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I am from Amsterdam. I was born there, studied there and worked there for many years before coming to Oxford and taking up the post of Stavros Niarchos Foundation – Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature.

I have written extensively on Byzantine poetry and metre, and I am the co-editor of a recent book on the letters of Psellos. Further research interests include translations of oriental tales in Byzantium, the earliest grammars and dictionaries of vernacular Greek, and the development of the Greek language in the eighteenth century.

I teach Modern Greek literature up to 1821 and Modern Greek linguistics to the undergraduates in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, and I offer lectures and seminars to the MSt and MPhil students in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies.