Matthijs Zoeter studied Classics at Radboud University Nijmegen (2013–2019), during which he was an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh (2017). In 2018, he graduated with a thesis on the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris, and in 2019, he completed his Master of Education. In 2024, Matthijs successfully defended his PhD thesis, Beyond the letter: (Self-)Presentation of Basil of Caesarea in his Letters, Letter Collection, and Manuscripts (funded by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University), within the project Lobbying in Late Antiquity, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Lieve Van Hoof (Ghent University). His thesis focused on the use of letters and the letter collection of Basil, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (ca. AD 328–378), as instruments of (self-)presentation throughout Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period.
Since 2024, Matthijs has worked as a postdoctoral fellow within the FWO-NRF funded project Responsive Governance and Population Well-Being in Later Antiquity (3rd–6th c. AD), a collaborative initiative between researchers from Ghent University, Stellenbosch University, and the University of the Western Cape, led by Prof. Dr. Lieve Van Hoof and Prof. Dr. Philip Bosman. Matthijs focuses specifically on the concept of well-being as expressed in the post-Theodosian Novellae.
His research interests include literary self-presentation, ancient letters and letter collections, and imperial law.