Dr J.J.M. Hazenbos (b. 1962) has been appointed professor by special appointment of Hittite and related Anatolian languages and cultures as well as the history of Asia Minor and the preclassical period of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA). The chair has been endowed by the Allard Pierson Stichting (Allard Pierson Foundation).

Joost Hazenbos will be occupying himself with education in the Hittite langauge and literature and the political history and cultural history of Asia Minor, in particular the Hittite realm. The main points in his research are the Hittite cultural history (such as religion, a central theme in his PhD thesis) and the grammar of Hurritic, a non-Indoeuropean language which was spoken in the same period as Hittite in Asia Manor but which are completely unrelated to each other.

Hazenbos has been attached to the Altorientalisches Institut of the Universität Leipzig since 1996, where he has been working on his Habilitation from 1998 till 2003, with the theme Hittite oracle texts. He was given a scholarship by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft from 1998 till 2000, and was appointed Privatdozent at
the Universität Leipzig in 2003. He has besides taught at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Universität Bern between 1999 and 2004.