since 2019

Member of the TIS working group – Transcultural Interreligious Studies at the University of Oberlin

2019–2023

Member of the School Council and the Programme Committee of School IV

2019–2024

Erasmus Co-ordinator for the Institute of History

since 2020

Director of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies

2025–2027

Vice-Dean for Research at School IV

since 2014

Co-editor of L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History

• 1986–1994: Studied Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History and Islamic Studies (Arabic/Turkish) in Bonn, Cairo and Freiburg im Breisgau
• 1991–1994: Student assistant at the Chair of Dieter Mertens
• 1994–1995: Involvement in regional history projects on the history of Baden
• 1995–1996: Research assistant at the Department of History, University of Würzburg
• 1996–2001: PhD studies at the European University Institute in Florence (doctoral thesis: Knowledge and The Turkish Threat. The formation of the ethnographic body of knowledge on the Ottomans in Europe, 15th–16th centuries, supervised by Bo Stråth) with research stays at the German Studies Centre in Venice and the German Historical Institute in Paris.
• 1999–2001: Research Assistant at the EHI in Florence under Regina Schulte
• 2001–2005, 2007–2010: Research assistant on the professorship in history at the University of Basel (Prof. Claudia Opitz)
• April 2005–August 2006: Visiting researcher at the American University in Cairo
• 09/2006–07/2007: Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• 2011–2015, 2016–2017: Swiss National Science Foundation Endowed Chair at the Department of History, University of Zurich, in Transcultural History of the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages with the project ‘Hermaphrodites, Eunuchs and Priests: Gender Ambiguities and Masculinities in the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages’.
• 2014: Habilitation at the University of Basel with the Venia Docendi in Medieval and Modern History (Habilitation thesis: Empire and Caliphate. Imperial Monotheism in the Early and High Middle Ages)
• Oct 2015–Jul 2016: Interim professorship (replacing Wolfram Drews) at the University of Münster
• Since 12/2017: Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oldenburg

• Cultural History of Latin Europe
• Transcultural History of Latin Europe and the Middle East
• Gender History
• Travel Accounts and the Christian Perception of Islam
• Monarchical Forms of Government
• Medievalisms
• Regional History of North-West Germany

2024–2027: ‘Gentes et nationes’ project : A gender history of concepts of community in the 15th and 16th centuries (funded by Pro Niedersachsen)

Since 2023: Familiarisation with the regional history of north-western Germany, with a focus on monastic charters

1. Monographs

The Empire and the Caliphate. Imperial Monotheism in the Early and High Middle Ages ( Global History 21). Frankfurt am Main: campus 2015.

Describing the Enemy. The ‘Turkish Threat’ and European Knowledge of the Ottoman Empire (1450–1600) ( Historical Studies 35). Frankfurt am Main: campus 2003.

2. Edited and co-authored works

Almut Höfert / Xenia von Tippelskirch: Goddesses. ( L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History Vol. 33, 1). Göttingen: V&R unipress 2022.

Anna Becker / Almut Höfert / Monika Mommertz / Sophie Ruppel (eds.): Body – Power – Gender. Insights and Perspectives from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Frankfurt am Main: campus 2020.

Almut Höfert / Matthew Mesley / Serena Tolino (eds.): *Celibate and Childless Men in Power: Ruling Bishops and Eunuchs in the Pre-Modern World*. London : Routledge 2018.

Almut Höfert / Michaela Hohkamp / Claudia Ulbrich (eds.): Sister Figures. ( L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History, vol. 28, no. 2). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 2017.

Almut Höfert (ed.): Miracles, Marvels and Monsters in the Middle Ages ( Living History Books by infoclio.ch – The specialist portal for historical studies in Switzerland). Digital anthology with open-access sources, published in February 2016 in German and English: www.livingbooksabouthistory.ch/de/.

