Josephine van den Bent is assistant professor in medieval history. She received her PhD in history from the UvA (2020), with a dissertation entitled 'The Mongols in Mamluk Eyes: Representing Ethnic Others in the Medieval Middle East'. 

Research

My dissertation analysed the representation of the Mongols in the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria, and the ways in which contemporary scholars were involved in processes of ethnic identification, categorisation and othering and the ways in which such representations of the Mongols were used for various purposes in response to, and in interaction with, the sultanate’s complex ethnic and political contexts. My current research builds on that, focusing on the construction of ethnicity in the medieval Middle East. I am also a postdoctoral researcher in a project on water management in the medieval Middle East, where I focus on the cities of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.

Teaching

• Verdiepingsvak II
• Middeleeuwse geschiedenis
• De wereld op straat