Steff Nellis obtained a PhD in Art History (2026) from the Department of Art History, Musicology, and Theatre Studies at Ghent University. He is affiliated with the research groups S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts and Media) and Thalia, and serves on the editorial board of Documenta: Journal for Theater. His research focuses on the visual culture of the early modern world, examining how images functioned as active agents in processes of knowledge production, cultural encounter, and persuasion. Drawing on perspectives from art history, theatre studies, and book history, he is particularly interested in the performative dimensions of images and the role of art and spectatorship in shaping early modern understandings of the world. These questions were central to his doctoral dissertation, The Book That Staged Religion: Aspects of Theatricality in Bernard and Picart's Religious Ceremonies of the World. His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including The Rijksmuseum Bulletin, Yearbook of Dutch Book History, Forum Modernes Theater, Images Re-vues, 1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, Critical Stages, and Sculpture Journal. Together with Stijn Bussels and Bram Van Oostveldt, he co-edited the volume Performing Religion in the Early Enlightenment, published in Brill's Intersections series. In addition to his research activities, he teaches at Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, and the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp.
