Vasō Penna

Vasō Penna was born in Kyparissia (Peloponnese). She studied Archaeology and History of Art at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and in 1991 received her Ph.D. from Wolfson College, University of Oxford (England). From 1974-98, she served in the Archaeological Service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, and in the Numismatic Museum, Athens, where in 1994 she was appointed as a Deputy Director. She was a member of Ph.D. examination committees in the Universities of Oxford and Sorbonne.

In 2003, she started teaching at the Department of History, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage Management of the University of the Peloponnese (Kalamata); in 2006 she was appointed Assistant Professor in Byzantine History, Numismatics and Sigillography, and by 2017 she became full Professor. Her research focused on the economic and numismatic history of Byzantium, on aspects of historical geography and local history, and on Byzantine prosopograpy, society and institutions. She was Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King's College (London), and she was invited at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.) to organize, together with Dr. Eric McGeer, the Byzantine Coins and Seals Summer Program 2015.

She published three monographs, numerous papers in Greek and international scientific journals, and edited five collective volumes, including the Sylloge Nummorium Graecorum. Greece 7: The KIKPE Collection of Bronze Coins, Vol. I. She was a scientific associate of the Welfare Foundation for Social and Cultural Affairs / KIKPE from 2003-18. She took part in many scientific conferences and organized exhibitions in Greece and abroad aiming at the promotion of numismatics and of monetary history as products of cultural heritage, and she gave a great number of lectures.

Source: CoinsWeekly