Appointment Lucinda Dirven

We finally have news regarding the succession of Prof. Jacques van der Vliet. Dr. Lucinda Dirven will hold the Jozef M.A. Janssen Chair of Religions of Ancient Egypt at Radboud University, in close collaboration with the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies. We are very happy with her appointment!

Lucinda Dirven is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Amsterdam. She graduated in art history and theology from the University of Leiden. There she obtained her doctorate with her thesis 'The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos. A Study of Religious Interaction in Roman Syria.' Her research focuses on religious history in the late Roman Republic and imperial period, with Syria and Iraq in particular.

About this she says: 'As a historian I am particularly interested in religious life in areas around the Mediterranean and the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. I particularly find the contact between different cultures and religious groups interesting. I do research into how these groups respond to each other and how they influence each other. I am fascinated by periods of great change; the moment when Greco-Roman culture took hold in areas with ancient religious traditions, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the time when the Roman world slowly became Christian. The influence of "Eastern" cults on the Roman world (Isis, Mithras, etc.) is also a popular object of study. I mainly want to find out what this interaction meant for everyday life, within local communities. To get a grip on this, I make frequent use of material culture in addition to literary sources.

I would like to introduce students in Nijmegen to the different religions of the ancient world (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome). I also intend to give more specific lectures on the religious situation in Egypt and Syria during the first centuries of the Christian era.'