Berenice Verhelst (MA 2009, Phd 2014) is a postdoctoral research fellow of the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders). She studied Classics and Dutch at the university of Ghent. Her current project Reinventing epic poetry. Creativity and tradition in late antique epyllia reflects her research interest in Late antique poetry (Greek and Latin, long and short(er), christian and pagan) and the broader epic tradition. Her approach draws on narratological theory and genre studies. Since January 2019, she is also working on her newest project: "A battle between arts. Narrativity, literarity and the paradox of representation in late antique literary responses to figurative art."

Before this (2014-2015) she worked at the University of Ghent as a teaching assistant (both for Greek Linguistics and for Greek Literature), and as a predoctoral fellow of the FWO (2010-2014, dissertation: Ποικιλομύθῳ φωνῇ. A literary and rhetorical analysis of direct speech in Nonnus' Dionysiaca). Her Phd research focussed on the Dionysiaca of the Greek poet Nonnus of Panopolis and in particular his use of direct speech, influenced by contemporary rhetorical practices. This too is still an important line in her research. Her book Direct Speech in Nonnus' Dionysiaca. Narrative and Rhetorical Functions of The Characters' "Varied" and "Many-faceted" Words) appeared with Brill's (Late Ancient Literature Series, Supplement to Mnemosyne) in November 2016 (http://www.brill.com/products/book/direct-speech-nonnus-dionysiaca + digital appendix: http://www.dsgep.ugent.be/ (database of direct speech in Greek epic poetry)). In 2018 she organized the IVth international Nonnus in Context conference (https://www.grieks.ugent.be/events/nonnus-of-panopo…t-the-crossroads/).

Berenice Verhelst (MA 2009, Phd 2014) is postdoctoraal onderzoeker van het FWO Vlaanderen (oktober 2015-september 2018) aan de Universiteit Gent. Haar project Reinventing epic poetry. Creativity and tradition in late antique epyllia reflecteert haar voornaamste onderzoeksinteresses: laatantieke poëzie (Grieks en Latijn, groot en klein, seculier en chrisstelijk) en de bredere epische traditie. Ze gebruikt hierbij narratologische theorie en genre studies. In 2019 start ze met haar nieuwste project Een strijd tussen kunsten. Narrativiteit, literariteit en de paradox van de uitbeelding in laat-antieke literaire reacties op figuratieve kunst.

Voordien werkte ze aan de Universiteit Gent als praktijkassistent Griekse Letterkunde en Griekse taalkunde (2014-2015), en als doctoraatstudent en houder van een FWO-aspirantschap (2010-2014: proefschrift Ποικιλομύθῳ φωνῇ. A literary and rhetorical analysis of direct speech in Nonnus' Dionysiaca). In haar doctoraat onderzocht ze het gebruik van de directe rede, onder invloed van de retoriek, in de Dionysiaca van de laat-antieke Griekse dichter Nonnos van Panopolis. Ook dit is nog steeds een belangrijke lijn in haar onderzoek. Haar boek Direct Speech in Nonnus' Dionysiaca. Narrative and Rhetorical Functions of The Characters' "Varied" and "Many-faceted" Words verscheen in november 2016 bij Brill (Late Ancient Literature, Supplement to Mnemosyne) (http://www.brill.com/products/book/direct-speech-nonnus-dionysiaca + digital appendix: http://www.dsgep.ugent.be/ (database of direct speech in Greek epic poetry)). In 2018 organiseerde ze het IVde internationale Nonnos in Context congres (https://www.grieks.ugent.be/events/nonnus-of-panopo…t-the-crossroads/).

Projecten

Projecten als postdoctoraal medewerker

Projecten als doctoraatsonderzoeker

Nonnos’ Dionysiaka as an exponent of late antiquity’s 'mosaic poetics'. A structural, generic and rhetorical analysis (2010 - 2014)

Publicaties

Belangrijkste publicaties

Direct speech in nonnus' dionysiaca: narrative and rhetorical functions of the characters' 'varied' and 'many-faceted' words(2016)
- Berenice Verhelst
Minor characters in the Dionysiaca(2016)
- Berenice Verhelst

Meest recente publicaties

Volledige bibliografie

Onderwijs

als verantwoordelijk lesgever of medelesgever/as lecturer or co-lecturer

2015-2019: Oudgriekse letterkunde I (2015-2016 en 2019-2020 als verantwoordelijk lesgever; 2016-2019 als medelesgever naast Kristoffel Demoen/Tine Scheijnen).
2015-2019: Vertaaltheorie en -praktijk: de klassieken (met medelesgevers Wim Verbaal en Tim Noens/Stijn Praet).

