Pieta van Beek is a researcher at the Universities of Utrecht and Stellenbosch and her publications are predominantly on the polyglot seventeenth-century learned woman Anna Maria van Schurman, who was the first female university student. Her book Brieven van overzee: Ida Gerhardt nabij is about her friendship and correspondence with the poet Ida Gerhardt. With Dineke Ehlers she co-authored the textbook Oranje boven: Nederlands voor Zuid-Afrika.