About Professor Iain Gardner
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Professor Iain Gardner was trained in early Christian literature and the history of religions at the University of Manchester, undertaking research work on ancient manuscripts in Berlin and Vienna, and had extensive experience teaching in both Britain and Western Australia before coming to the University of Sydney. He works on a number of major international research projects in areas as diverse as Egypt and south China, and has edited many original manuscripts in ancient languages such as Coptic from collections around the world. He comments: "Whilst I am fascinated by all areas of the history of religions, my research interests are particularly in the world of late antiquity, in the many spiritual practices and religions of the ancient world, and especially those alternative forms of Christianity represented by apocryphal and gnostic literature that often flourished in places like the monasteries of the Egyptian desert or spread along the trade-routes of Asia and Africa".