Fellowship Lunchtime Lectures: Professor Henrike Lähnemann

Event

Henrike Lähnemann

Teddy Hall’s online lunchtime lecture series returns for Hilary Term 2021. It aims to highlight the incredible depth and breadth of research across the Teddy Hall Fellowship. Students, alumni, fellows and staff are welcome to register.

Speaker and Topic

The Nuns’ Network. Letter Writing and Lobbying in Late Medieval Germany

Henrike’s talk explores how the Benedictine nuns of Lüne Abbey in the early 16th century used their correspondence to discuss theology, lobby for their independence, and successfully communicate with those in power, their families and other convents. Her examples will be taken from the ongoing edition, introduce the fascinating language mix of the letters, and discuss the strategies used by the nuns to promote their community. For a sneak preview, have a look at the six-part documentary about the project, The Nuns’ Network.

About the Speaker

Henrike Lähnemann is Professor of German Medieval and Linguistic Studies and Professorial Fellow.

Henrike studied Germanistik, History of Art and Theology in Bamberg, Edinburgh, Berlin and Göttingen. Her PhD explored the late medieval literary network of Nürnberg. She followed her Doktorvater Professor Christoph Huber to the University of Tübingen where from 1995 to 2006 she taught a variety of courses on medieval German language and literature ranging from Advanced Gothic to Early Print Culture. During that time she gained a Venia Legendi (the right to lecture) in German Philology for her 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 Henrike spent a year at Oxford on a Humboldt foundation scholarship working with Professor Nigel F. Palmer (2001/2) and held a Visiting Professorship in manuscript studies at the University of Zürich centred around (2005). In 2006, she came to the UK as Chair of German Studies at Newcastle University where her current research projects started, centred on the religious landscape of the 15/16th centuries in the Lüneburg area, particularly the manuscripts produced by the nuns there. Working there also afforded Henrike 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) from 2009 to 2015.

Since 2015, she has held the Chair in Medieval German Literature and Linguistics which was created in 1972 for Peter F. Ganz and then taken over by Nigel F. Palmer who continues to be actively involved in research and in the life of the College. The continuation of the Chair was made possible by generous funding from the VolkswagenStiftung, the DAAD, and the University of Freiburg where Henrike has the privilege of spending two months of research time every summer at the FRIAS (Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies).

Registration

You must register in order to receive the Zoom joining link the day before the lecture.

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Please note that this lecture will be recorded and published on St Edmund Hall’s digital and print communication platforms where appropriate.