Dr. Babette Hellemans is a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Arts since 2010. She holds dual PhDs: a French PhD in historical anthropology and a Dutch PhD in Humanities (co-tutelle). Her research focuses on religious and intellectual cultures, employing interdisciplinary methods including historical anthropology, textual analysis, and cultural studies. She has held visiting positions at institutions like Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University, and led the NWO Internationalization Project resulting in the volume Images, Improvisations, Sound, and Silence from 1000 to 1800 - Degree Zero (2018). Her expertise spans medieval cultural history, the performative role of ancient texts/images, and the French intellectual tradition. She serves on the editorial board of Knowledge Communities and has supervised numerous BA, MA, and PhD theses. Teaching responsibilities include courses on medieval history, cultural theory, and historiography. Her publications critically engage with figures like Peter Abelard and explore themes such as monastic thought, scholasticism, and the intersection of religion and modernity. Recent work includes a monograph on Abelard's mental architecture (2023) and reviews of major scholarly works in medieval studies.
