Prof. Dr. Veronika Burz-Tropper

Veronika Burz-Tropper (born in 1984 in Austria) is professor of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. She studied Catholic Theology and Catholic Religious Education in Graz and Jerusalem (participant of the 32nd Theologisches Studienjahr at the Dormitio Abbey). 

She obtained her doctorate with a dissertation on “Jesus Didáskalos. Studies on Jesus as teacher in the Synoptics and in the framework of ancient social and cultural history” at the University of Vienna. Before coming to Leuven she worked as a prae-doc assistant at the Institute for New Testament Studies at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna (2007-2011) and afterwards as a research assistant, post-doc, at the University of Mainz and at the University of Innsbruck (2011-2014). 

In 2014 she started her project on “Theo-Logy in the Gospel of John” funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF as Hertha-Firnberg-Project (T 627 G-19) at the Department for Biblical Studies at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Vienna. In this context, she also worked on her habilitation thesis. She was able to complete this from March to August 2022 as part of the Marie Jahoda-Scholarship of the University of Vienna and the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Innsbruck habilitated her on March 21, 2023 (venia docendi).

In addition to establishing New Testament Theo-Logy as a strong research focus, she is working on anthropological aspects in the New Testament.

Mads Hedegaard Kristensen MA MA

Mads Hedegaard Kristensen (born 1995 in Denmark) is a pre-doctoral researcher in New Testament Studies at the KU Leuven. He holds a Master of Theology (Divinity) from the University of St Andrews and a Research Master in Theology and Religious Studies from KU Leuven. His academic focus is on Pauline studies; at KU Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. Burz-Tropper, he wrote his Master's thesis in which he used social science methods to examine Galatians 3:28 and the role of gender in Pauline theology.

In his current research, Mads Kristensen is focussing on the ideas of individuality and personhood in New Testament texts, paying particular attention to how these concepts relate to and differ from the anthropological ideas of Second Temple Judaism.

Nynke van Birgelen BA

Nynke van Birgelen holds a BA in Theology (2025) from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is currently enrolled in the Research Master's programme in Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She is working as a student assistant for the international research project WEAVE in Biblical Anthropology.