als assistent/as a teaching assistant:

2014-15: Oudgriekse taalverwerving I (titularis Marc De Groote), Oudgriekse taalverwerving II (titularis Marc De Groote): lectuurlessen. Oudgriekse taalkunde I & II (titularissen Gunnar De Boel en Mark Janse): extra oefeningen. Oudgriekse Letterkunde I (titularis Kristoffel Demoen), Oudgriekse Letterkunde II & III (titularis Kristoffel Demoen): begeleiding papers en presentaties.
2013-14: Oudgriekse taalverwerving I en II (titularis Marc De Groote): extra ondersteuning in het kader van het monitoraat Grieks
2012-13: Lectuur van Oudgriekse teksten (titularis Mark Janse): begeleiding lectuurlessen
2010-11: Oudgriekse taalverwerving I (titularis Marc De Groote): begeleiding facultatieve lectuurlessen

als gastspreker/as a guest lecturer:

2010-11, 2014-15 en 2018-19: gastcollege ‘Nonnos en Homeros’ (Oudgriekse Letterkunde II en III)
2018-19: gastcollege 'Christodoros van Koptos en Prokopius van Gaza' (Oudgriekse Letterkunde Bijzondere Vraagstukken)

Aankondigingen

Involvement in and contributions to ongoing international collaborative projects (projecten van internationale samenwerking)

- Conference series "Nonnus of Panopolis in Context" (as organizer of the IVth NiC conference: https://www.grieks.ugent.be/events/nonnus-of-panopolis-poetry-at-the-crossroads/)

- Walking the Wire: Latin and Greek Late Antique Poetry in Dialogue (as project coördinator and editor together with Tine Scheijnen, and as contributor): collaborative book project (workshop 8-9 September 2016)

- Nonnus of Panopolis' Dionysiaca. A new english translation with introduction (as member of the team of translators, coordinated by Tim Whitmarsh, to be published with the University of California Press)

- Epische Bauformen (as contributing author, collaborative book project led by Christiane Reitz and Simone Finkmann)

- Narratology and Intertextuality: New Perspectives on Greek Epic from Homer to Tzetzes (as contributing author, collaborative book project led by Silvio Bär and Anastasia Maravela)

- Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative V (SAGN V): Speech (as a contributing author, collaborative book project, ed. Irene de Jong and Mathieu de Bakker).

- Studies in Nonnus' Paraphrase (as a contributing author, collaborative book project, ed. Gianfranco Agosti and Arianna Rotondo)

Activities abroad (buitenlandse verblijven)

"Visiting Scholar" of the Cambridge Faculty of Classics (June-August 2017)

“Academic Visitor” of the Oxford Faculty of Classics en het Corpus Christi Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity (April-June, 2013)

“Guest Lecturer for Greek” of the University College Cork (Ireland) voor de International Greek and Latin Summer School (June-July, 2011)

Past and future conference contributions (congresbijdragen)

- Lingua graeca als lingua franca! De Griekse taal door de eeuwen heen (Griekenlandcentrum 2019-2020), Gent, 15/04/20: "Non verbum e verbo sed sensum de sensu“: Grieks in vertaling door de eeuwen heen."

- Origins and Original Moments in Late Antique Literature, Ghent, 16-17/12/19. " Christodorus’ Statues (AP2) as a late antique ‘classical’ perspective on Greco-Roman culture."

- Symposium Literair Vertalen., Amsterdam, 1/11/19. "Klassieke talen in het Nederlands: een kritische blik op het vertaalveld."

- FIEC 2019, London 5-9/7/19. Panel: Speech Representation in Ancient Epic from Homer to Nonnus. "Adding Insult to Injury. Triumph Speeches on the Epic Battlefield from
Homer to Nonnus"

- Ghent, 26/2/19. Public lecture in the "Great Characters" series: Helena van Troje.

- Two myths and two languages. Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Poetry. 7-9/12/17, Vienna. "The narrator as exegete. A narratological analysis of speech introductions in Nonnus’ Paraphrase."

- Literature Squared. Metaliterary reflections in Late antiquity. 6-7/10/17, Salamanca. "The meaning of Eros. Cupid’s arrows and poetic creativity in Late Antique poetry."

- Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative V: Speech. 31/8-1/9/17, Amsterdam. "Speech in Nonnus".

- The Age of ‘Hero’s: Eroticism and Cultural History in Imperial Greek Epic. 3-4/7/17, Cambridge. "How (not) to address your beloved. Erotic speech and persuasion in Nonnus, Musaeus and Colluthus."

