RESEARCHERS AT THE DANISH INSTITUTE AT ATHENS

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.

Benjamin Pedersen er cand.mag. (2013) og ph.d. (2018) fra Syddansk Universitet på en afhandling om universalhistoriens ophav, natur og udvikling i hellenistisk historiografi (Universal Historiography: A Study in the Advent, Nature, and Development of Ancient Universal History).

I årene efter var han postdoc ved Syddansk Universitet og University of Glasgow støttet af Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond om den antikke græske lokalhistorie (Polis Histories and Local Identities: Historiographical and Philosophical Innovations in the Age of Glocalization, c. 400-200 BCE). Projektet søgte at skabe en mere fundamental forståelse af hvordan historikere skabte en kollektiv identitet omkring den græske bystat som historisk og politisk institution, og hvordan en sådan lokal identitet blev forankret i en ny global virkelighed i det 4. og 3. århundrede f.Kr.

I 2024 og 2025 er han tilknyttet Det Danske Institut i Athen med et forskningsprojekt støttet af Carlsberg om Aristoteles’ indflydelse på hellenistisk historieskrivning (Philosophizing History: The Impact of Aristotelian Thought on Hellenistic Historiography). Projektet undersøger hvordan filosofiske ideer og koncepter påvirkede den efterfølgende historieskrivning, og hvordan forbindelsen mellem filosofiske innovationer og den historiske udvikling ændrede historiografiens natur i den hellenistiske periode.