Leena Mari Peltomaa

is guest researcher at the Department of Byzantine Research of the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Leena Mari Peltomaa, has a doctorate in classical philology (Greek) from the University of Helsinki and adjunct professor of orthodox hymnography at the University of Eastern Finland. Since 1994 she has based her scholarly activities in Vienna and prepared her book "The Image of the Virgin Mary in the Akathistos Hymn" (Brill 2001) at the University of Vienna's Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. Her recent research at the Department for Byzantine Research of the Institute of Medieval Research focuses on the Byzantine cult of Mary, on its origins, in particular, as well as on the hymnography of Romanos Melodos.