Monarchical Forms of Rule in the Pre-Modern Era from a Transcultural Perspective ( Europe in the Middle Ages 26). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2015 (co-authored with Wolfram Drews, Antje Flüchter, Christoph Dartmann, Jörg Gengnagel, Sebastian Kolditz, Jenny Oesterle, Ruth Schilling and Gerald Schwedler).

Almut Höfert / Claudia Opitz / Claudia Ulbrich (eds.): Global Gender History. ( L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History, Vol. 23, Issue 2). Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau-Verlag 2012.

Research Methods in History: A Study Guide. Basel : Department of History 2010 (in collaboration with Anja Rathmann-Lutz and Christiane Sibille, 2nd ed. 2012).

Almut Höfert / Armando Salvatore (eds.): Between Europe and Islam. Shaping Modernity in a Transcultural Space. Brussels, Bern, Berlin: PIE 2000 (2nd ed . 2004).

War and Crime according to Late Medieval Chronicles ( with Christoph Heiduk and Cord Ulrichs). Cologne: Böhlau 1997.

3. Teaching materials

Research Methods in History Studies: The Difference between Wikipedia and Historical Scholarship. 61 pp. with appendices. Reader for the 2009 introductory course (in collaboration with Gregor Spuhler et al.).

4. Essays

‘Participation, anniversary commemorations and “Masses, vigils and remembrance”. The economy of the afterlife and memorial practices at Rastede Abbey from the 12th to the 15th century.’ In: Oldenburg Yearbook 126 (2026), pp. 1–32 (in press).

‘Three Medieval “Letter of Petition” from the Dominican Convent of Blankenburg following the Hunte Floods. The nuns’ cloister as a hub in networks of indulgences, prayer societies and fundraising campaigns.’ In: Krüger, Christine G / Meifort, Franziska / Witkowski, Mareike (eds.): Correspondence from the Past. Letters as Historical Sources. Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2025, pp. 103–116.

‘European and German depictions of Turkish men and women from the 15th to the 21st century.’ In: Georgi, Viola B / Arani, Aliyeh Yegane / Yildirim, Lale (eds.): Ottoman–German History(ies) in Education and Culture. Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Bielefeld : transcript 2024, pp. 63–77.

‘Times of Goddesses. The “Great Goddess” in academia and religious movements.’ In: L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History 33 ,1 (2022), pp. 57–84 (co-authored with Anja Hänsch).

“Biological Sex and Sexus: Hermaphrodites in Legal Discourses of the Latin and Arabic Middle Ages.” In Body – Power – Gender (see above, 2020), pp. 31–58.

‘Kingship and Imperial Legitimacy: The Multifaceted Relationship between Mulk and Caliphate.’ In: Becher, Matthias / Conermann, Stephan / Dohmen, Linda (eds.):

Power and Rule in a Transcultural Context: Pre-modern Configurations and Research Perspectives. ( Power and Rule. Series of the SFB 1167 “Power and Rule – Pre-modern Configurations in a Transcultural Perspective”, Vol. 1). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2018, pp. 163–197.

‘Celibate and Childless Men Placed in a Shared Focus: Ruling Eunuchs and Bishops at the Intersections of Power, Networks, Sacredness and Gender.” In: Celibate and Childless Men in Power: Ruling Bishops and Eunuchs in the Pre-Modern World. London: Routledge 2018, pp. 1–40.

“A History of Royal Objects: The Coronation Mantle of the Holy Roman Empire.” In: Wolfram Drews / Christian Scholl (eds.): Transcultural Interconnections in the Pre-Modern World (The Middle Ages. Supplements 3), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2016, pp. 156–173.

‘Sacredness and Sacralisation from a Transcultural Perspective.’ In: Monarchical Forms of Rule in the Pre-modern Era from a Transcultural Perspective ( Europe in the Middle Ages 26). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2015, pp. 175–238 (co-authored with Wolfram Drews and Jörg Gengnagel).

