Director

Mogens Pelt (From September 1 2020)

Mogens Pelt is a historian from the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

His main research fields cover the modern history and state formation of Greece; the transition of the Ottoman Empire from empire to nation state with particular focus on South-eastern Europe, Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean; and the ongoing competition and conflict between the great powers in the region during the past 200 years.

Pelt’s research engages with the relationship between economics and politics within the field of globalization, particularly notions of ‘backlash’ and ‘de-globalization’.

In 2021-2023, he will lead the research project “The Greek Revolution and European Republicanism, 1815-1830: Ideas of Nation, People and Citizenship in the Making of the Constitutional State” (funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark).

Pelt is a member of the steering group at the Centre of the Study of Nationalism (University of Copenhagen), and he is among the leaders of the research centre The Many Ways in Modernity: South-Eastern Europe and its Ottoman Roots (University of Copenhagen, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation).

He has been a Stanley J. Seeger Fellow at the Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University (2008-9) as well as a visiting researcher at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University (1999).

Pelt obtained his PhD degree in 1993 and was awarded the degree of Dr.phil. in 2003.

Pelt first came to Greece in the 1970s and he has lived and worked here for extended periods of time during the past 40 years.

Assistant Director

Sanne Hoffmann Assistant Director (from 1st October 2022)

Sanne Hoffmann holds a MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen (2011) and a PhD from Aarhus University (2019). She has held positions as project researcher and postdoctoral researcher at the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities in the National Museum of Denmark, and as a external lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. She has participated in several archaeological field projects, primarily in Greece on the Danish projects in Piraeus and Kalydon, but also in Cyprus, Italy, Ukraine, and Denmark – both above and below water. Sanne´s primary field of research is Greek cult, in particular rituals, dedicatory practices, and the structure and use of the sacred space. She is currently in the process of publishing her PhD-thesis and is also part of the project “In the House of the Goddess”, which is recreating the Athana Lindia Sanctuary on Rhodes in a virtual reconstruction.

Archaeological advisor & Enbom Fellow

John Lund (from 1st July 2021)

M.A. in Classical Archaeology (1978), and B.A in Modern Greek Studies (2013) at the University of Copenhagen, where he was awarded the Dr. phil. degree in 2016. – John Lund has since 1997 been Senior Researcher at the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities in the Danish National Museum, and has taken part in archaeological field projects in Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia and Turkey.

Carlsberg Fellow

Christos Tsakas, Carlsberg Fellow (From 1 July 2019)

Christos Tsakas is a historian and a Carlsberg Fellow at the Danish Institute at Athens. His main fields of interest are European integration, authoritarian studies and business history. Christos holds a PhD from the University of Crete, and before moving to Athens, he held postdoctoral positions in Berlin, Florence and Princeton. Ηe is currently member of the Advisory Board for the collaborative project ‘Online Compendium der deutsch–griechischen Verflechtungen’ (Free University Berlin/University of Athens). As an external researcher at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH in Rethymno, Christos initiated an archives and oral history project, documenting postwar Greek industrialization. His articles have appeared in Business History, European Review of History and Historica, and he is completing a book on German–Greek relations in the context of European integration.

Carlsberg Fellow

Panagiotis Athanasopoulos, Carlsberg Fellow (From 1 February 2020)

BA in Archaeology from the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology at University of Thessaly (Volos, 2005); MA in Maritime Archaeology at University of Southampton (Southampton, 2008) as a scholar of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).

From 2005, he has been a senior staff archaeologist and acting assistant director of the Zea Harbour Project in Piraeus (Danish Institute at Athens) and since 2012 he has been a digital archivist for the Agora Excavations in Athens (ASCSA). Since 2013, he is the assistant director of Lechaion Harbour Project, collaboration between the Department of Underwater Antiquities, The Danish Institute at Athens and the University of Copenhagen, directed by Dr. B. Loven and Dr. D. Kourkoumelis. Over the years he has also worked in several maritime and land projects in Greece and abroad.

His main research interests focus on ancient harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean, the interactions between landscapes and seascapes, and harbour construction/architecture. Panagiotis Athanasopoulos is currently working on an interdisciplinary volume of publications related to the results of the Danish-Greek excavations in Lechaion, Corinth focusing on the use of timber in harbour building.

Former members of staff

Dr Søren Dietz, former director of the Calydon excavations, Director 1992-1997
Associate Professor Mogens Pelt, University of Copenhagen, Senior research fellow 1993-96
Dr Sanne Houby-Nielsen, curator, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Senior research fellow 1994-95
Emeritus Lecturer Signe Isager, Director 1997-2001
Professor Inge Nielsen, Universität Hamburg, Senior research fellow (the Carlsberg Foundation) 1998-2000
Dr Peter Vejleskov, teacher and translator, University of Copenhagen, Senior research fellow (The Carlsberg Foundation) 2000-2002
Dr Jørgen Mejer, † Lecturer, University of Copenhagen, Director 2001-2003
Dr Jonas Eiring, former senior research fellow (Calydon investigations), Assistant Director 2002-2004
Panagiota Goula, Cultural Attaché, Danish Embassy in Athens, (Eleni Nakou Foundation), Director of Cultural Affairs 2004-2005
Jesper Tae Jensen (doctoral candidate), Assistant Director 2004-2007
Professor Erik Hallager, Director 2004-2010
M.A. Sine Riisager, Assistant Director 2008-2012
Associate Professor Søren Handberg, University of Oslo, Assistant Director 2012-2015
Mag.art., PhD Rune Frederiksen, Director 2010 – 2015
Phd Birgit Olsen, Assistant Director 2016-2019.
Nicolai von Eggers Mariegaard, Carlsberg Fellow 2017-2020.
Ph.d Kristina Winther-Jacobsen, Director, 2015-2020
Ph.d. Kaspar Thormod, Assistant Director & Carlsberg Fellow 2019-2022.