My research focuses on the phenomenon of mental illness and the way it has been approached and treated in the ancient Greek world from the Archaic to the Roman period. I am implementing the theoretical framework of Material Engagement Theory (MET) which posits the active entanglement between people and the material environment. In particular, my work re-considers the archaeological record from the sanctuaries of Asklepios, especially anatomical votive offerings, architectural layout, and inscriptions of healed people (iamata) as well as ‘magical’ healing practices such as gemstones and spells, and treatment through objects in literary sources.
This project extends extant scholarship which has studied such treatments and cults either under the macroscopic lens, focusing on the typology of the finds or the socio-politico-cultural aspects of the shrines, or the microscopic lens, foregrounding the brain and its influence over the body and environment. I am proposing an intermediary approach in which objects actively participate in the process of healing rituals and the body is not a mere executive instrument of the mind.
My broader research interests include religious cults, cognitive approaches to religion, phenomenology, embodiment and embodied cognition, materiality, the archaeology of ‘magic’, cults in the Peloponnese, theatres as places of experience, mania in tragedy and other literary sources, and sanctuaries through the lens of sensoriality.
I have participated in a plethora of excavations both in the UK and Greece, especially in Epidauros (Asklepieion), ancient Corinth, Kythnos, Marathon, Rafina. I also worked at the Wiener Laboratory at American School of Classical Studies at Athens on osteoarcheological projects.
I completed my BA at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2017), my MA at Kings College London (2019), and started my DPhil in 2024 under the supervision of Lambros Malafouris, at Hertford College.
