Our team consists of the principal investigator, two doctoral researchers, one postdoctoral researcher, and two research assistants.
Principal investigator: Prof. Bettina Reitz-Joosse
Bettina Reitz-Joosse is the Aletta Jacobs Professor of Latin literature and culture at the University of Groningen. She is the author of Building in Words, a 2021 monograph on architectural process in Roman literature. Her research within the FACERE project particularly focuses on the concept of ‘madeness’, on intermedial making, and on the constructions of makers in ancient texts. More information about her publications and projects can be found here.
PhD candidate: Friederike Brunzema
Friederike Brunzema studied German Literature and Ancient Greek at the Humboldt University Berlin (BA 2021) and won the Award of the Institute of Classical Philology (Eduard-Norden-Preis 2021) for her Bachelor’s thesis. This thesis, ‘The Elderly and Their Use of τέχνη in the Epigrams of the Anthologia Graeca’, examines how in the Epigrams τέχνη as knowledge/skills and τέχνη-bound tools affect the lives of old people, and how (Greek) society judges the use of τέχνη differently for old men and old women.
Further studies at the Humboldt University lead to a Master of Arts in September 2023, with an MA thesis on ‘Concepts of τύχη in Thucydides. Studies on the Fourth Book of the Peloponnesian War’.
Within FACERE, she focuses on the Greek imperial author Athenaeus of Naucratis, who incorporates a variety of different crafts and thoughts about making in his work “Deipnosophistae”.
PhD candidate: Hylke de Boer
Hylke de Boer studied Classics and Philosophy at the University of Groningen (BA 2020, 2021) and Classics at Leiden University (RMA 2023). His BA thesis on strangers in book IV of Propertius’ Elegies was awarded the CRASIS thesis prize. He wrote his MA thesis on human-nature interactions in Pliny’s Natural History. His research within the FACERE project focusses on iron and blacksmiths in Roman cultural discourse. He also has an interest in classical reception studies and is involved in the Anchoring the Fascist Revolution project. More information about his publications, projects and curriculum vitae can be found here.
Research assistant: David Lettink
David is a third-year student in the Groningen BA programme Griekse en Latijnse Talen en Cultuur.
Research assistant: Laura Burema
Laura is a student in the Groningen BA programmes Classics (Griekse en Latijnse Taal en Cultuur) and Archaeology.
Postdoctoral researcher: Jessica Plant
Jessica Plant studies the material culture of the Mediterranean with a focus on the social and cultural dimensions of craft in Roman and Late Antiquity, as well as the history of archaeology. She is writing a book on how plaster became a transformative medium in Roman antiquity and how it fell through the cracks of the art historical ‘canon’. Her research within the FACERE project focuses on the relationship between art and labour, investigating makers in and behind ancient representations of making.
She holds a PhD from Cornell University and research fellowships at Clare College and at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. Her research has been supported by the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Kress Foundation.
