Fellowship Report
I was a fellow of the MagEIA project from October 2025 to August 2026, a time that allowed me to focus on my research, gain insight into interdisciplinary collaboration, and expand my knowledge of disciplines outside of my own.
My primary focus during the fellowship was to develop my research on places of magic in ancient Egypt, a project titled “Harnessing the Natural World: Landscapes and Places in Ancient Egyptian Magic.” I aimed to identify where magical practice took place—determining whether certain places were favored and why—and more fundamentally whether the places of magical performance were significant. I tried to ascertain whether certain magical activities were confined exclusively to certain spaces, or whether magical acts were considered efficacious no matter where they were performed. I recorded this research in two article drafts that I hope to finish in 2027, once I am back from maternity leave. One article is intended for publication in an Egyptological journal, the other for an interdisciplinary journal.
As preparation for a conference I attended in Cairo during the fellowship (April 2026), I was able to finish a paper on medical pluralism in ancient Egypt, which I will incorporate as a chapter in the book I am writing as part of my next project, which centers on access to healthcare in New Kingdom Egypt. During the fellowship, I also finished the first draft of an article for the interdisciplinary volume Private Rituals and Incantations: Finding Favor with the Gods, edited by Elyze Zomer (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen). In addition, I spent the last couple of months of my time at MagEIA revising the editio princeps of Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg, a 6-meter-long medical papyrus, which will be published in The Carlsberg Papyri series.
In addition to this research output, I engaged in a number of outreach activities during my time in Würzburg, both in Germany and abroad. I gave half a dozen lectures on ancient Egypt to the general public, I was interviewed on Danish radio a few times regarding various news stories involving ancient Egypt, and I participated in two podcasts, including the “Roots of Magic” podcast linked to the MagEIA project (https://shwep.net/roots-of-magic/).
My time at MagEIA was also very rewarding in terms of gaining insight into interdisciplinary collaboration and learning more about disciplines outside my immediate field of study. The twice-a-week seminars, which brought together scholars from many different disciplines, were highly educational in terms of interdisciplinary discourse, annotation techniques, and characteristics of magic across cultures. Moreover, the seminars allowed me to connect with scholars of diverse backgrounds, which was extremely rewarding both academically and personally.
The fellowship provided an excellent stepping stone for me, leading to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Copenhagen funded by the Carlsberg Foundation as well as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship at Uppsala University. I am grateful to the PIs for welcoming me into the project, and I hope to keep actively contributing to MagEIA in the future.
