Petra Sijpesteijn: 'Membership of foreign academies is incredible recognition'
When Petra Sijpesteijn became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, she was the only Dutch member with an appointment at a Dutch university. Two years later, she is also the only Dutch member of the Austrian Academy and officially joined the British Academy on 7 October.
To be admitted to the Austrian Academy, all members must unanimously approve your membership. 'It's therefore an enormous honour when your colleagues do that,' says Sijpesteijn, who came to the organisation's attention through her collaboration with Austria's national library. 'The Academy already had many papyrologists, but no one who specialised in Arabic papyrology. I will use this membership to continue my work in the rich Austrian papyrus collection.' Sijpesteijn has now also been added to an artwork featuring all female academy members.
To London
In the United Kingdom too, Sijpesteijn's knowledge of Arabic papyrology and early Islamic history stood out. 'You can't apply yourself, so here too I have to thank my colleagues for the honour they've bestowed upon me,' she says. 'I was immediately asked to help evaluate various scientific grants. I'm happy to do that, of course. Furthermore, I hope to work on cross-disciplinary research with colleagues in the BA who focus on humanities and social sciences, but I also want to work together to continuously remind politics and society of the importance of these fields.'
Paris Lecture
On 4 October, Sijpesteijn was also a guest at the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, where she was elected as a corresponding member in 2022. This year she was invited to give a lecture. 'The French Academy presents itself even more as a highly learned society with presentations based on empirical research of the highest level. I once attended a lecture entirely devoted to one manuscript. Incredibly niche, but also incredibly enjoyable to delve into that with colleagues. I myself spoke about Arabic date notation. Pre-Islam, this was done with numbers (2), but after an area becomes Islamic, they switch to notation with words (two). I discussed what this says about the Arab people’s self-image. The Institut de France is located opposite the Louvre, so my whole family wanted to come along.'