Andy Hilkens, BA MA PhD

Before joining GenAut in August 2025, Andy was a postdoc in the ERC StG project ‘Reviving the Ascetic Ideal in the Eastern. Mediterranean (969-1375 AD)‘ (PI: Adrian Pirtea) at the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. He was a research associate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. He previously held fellowships and positions at the University of Florence, University of Oxford (British Academy Newton International Fellowship), Ghent University, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

With research experience in Syriac, Armenian, Greek, Coptic and Arabic Christianity, as well as a background in Egyptology and archaeology, Andy is interested in the interaction between religious and secular traditions in the Eastern Mediterranean and its consequences, positive (intercultural exchange of information and texts, multilingualism and translation) as well as negative (religious debate and polemic).

Andy is currently teaching Coptic at the University of Vienna in the Department of Egyptology, and joined the GenAut team to work on the Armenian side of the GenAut-Project.