Gabriele Pieke is responsible as a curator for the Topoi exhibition since fall 2009. She is trained in Egyptology, Philology of Christian Orient and Communication Sciences. Her thesis is about Egyptian non royal tomb decoration (Tomb of Mereruka, Saqqara) and until now she is still working on art historical analysis of relief and paintings. She has a long-term experience in planning and organizing special exhibitions and the general museum’s field.

Astrid Dostert is archeologist and historian of arts by training and has been working within the Central Administration of the Excellence Cluster Topoi since 2007. Her research interests include ancient sculptures and their reception in modern times. A special focus lies on the history of collections and the history of restoration. Within the administration of the Excellence Cluster Topoi, Astrid Dostert is responsible for the finances and general coordination of the research activities at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and its partner institutions. As a co-curator she is  involved in the conception and coordination of the exhibition “Jenseits des Horizonts. Raum und Wissen in den Kulturen der Alten Welt,” which will be shown in 2012.

Since 2007 Bénédicte Savoy has been professor of art history at the Institute of Art History at the Technische Universität Berlin. Within Topoi she is spokesperson of Cross Sectional Group IV Museums. Her major interests lie in reception and transformation of ancient spaces in museum contexts and concepts of presentation with the help of models. Furthermore Bénédicte Savoy works on the transfer of art and culture in 18th and 19th century Europe, the history of museums and collections, and on looted art.

Sabine Plöger studied journalism and communication sciences, art history and modern German literature at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and at the Freie Universität Berlin. She wrote her master’s thesis on the subject “Problems in the presentation of Christian collections using the example of the Speyer cathedral treasury”. In 2005 she received her Magister artium. In 2006/2007 she worked as a research assistant for the Stiftung Saarländischer Kulturbesitz. There she played a major role in the organization of the exhibition “A holy place. Roman religion and shrines in the Saarland” at the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte. Currently she is writing her doctoral thesis on current stagings of ancient spaces in museum contexts within the Topoi research group CSG-IV Museums (research area E).