Patricia Kret is working on a PhD thesis on continuities and discontinuities in the use of Roman amulets (100 BCE – 600 CE).

More information about Patricia Kret

Fields of interest

• Ancient daily life
• Religion in the ancient world
• Early Christianity
• Ancient funerary culture
• Material culture of the ancient world
• Museum and reception studies

Research

Patricia Kret is working on her PhD-thesis on the use of Roman amulets (100 BCE – 600 CE) with the title: Changing use, changing needs? The use of amulets from the first century BCE to the early Christian world. This research project studies transformations in the use of amulets in a period of religious change: from traditional Graeco-Roman religions to Christianity. (Dis)continuities in the use of amulets are studied with ‘encirclement’: the idea that amulets were used to surround and protect bodies and spaces. In this way the objects themselves and the contexts in which they were used are included to gain new insights in the religious choices and motivations of ancient individuals, who used objects to deal with everyday uncertainty.

Grants and awards

Patricia won two prizes for her thesis Functions of amulets: the power of objects in the ancient world: The Fruin-prize for the best thesis written by a student of the History (R)MA at the University of Leiden 2018-2019 and the National OIKOS award for the best Dutch Research MA thesis in Ancient History 2017-2019. In 2019 she won the RMO-KNIR Stipendium to perform research in Rome.

Curriculum vitae

Patricia completed a BA in History, First Year in Art History and a MA in Ancient History (all cum laude) at Leiden University. During and after her studies, she both did internships and worked in the cultural heritage sector, most of all in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (RMO). In 2019, she received a grant from the RMO to work at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) for three months to perform research on an upcoming exhibition. She is currently working as a PhD candidate at the Institute for History of Leiden University.

Publications