Mette Birkedal Bruun, PhD, dr.theol., is Professor of Church History at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Centre for Privacy Studies (DNRF138, 2017–2027). She is the editor-in-chief of the Privacy Studies Journal, board member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and vice chair of the Danish Council for Research and Innovation Policy. Her research focuses on the history of monasticism, religiously motivated withdrawal from the world, and zones of privacy in past and present.