In 1972, she received a second master's degree from the University of Cambridge and five years later, a Ph.D. from the same school.
In 1981–1982, she was a British Academy Wolfson Fellow at the Warburg Institute.
In 1989–1990, she was a visiting scholar at the Centre Louis Gernet; in 1992–1993, she was a scientific fellow at Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin; in 1994, she was a visiting fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford.
In 1994–1995, she again served as a professor of literature, this time at the University of Helsinki.
She returned to the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, in 2001 as a Scientific Fellow.