Biography

I am an Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology in the Department of History and Classical Studies at Aarhus University. I am currently in charge of a re-investigation of the Heroon of Kalydon. This involves archaeological fieldwork as part of a Danish-Greek-Norwegian team as well as 3D digital imaging of sculpture and architecture, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation ("Gods, Heroes and Pixels: Re-Examining the Sculptures from the Heroon of Kalydon").

My research interests lie broadly within the study of visual culture in the ancient world, the material culture of ancient pilgrimage, late antique art and archaeology as well as the contemporary "consumption" of heritage. My first monograph, Making and Breaking the Gods. Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity, was published in 2013. A second monograph, Classical Heritage and European Identities: The Imagined Geographies of Danish Classicism (co-authored with Lærke Maria Andersen Funder and Vinnie Nørskov), appeared in 2019. I am currently working on a monograph on the archaeology of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage that takes inspiration from the so-called "New Mobilities Paradigm."

Previously, I've been responsible for two large-scale collaborative research projects: "The Emergence of Sacred Travel (EST): Experience, Economy, and Connectivity in Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage", funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research's Sapere Aude research excellence programme (2013-2017), and the Horizon2020-funded "CoHERE: Performing and Representing European Identities" (2016-2019) in which I was Work Package Leader. I also serve as Editor-in-Chief of Brill's main series in classical archaeology, "Monumenta Graeca et Romana" (proposals for new volumes, especially monographs, are much welcome!). 

I maintain an Academia.edu page here.

Books and journal special issues

(co-ed. with A. Collar) Pilgrims in Place, Pilgrims in Motion. Sacred Travel in the Ancient Mediterranean (Aarhus Studies in Mediterranean Antiquity vol. 15), Aarhus, forthcoming December 2023.

(co-ed. with A. Collar) Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World vol. 192), Leiden 2020.

(co-ed. with W. Friese and S. Handberg) Ascending and Descending the Acropolis. Movement in Athenian Religion (Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens vol. 23), Aarhus 2019.

(w. L.M.A. Funder and V. Nørskov) Classical Heritage and European Identities. The Imagined Geographies of Danish Classicism (Critical Heritages of Europe), London 2019.

(co-ed. with W. Friese) Excavating Pilgrimage. Archaeological Approaches to Sacred Travel and Movement in the Ancient World (Routledge Studies in Pilgrimage, Religious Travel and Tourism), London 2017.

(co-ed. with L.M. Stirling) The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture. Late Antique Responses and Practices, Ann Arbor 2016.

(co-ed. with C. Holtorf) Heritage Erasure (= International Journal of Heritage Studies vol. 21.4), London 2015.

(co-ed. with S. Birk and B. Poulsen) Using Images in Late Antiquity, Oxford 2014.

Making and Breaking the Gods. Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity (Aarhus Studies in Mediterranean Antiquity vol. 12), Aarhus 2013.

(ed.) The Material Culture of Roman and Early Christian Pilgrimage (= HEROM - Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture vol. 1), Leuven 2012.

(co-ed. with B. Poulsen) Ateliers and Artisans in Roman Art and Archaeology (Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series vol. 92), Portsmouth, RI 2012.