Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a clover

Prof. Dr. Henrike Lähnemann

Portrait of Henrike Lähnemann

University of Oxford
German Medieval Studies

External Senior Fellow
July 2024 – August 2024

E-Mail: henrike.laehnemann@frias.uni-freiburg.de

Last Update: 31.08.2024

Curriculum Vitae

I grew up in three German towns that shaped my interest in medieval literature and religion: Münster, Lüneburg and Nürnberg. I then studied Germanistik, History of Art and Theology in Bamberg, Edinburgh, Berlin and Göttingen. My PhD explored the late medieval literary network of Nürnberg. I followed my Doktorvater Professor Christoph Huber to the University of Tübingen where from 1995 to 2006 I taught a variety of courses on medieval German language and literature ranging from Advanced Gothic to Early Print Culture. During that time I gained a Venia Legendi (the right to lecture) in German Philology for my book on the history of the Book of Judith in the Middle Ages and edited an 11th century bilingual commentary on the Song of Songs by Williram of Ebersberg. During these years I spent a year at Oxford on a Humboldt foundation scholarship working with Professor Nigel F. Palmer (2001-2002) and held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Zürich centred around manuscript studies (2005). In 2006, I came to the UK as Chair of German Studies at Newcastle University where my current research projects took shape: the religious landscape of the 15/16th Lüneburg area, particularly the manuscripts produced by the nuns in Medingen. Working there also afforded the opportunity to start shared projects with British German medievalists and the wider field of Modern Languages, e.g. as Chair of Women in German Studies (WIGS). Since starting in Oxford as the Chair of Medieval German Literature and Languages in January 2015, I have taken forward these and new topics within the German and medieval studies community in Oxford.

Selected Publications

FRIAS Project