Rebecca Van Hove is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University. She is an ancient historian working on Greek religion and is particularly interested in the entanglement of religious behaviour, thought and practice with law, politics, intellectual and social life in the ancient Greek world.
After studying History and Classics in Edinburgh, Rebecca moved to King’s College London where she obtained her PhD in Ancient History in 2018. A study of religion and authority in Attic oratory, her PhD research scrutinised the construction of religious authority in political and judicial decision-making in the classical Athenian democracy.. It questioned not only what orators in the Assembly and the law courts could say about the gods, the gods’ relationship to the mortal sphere, and the human experience of negotiating this relationship, but – crucially – dissected how these orators could say what they did about such divine matters.
Previously, she worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Collège de France and the University of Liège (2019-2020), funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Whilst completing her doctorate, Rebecca also held studentships at the British School at Athens, Greece (2016-17) and the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt, Germany (2017-18).
Her current project, funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), examines the role of writing and the function of written records in ancient Greek religion.