‘Crossing Boundaries in Medieval Studies: Transcultural Research with a Non-European Source Language at the Intersection of History and Area Studies.’ In: Swiss Journal of History 64 (2014), pp. 210–223.

‘Ernst Kantorowicz, the King’s Two Bodies and Islam: An Essay on the Body of the Caliph.’ In: Maas, Sandra / von Tippelskirch, Xenia (eds.): The Folds of History. Discovering, deciphering, narrating. Festschrift for Regina Schulte on her 65th birthday. Frankfurt am Main: campus 2014, pp. 260–269.

‘Insana scabies et historia orbis terrarum. The religio turcorum caught between the traditions of heresiology and ethnography.’ In: Grenzmann, Ludger / Haye, Thomas / Henkel, Nikolaus / Kaufmann, Thomas (eds.): Mutual Perceptions of Religions in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. Vol. 2: Cultural Manifestations (Literature, Mythography, Scholarship and Art). Berlin , New York: Walter de Gruyter 2012, pp. 269–289.

‘The Crux of Europe and Cultural Conflicts.’ In: Malik, Jamal (ed.): The Mobilisation of Religion in Europe. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 2010, pp. 255–262.

‘Discourses on Otherness: Parameters for Analysing Historical Narratives of Antagonism and Their Historiographical Consequences.’ In: Haug-Moritz, Gabriele / Pelizaeus, Ludolf (eds.): Representations of the Islamic World in Early Modern Europe. Münster: Aschendorff Verlag 2010, pp. 21–40.

‘Monarchical Forms of Rule in a Transcultural Comparison. Argumentative Strategies for Justifying Usurpations among the Carolingians and Abbasids’ (with Wolfram Drews). In: Borgolte, Michael / Schneidmüller, Bernd (eds.): Hybrid Cultures in Medieval Europe. Lectures and Workshops from a Spring School ( Europe in the Middle Ages 16). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 2010, pp. 229–244.

‘Gender and the Transcultural Perspective.’ In: Ineichen, Martina / Liesch, Anja / Rathmann-Lutz, Anja / Wenger, Simon (eds.): Gender in Trans-it: Transcultural and Transnational Perspectives. Proceedings of the 12th Swiss Gender History Conference 2007. Zurich : Chronos-Verlag 2009, pp. 17–29.

‘The “Turkish threat” in the Early Modern Period.’ In: Thorsten Gerald Schneiders (ed.): Islamophobia – When the Boundaries of Criticism Become Blurred. Wiesbaden : VS-Verlag 2009, pp. 62–70 (2nd ed. 2010).

‘Remarks on the Concept of a “Transcultural” History in German-Language Research.’ In: Drews, Wolfram / Oesterle, Jenny (eds.): Transcultural Comparative Studies: Contributions to a Global History of the Pre-Modern Period (= *Comparativ*. Journal of Global History and Comparative Social Research, vol. 18). Leipzig 2008, pp. 14–25.

‘Europe and the Middle East: Transcultural Comparison in the Pre-modern Era and the Master Narratives on Islam.’ In: Historische Zeitschrift, vol . 287 (2008), pp. 561–597.

‘Turcica: Towards a Comprehensive Overview of Representative Travel Accounts on the Ottoman Empire up to 1600.’ In: Ilg, Ulrike (ed.): Text and Image in 16th-Century Travel Accounts. Western Accounts of America and the Ottoman Empire (= Studi e ricerche / Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz 3). Venice: Marsilio 2008, pp. 105–137.

‘Comparing, Changing, Understanding.’ In: Grimm, Dieter / Luca, Guiliano (eds.): Yearbook of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 2006/2007. Berlin 2008, pp. 46–51.

‘The Devil’s Law and the Mirror of Europe. The Christian-Western European Image of Islam in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.’ In: Attia, Iman (ed.): Images of the Orient and Islam. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Orientalism and Anti-Muslim Racism. Berlin: Unrast-Verlag 2007, 85–110.

