Victor Ghica

Professor

Antiquity and Early Christian Studies

Special fields:

  • Late antique archaeology
  • Material culture of 4th century Christianity
  • Coptic papyrology and epigraphy
  • Christianity in the Western and Eastern Deserts of Egypt
  • Early Christian and Gnostic texts
  • Copto-Arabic literature
  • Syriac literature
  • Ancient North Arabian Epigraphy

Resource person for the following topics:

Phone: 22590577
Office: 478E

Presentation

I joined the MF University as Professor of Antiquity and Early Christian Studies in 2015, prior to which I held a tenured lectureship at the Department of Ancient History of Macquarie University, in Sydney. Early career research and teaching appointments included positions at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, in Cairo, and Université Laval, in Quebec City.

My research interests span several fields relating to Late Antiquity and Early Christianity, from archaeology (particularly Egypt and Dalmatia), to languages (mainly Coptic, Old Egyptian, Arabic, Syriac, Ancient North Arabian), epigraphy, papyrology, religious transformations, etc. Over the last fifteen years, I have carried out a large-scale archaeological study on the development of Christianity in the Western and Eastern Deserts of Egypt, which translated into several multi-annual research projects that I have been leading on behalf of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology. Since 2014, I direct also the excavations at Bribir, in Croatia. I am currently the principal investigator of the ERC-funded research project DEChriM.

Newest scientific publications

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  • Ghica, V., Milosevic, A., Uroda, N. & Dzino, D. (2018). Arheoloski projekt Varvaria / Breberium / Bribir u 2016.godini = Varvaria / Breberium / Bribir Archeological Project. The 2016 excavation season. Starohrvatska prosvjeta, 44-45, s. 9 - 56. ISSN: 0351-4536
  • Ghica, V. (2017). Les Actes de Pierre et des douze Apotres (NH VI,1). Peeters Publishers. ISBN: 978-90-429-3268-5
  • Ghica, V., Milosevic, A., Uroda, N. & Dzino, D. (2017). Varvaria / Breberium / Bribir archaeological project. The 2015 excavation season. Hortus Artium Medievalium. Journal of the International Research Center for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 23(2), s. 776 - 796. ISSN: 1330-7274
  • Ghica, V. & ST Demiana, A. (2016). "His Toil was not in Vain" : Two Unpublished Coptic Fragments of the Encomium on Athanasius Attributed to Cyril of Alexandria (IFAO inv. 79-80). Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times: Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Rome, September 17th-22nd, 2012, and Plenary Reports of the Ninth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Cairo, September 15th-19th, 2008, s. 953 - 968. Peeters Publishers. ISBN: 978-90-429-3273-9
  • Ghica, V., Milosevic, A., Uroda, N. & Dzino, D. (2016). Arheološki projekt Varvaria / Breberium / Bribir u 2015. godini = Varvaria / Breberium / Bribir Archaeological Project. The 2015 Excavation Season. Starohrvatska prosvjeta, 3(43), s. 9 - 47. ISSN: 0351-4536
  • Ghica, V. (2016). Two Newcomers in the B5 Family : the Naqlun Kalandologia. Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times: Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Rome, September 17th-22nd, 2012, and Plenary Reports of the Ninth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Cairo, September 15th-19th, 2008, s. 1339 - 1348. Peeters Publishers. ISBN: 978-90-429-3273-9

Education and professional practice

1992 - 1996B.Th.Hons., Universitatea Bucuresti
1996 - 2002Licentiate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Pontificium Institutum Biblicum (Rome)
1997 - 1999B.A. in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Arabicorum et Islamisticae (Rome)
1998Certificate of Literary Arabic, Université "La Sorbonne nouvelle" (Paris III), Institut d'études arabes et islamiques
1999Diploma of Literary Arabic, Université "La Sorbonne nouvelle" (Paris III), Institut d'études arabes et islamiques
1999 - 2000M.A. in Religious Sciences, École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses (Paris)
2000 - 2006Doctorate in Religious Sciences, École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses (Paris)
2000 - 2006Ph.D. in Theology, Université Laval (Québec)
2000 - 2003Editor, Institut français d'archéologie orientale (Cairo)
2003 - 2005Research and teaching assistant, Université Laval (Québec)
2005 - 2009Post-doctoral research fellow, Institut français d’archéologie orientale (Cairo)
2009 - 2010Associate lecturer, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University (Sydney)
2011 - 2014Lecturer, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University (Sydney)
2015 - presentProfessor of Antiquity and Early Christian Studies, MF vitenskapelig høyskole
2015 - presentPh.D. supervisor, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University (Sydney)

Positions

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2005 - 2010Director of the research programme "Chrétiens d'Égypte dans le désert Occidental" (Institut français d'archéologie orientale)
2009 - presentDirector of the archaeological excavations of Tell Ganub Qasr al-'Aguz (Bahriyya Oasis, Egypt)
2011 - presentMember of the editorial board of the series Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (Brill)
2011 - presentDirector of the research programme "Le christianisme des déserts égyptiens" (Institut français d'archéologie orientale)
2012 - 2014Coordinator of the programmes in Coptic Studies (MA, GradCert, PhD), Macquarie University (Sydney)
2014Coordinator of the MA programme in Ancient History, Macquarie University (Sydney)
2014 - presentField director of the archaeological excavations of Bribir (Croatia); co-director of "Varvaria-Breberium-Bribir Archaeological Project"
2016 - presentCoordinator of the MPhil programme in History of Religions, MF vitenskapelig høyskole
2017 - 2021Director of the research programme "Culture matérielle du christianisme égyptien" (Institut français d'archéologie orientale)
2019 - 2024Principal investigator of the ERC-COG project "Deconstructing Early Christian Metanarratives: Fourth-Century Egyptian Christianity in the Light of Material Evidence" (DEChriM)