Thebes, and of the British Museum Epigraphic and Conservation Survey at Elkab and Hagr Edfu. My fieldwork experience embraces work with small finds, documentation, surveying, data/base as well as site management, and photography.
My main research interests lie in the material culture of Ancient Egypt. I specialize in the New Kingdom/Late Bronze Age period, hieratic texts, and the village of Deir el-Medina. My work has ranged from social and economic histories to prosopographic studies to ‘object biographies’ and I am happy to supervise student theses on such topics. I plan to focus my future research on daily life in ancient Egypt, using perspectives drawn from experimental and ethno-archaeology. My aim is to combine my detailed knowledge of Pharaonic social history and sources with information about long-standing traditions that can still be observed in daily life in rural Egypt and Ethiopia. As such, I have started learning Geʽez/Classical Amharic.
Trained at the universities of Munich and Leiden, my PhD was published as the monograph Who’s Who around Deir el-Medina (Egyptologische Uitgaven 31, Peeters, 2018). This book examines the supply personnel of the extraordinary settlement of Deir el-Medina (600 men of the smd.t / n pA xr / n bnr) from a prosopographic, organizational, archaeological, and diachronic point of view. Several of my contributions related to this topic have received international awards and recognition.
My post-doctoral project ‘Means of Communication in the New Kingdom’ at the University of Basel has investigated New Kingdom communicative strategies individually, while the project formed part of the trin-national SNSF/FNRS project ‘Crossing Boundaries: Understanding Complex Scribal Practices in Ancient Egypt’ between the Universities of Basel and Liège and the Museo Egizio Turin (2019 to 2023). From September 2022 to September 2023, I was standing-in for Fredrik Hagen (and for Kim Ryholt) as Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
I have a strong commitment to teaching and I have taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as courses for non-academic audiences, at the Universities of Basel, HU Berlin, Copenhagen, Liège, LMU Munich, Uppsala and at the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich (SMÄK) and the Antikenmuseum Basel. My teaching has covered diverse topics in archaeology, museology, and philology. By developing new ideas and applying modern technologies to ancient artefacts, my goal is to gain new insights into antiquity together with my students and diverse audiences at all levels of education. Colleagues, family, friends, and students describe me as a “walking dictionary, organizational talent, and strategic diplomat in every situation”.
For several years, I co-organized the annual Münchner Arbeitskreis Junge Aegyptologie (MAJA) – an exchange platform for young German-speaking Egyptologists. The proceedings of these workshops have been edited and published in several volumes. I was also involved in the subsequent BAJA events, based in Berlin and Basel. In addition, I am a founding member of the Verband der Ägyptologie and served on the founding board as secretary.
