Current Fellows

Professor Dan Levene is a specialist in healing traditions in the Semitic language speaking world, specifically relating to the Christian and Jewish cultures. His expertise in Hebrew, Aramaic dialects, Syriac and Geez has meant that he has been able to focus much of his publication on the production of historical texts that deal with well-being. In more recent years Levene has been working in Ethiopia (where he spent part of his childhood) investigating both historical texts and living traditions. Furthermore, he has been involved with The Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) as a proponent of raising awareness of modern medical doctors’ understanding of traditional beliefs and customs.

CV and Publications

Mersha Mengistie is an Ethiopian Studies scientist, philologist, literary scholar, and cultural activist. He has been an Associate Professor of Philology in the Department of Linguistics and Philology at Addis Ababa University since June 2018. He began his career with a diploma in teaching from Kotebe College of Teacher Education in 1995 and taught at the secondary school level for two years before advancing his studies at Addis Ababa University.
He holds a B.A. in Ethiopian Languages and Literature (1997) and an M.A. in Literature (Foreign Languages) (2003), both from Addis Ababa University, along with a Ph.D. in Ethiopian Studies and Philology (2010) from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He also completed an M.A. in Social Work in 2023 at Addis Ababa University. His Ph.D. studies were supported by a DAAD fellowship.
During his sabbatical and subsequent years (2018–2021), Mengistie received a fellowship from the Alexander Humboldt Foundation, where he worked on a project titled "Parchment Saints: Life and Afterlife of Ethiopian Saints from Parchment to Paper," which is currently in press with Brill. Following his fellowship, he was awarded a research grant for the project "Documenting Ancient Education Systems in Africa: Abennat Temhert in Ethiopia" funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. In this collaborative research, he co-leads three Ph.D. students who are developing their doctoral projects related to the project's themes. Additionally, he oversees several other initiatives throughout Ethiopia.

CV and Publications

Gaby Abou Samra is Professor of Epigraphy and Semitic Studies at the Lebanese University, Beirut. His research focuses on the iconographic and textual analysis of magic bowls in Aramaic, Syriac and Mandaean. Particular attention is paid to morphology and syntax in order to enable philological analyses and comparisons with other Semitic texts (e.g. Bible, Talmud, rabbinic literature). Prof. Abou Samra's research focuses on Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic inscriptions.
His research at MagEIA will focus on the contents of magical bowls: iconography and texts (Aramaic, Syriac, and Mandaic). He will point out several grammatical targets: morphology, syntax, philological commentary, comparative studies with other semitic texts (Bible, Talmud, Rabbinic literature…).

CV and Publications

Her project with MagEIA, "Tools of Medicine: Materials in Medical-Magical Spells", addresses the correspondence between medical-magical texts and material culture by examining the relationship between Hieratic medical-magical texts of mainly the Middle and New Kingdoms and the objects pertaining to them, taking a diachronic lens. This research branches off of her dissertation, Changes and Continuity: Ancient Egyptian Birth Practices from the Middle Kingdom through the New Kingdom, which examined the textual evidence and material culture of ancient Egyptian birth and fertility traditions through a diachronic lens. By examining the correspondence between medical-magical texts and material culture, this project aims to render a more complete understanding of daily-life magic.

CV and Publications

Jon Beltz recently completed his PhD in Assyriology at Yale University. His research focuses on the religion and literature of ancient Mesopotamia, and in particular the nature of deities and demons and exorcistic magical texts. His dissertation, Namtar: Deity, Demon, Agent of Fate, examines the roles and nature of a Mesopotamian chthonic figure, Namtar, a sort of grim reaper in Mesopotamian mythology. He also has a forthcoming article publishing several Sumerian amuletic incantations and has worked on the function of inscribed amulets in ancient Mesopotamia. At the MagEIA Centre for Advanced Studies he will begin his next project, an updated edition of a group of Sumerian and bilingual Sumero-Akkadian incantations known as zi–pa₃ incantations.

CV and Publications

Frank Simons is a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin, with a project on Mesopotamian Psychiatry.  His research focusses on magic and divination in Mesopotamia, in particular on the reconstruction and poetics of ancient texts.  He is also interested in the realia of the ancient world and has recently published papers offering identifications of animals and diseases found in cuneiform texts.
Within MagEIA, he is preparing a critical edition of the ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ – a 1200 line text detailing an extensive ceremony to be carried out to rid a sufferer of a divine curse.

CV and Publications