Kristof Smeyers is a PhD researcher at the Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp. His research focuses on stigmata in the British Isles and the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as part of the European-wide research project ‘Between saints and celebrities. Devotion and promotion of stigmatics in Europe, c.1800-1950’ www.stigmatics.wordpress.com.

He previously worked in libraries and archives in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK, and was a research assistant for the Archaeology of Reading project at University College London (www.archaeologyofreading.org). In 2016 he wrote an economic history of Belgium (Het gestolde land, Polis Publishers), and since then has been a regular contributor to the Dutch Review of Books(www.nederlandseboekengids.com).

Follow Kristof Smeyers on Twitter: @kristof_smeyers