Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Martijn Stoutjesdijk

Postdoctoral researcher
Department of the Ancient and Byzantine World

Dr. Martijn Stoutjesdijk (1989) studied theology/religious studies, philosophy, history of the Ancient Near East, and international relations at the Universities of Leiden and Utrecht in the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD degree in 2021 at Tilburg University (the Netherlands) with a study on the slavery metaphor in early Christian and early Rabbinic parables, titled "Not Like the Rest of the Slaves? Slavery Parables in Early Rabbinic and Early Christian Literature . His PhD project was part of the NWO-research project 'Parables and the Partings of the Ways' (see www.parabelproject.nl). During his PhD project Martijn also became increasingly interested in the role of Christianity and Judaism in the Dutch colonial slavery past. On that subject, he wrote a prize-winning essay in 2020. From February 2022 onwards Martijn has been active as postdoctoral researcher in a big NWO-funded project at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam (www.kerkenslavernij.nl), investigating the theological and exegetical ideas and narratives that were used in the Dutch colonial empire to legitimize or criticize slavery. Martijn has published several edited volumes and many articles, reviews and blogs.