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 has just published her PhD-thesis: Between Deity and Dedicator: The Life and Agency of Greek Votive Terracotta Figurines. Sanne 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.

Rasmus Sevelsted did his PhD in Copenhagen and has since been a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and the Saxo-Institute, University of Copenhagen. Rasmus’ work focuses on aesthetics and art theory, especially the role of art and poetry in Plato’s dialogues and Plato’s influence on later European aesthetics and poetics. He is currently finishing a monograph on art and aesthetic theory in Plato’s Republic.
In addition, he has published on 19th century Hellenism and the reception of Plato in German and Danish theory (especially in Kierkegaard), and he has published and taught modules on Greek poetry and philosophy, aesthetic theory, gender theory as well as translation and translation theory. His future research at the Danish Institute at Athens focuses on the idea of Greece in 18th century German aesthetics and its reception, use and transformation among Danish romantic philosophers and poets.

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.

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.

Benjamin Pedersen is MA (2013) and Ph.D. (2018) from University of Southern Denmark on a dissertation on Hellenistic historiography (Universal Historiography: A Study in the Advent, Nature, and Development of Ancient Universal History).

In the following years, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark and University of Glasgow funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Polis Histories and Local Identities: Historiographical and Philosophical Innovations in the Age of Glocalization, c. 400-200 BCE). The project investigated ancient Greek local history, aiming to explain how the concept of localism was applied to historiography and to what extent this type of writing was grounded in the wider intellectual framework of Classical and Hellenistic thought.

In 2024 and 2025, he is working at the Danish Institute in Athens on a project funded by the Carlsberg foundation which aims to re-evaluate historical writing in the Hellenistic period through the lens of the intellectual achievements of Aristotle and his followers (Philosophizing History: The Impact of Aristotelian Thought on Hellenistic Historiography). The project will be the first to trace how Aristotelian ideas migrated into subsequent writing and how the interlinkage of philosophical innovations and historical developments changed the way history was organized and written in this crucial phase of intellectual history.

Background

Niki has been administratively employed at DIA since September 2013.

Being raised bilingual by a Greek father and a Danish mother both countries feels for her as homelands. Living in both countries has given her the opportunity to obtain a wide understanding of the cultural, structural and general differences in both countries, which helps in her daily communication and administrative work and in general to build the necessary bridges in order to launch projects, advice our residents or to build networks.

Kirsten holds a M.Sc. (Biochemistry) from the University of Copenhagen. She moved to Greece in 1994. Prior to joining the Danish Institute at Athens in 2019, she has worked at the University of Athens and in the private sector.

At the Danish Institute she covers a number of administrative functions. She is responsible for bookkeeping and budgeting in cooperation with the management and also covers general administration related to employees at the Institute and field projects. Communication with residents and maintenance of buildings are also among her duties.

Joanna has been employed at DIA since 2012 and is responsible for most arranging most of the receptions at the Institute. She takes care of the cleaning of both the administrative building and the guest accommodation in Herefondos.

Joanna is fluent in Greek and Albanian and a little English.

Maxi has been associated with DIA since 2012 and has been a permanent employee since 2018. Maxi is our janitor, gardener and, together with his wife Joanna, he makes up the other half of the service staff at Herefondos, where they take care of the cleaning in both the administrative building and the guest rooms.

Maxi is fluent in Greek and Albanian.

Anna takes care of the maintenance and cleaning at Institute's guest house in Neos Kosmos.