- Voices in Late Latin Poetry. 23-24/3/17, Oxford. "Claims of Novelty and Voices from the Past in the Aegritudo Perdicae"

- Non nisi grandia canto. The Transformation of Narrative Patterns in the EpicTradition. 15-17/12/16, Rostock. "Between Creativity and Continuity – The Tradition of Epic Poetry in Byzantine Literature." (with Kristoffel Demoen)

- Walking the Wire. Late antique Greek and Latin poetry in dialogue. 8-9/9/16, Gent. "A 'revival' of the 'epyllion' as a 'genre'? Genre awareness in short epic narrative from late antiquity."

- Ninth Celtic Conference in Classics. 22-25/6/16, Dublin. "A novelistic miniature epic? Issues of genre and tradition in Musaeus’ Hero and Leander."

- Narratology and Intertextuality: New Perspectives on Greek Epic from Homer to Tzetzes. 3-4/6/16, Oslo. "Epic heroes on a smaller scale? Characterization strategies in four imperial Greek 'epyllia': four faces of Odysseus."

- 2/3/16, Gent. "Mousaios, Hero & Leander" (book presentation)

- Griekenlandcentrum "Mythologie tot Orthodoxie". 9/12/15, Gent. "Mythologie voor christenen en bijbels in hexameters. Eruditie en traditie in de late oudheid."

- Nonnus of Panopolis in Context III. 17-19/09/15, Warsaw - paper presentation: "Breaking the fourth wall. On literariness and metalepsis in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca".

- Poetry and aesthetics of Late Antiquity. 3-4/09/15, Edinburgh - paper presentation: "Nonnus and Poetics: the Actaeon episode (D. 5.287-551)".

- NKV (Vlaams-Brabant) Themadag "Retoriek in de Oudheid". 6/12/14, Leuven - paper presentation: "Retoriek als entertainment. Argumentatie en manipulatie in de laatantieke epiek van Nonnus van Panopolis."

- Interuniversitary seminar Gent-Kent. 22/11/13, Gent. "Wars of words. Battle exhortations in Nonnus' rhetorical epic."

- Nonnus of Panopolis in Context II: Poetry, religion and society. 26-28/9/13, Vienna. “Speech, speakers and the absence of conversation in the Dionysiaca”.

- Classical Association Conference 2013 (Reading, April 3-6, 2013). “’ὄφρα τις εἴπῃ•’ Potential τις-speech in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca. A Homeric device revived”

- Methods and interpretation in Classics (Gent, February 22, 2013). “From Troy to India and from Medea to Morrheus. Nonnus’ rhetorical transformation of Homer and Apollonius in Dionysiaca 31-35”

- Jaarlijkse Hellenistendag (Amsterdam, January 28, 2012). “Verleiding voor dovemansoren. Over de Beiroetepisode in Nonnos’ Dionysiaka”

- Herfstbijeenkomst van de Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal-, Letterkunde en Geschiedenis (Gent, October 15, 2011). “Verleiding voor dovemansoren. Over de Beiroetepisode in Nonnos’ Dionysiaka”

- U4 Doctoral School “Myth, Memory and Mimesis.” (Rome, February 9-12, 2011). “The Dionysiaka by Nonnos of Panopolis as a protracted exercise in generic ‘ποικιλία’”

Dienstverlening

- 2010-2015: secretary of the Ghent Center for Hellenic Studies (secretaris van het Griekenlandcentrum en dus voornaamste organisator van de jaarlijkse lezingenreeksen, verantwoordelijk voor de communicatie en het dagelijks bestuur)

- 2014-2015: research communication and visibility: development of a new website and research database for the Ugent department of Literary Studies (coordination of the website project together with Elke Gilson)

- 2014-2016: "webklassen taal- en letterkunde" (ontwerp en coördinatie module Grieks, nu opgevolgd door Evelien Bracke)

- 2014-2018: Responsible for the collection of the Greek Literature research library (collectieverantwoordelijke bibliotheek Griekse Letterkunde)

- 2014-: Ugent representative in the Certamina-comité (vertegenwoordiger van de Ugent in het comité voor de Vlaamse vertaalolympiades Latijn & Grieks, verantwoordelijk voor tekstkeuze en jurycommentaar en juryvoorzitster van de Sofokles/Homeros(sinds 2015)-wedstrijd).

-2016-2019: Representative for the PhD-students, assistants and post-docs in the department council of the Literature department (OAP-vertegenwoordiger vakgroepraad Letterkunde).

- 2017-: Member of the Greek Outreach Team (outreach and PR of the sections of Greek Linguistics and Greek Literature)

-2018-: Ugent representative in the VVAL committee (Vlaamse Vereniging voor Vergelijkende en Algemene Literatuurwetenschap)