Biography

Sofie Remijsen is a lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam. She studied Ancient History at KU Leuven, where she received her M.A. in 2006 and her Ph.D. in 2012. Her dissertation on the disappearance of athletic contests was published by Cambridge University Press (The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity, 2015). Her research focuses primarily on the culture and society of the Roman Empire, including Late Antiquity. She is particularly interested in sports and games, papyri from Egypt, calendars, and the use of time. She is currently one of the coordinators of the DFG network CHRONOS.

Project Abstract

During the fellowship at the Einstein Centre Chronoi, I will be working towards a larger project examining the "timescapes" of late-antique communities. This neologism refers to the patchwork of temporal practices within a local community. This includes the patterns in the scheduling of day-to-day activities (e.g. labor, administrative activities, markets, meals, leisure activities, acts of devotion and celebrations), as well as the patterns in the way time is conceptualized and experienced (e.g. the situational relevance of clocktime, liturgical or imperial calendars, etc.). Studying how time is used and experienced on a daily basis is a powerful, but neglected tool for understanding social dynamics. 

The larger project aims to examine how coordination between various temporal practices was achieved in late-antique urban communities, in order to better understand the day-to-day dynamics of living cheek to jowl in multicultural communities and 2) how these communities dealt with the integration of the new identity groups emerging in this period. The research conducted in Berlin will focus in particular on the evidence from Egypt and on the ways Christianization and the rise of monasticism affected temporal practices in the fourth, fifth and centuries AD.

Curriculum vitae

Since 2017

Lecturer in Ancient History (University of Amsterdam)

 

2013-2016

Junior Professor of Ancient History (Universität Mannheim)

 

2008-2012

PhD scholarship of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)

 

2006-2008

Junior researcher at the Ancient History Department (K.U.Leuven)

 

2002-2006

BA and MA in Ancient History (K.U.Leuven)

Selected Publications

S. Remijsen, „Only Greeks at the Olympics? Reconsidering the rule against non-Greeks at ‘panhellenic’ games”. Classica et Mediaevalia 67 (2019), 1-61.

 

S. Remijsen, The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity, Cambridge 2015.

 

S. Remijsen, “Games, Competitors and Performers in Roman Egypt” in: W.B. Henry & P. Parsons (eds.), The Oxyrhynchus Papyri 79, London 2014, 190-206.

 

W. Clarysse, S. Remijsen & M. Depauw, “Observing the Sabbath in the Roman Empire: a Case Study,” Scripta Classica Israelica 29 (2010), 51-57.

 

S. Remijsen, “The Postal Service and the Hour as a Unit of Time in Antiquity,” Historia 56 (2007), 127-140.