I work on Medieval Greek (or Byzantine) literature, especially of the late period (13th-15th c.), and am particularly interested in how textual practices such as authorship, performance, publication, and reading/listening interact with social institutions and dynamics. I have published on letter-writing and rhetoric; patronage and networks of educated elites; book culture; and aspects of gender in Byzantine literature, particularly women’s writing.

My first monograph is devoted to the correspondence of the late Byzantine statesman and intellectual Nikephoros Choumnos (d. 1327)―an important representative of the so-called "Palaiologan Renaissance". Besides a critical edition and German translation of the letters, this book comprises a thorough reassessment of Choumnos’ biography and studies on various aspects of his correspondence, including a discussion of the historical context of each letter and a reconstruction of the formation and composition of the extant letter collections (Die Briefsammlungen des Nikephoros Chumnos, De Gruyter, 2023). I currently work on my second book project, a history of women’s writing in the Byzantine Empire from the 4th to the 15th centuries, which aims to elucidate the dynamic interplay between gender and authorship in pre-modern societies and to introduce little-known texts to the canon of classical and Medieval literature.

I am the editor of the A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography (Brill, 2020), which approaches the culture of Byzantine letter-writing from a variety of socio-historical and literary perspectives, and places it in a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary context. Co-edited volumes include a collection of essays on late Byzantine history and culture in honor of Franz Tinnefeld (Koinotaton doron, De Gruyter, 2016), Epistolary Poetry in Byzantium and Beyond. An Anthology with Critical Essays (Routledge, 2021) and a Festschrift for my doctoral advisor Albrecht Berger (Anekdota Byzantina, De Gruyter 2023). Together with Louise Blank, Ivan Drpić, Niels Gaul, Yannis Stouraitis and Alicia Walker, I serve as editor of the new monograph series Edinburgh Byzantine Studies (Edinburgh University Press).

I am a native of Munich, Germany and hold an MA (2007) and a PhD (2011) in Byzantine Studies from my hometown university. I was a Junior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. in 2009/10 and a Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Hellenic Studies in 2016. Before joining Harvard’s Department of the Classics, I was a lecturer in Byzantine philology at the University of Vienna. Visiting teaching appointments have brought me to Central European University (Budapest), the University of Patras, and Masaryk University (Brno).

At Harvard I offer introductory courses to Medieval Greek language, literature and culture as well as more advanced classes on post-classical Greek literature, Greek paleography and textual criticism, and I am also keen to advise senior and doctoral theses.