“Europe and Religion in the Context of Sixteenth-Century Relations between Christian Powers and the Ottoman Empire.” In: Hans-Åke Persson and Bo Stråth (eds.): Reflections on Europe. Defining a Political Order in Time and Space. Brussels, Berlin, Bern: PIE 2007, pp. 211–230.

‘History in the European Microcosm: The European University Institute in Florence’ (with Davide Lombardo). In: Plamper, Jan (ed.): Grenzgang. Academic Cultures of History in an International Comparison. Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 52 (2004), pp. 87–98.

‘States, Cities, and Citizens in the Late Middle Ages.’ In: Quentin Skinner / Bo Stråth (eds.): States and Citizens: History, Prospects, Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2003, pp. 63–75.

‘Is Evil Dirty? The Ottoman Empire in the Eyes of European Observers of the 15th and 16th Centuries.’ In: Historical Anthropology Vol. 11 (2003), pp. 176–192.

‘The Order of Things and the Turkish Threat: the Conceptualisation of Islam in

the Rise of Occidental Anthropology in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.” In : Höfert / Salvatore (eds.): Between Europe and Islam, pp . 59–67.

‘History of Bühl: From the Term of Office of Johann Fraaß to the Eve of the First World War (1881–1913).’ In: History of the Town of Bühl, Vol . 2. Bühl 1999, pp. 109–129.

“From Antichrist to Human Being. The Transformation of the Western European Image of the Turks in the Early Modern Period, as Illustrated by George of Hungary’s Treatise on the Customs, Living Conditions and Deceitfulness of the Turks.” In: Reulecke, Jürgen (ed.): ‘Walking a Tightrope with a Headscarf’. Essays on the German-Turkish Summer Academy of the Körber Foundation. Hamburg : Edition Körber-Stiftung 1997, pp. 47–72.

‘The Enclosed Farmsteads of Hinterzarten and the Right of Primogeniture.’ In: Liehl, Ekkehart: History of the Farmsteads in Hinterzarten, Vol. 1. Freiburg: Rombach 1997, pp. 25–38.

‘The Foreign Through the Lens of the Familiar: The Medieval Legacy in the European Image of the Turks during the Renaissance’, in: Pera Blätter No . 4, Istanbul 1995.

5. Miscellanea

Encyclopaedia entry ‘Monarchy and Kingship’ in Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE, Leiden : Brill (forthcoming).

Almut Höfert, review: Weltecke, Dorothea: The Three Rings. Why Religions Only Emerged in the Middle Ages, Munich 2024, in: H-Soz-Kult, 28 January 2026, www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-145173.

Almut Höfert / Xenia von Tippelskirch: ‘Editorial.’ In: Ibid. (eds.): Goddesses. (L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History, Vol. 33, No. 1). Göttingen: V&R unipress 2022, pp. 7–16.

‘Which Islam? On Islam in the arts pages and in research.’ In: Geschichte der Gegenwart. Contributions to the public debate, published on 21 May 2017. (http://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/welcher-islam-zum-islam-in-feuilleton-und-forschung/)

Almut Höfert / Michaela Hohkamp / Claudia Ulbrich: “Editorial.” In: Ibid. ( eds.): Sister Figures. ( L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History, vol. 28, no. 2). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 2017, pp. 9–13.

Review of Soyer, François: *Ambiguous Gender in Early Modern Spain and Portugal. Inquisitors, Doctors and the Transgression of Gender Norms* (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 47). Leiden , Boston 2012. In: *Werkstatt Geschichte* 2015 , 69, pp. 89–90 (http://recensio.net/r/df12404ed433401495cbc63a697b2ef5).

Review of Bang, Peter Fibiger / Kolodziejczyk, Dariusz (eds.): *Universal Empire. A Comparative Approach to Imperial Culture and Representation in Eurasian History*. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2012. In: Francia-Recensio 2014/3 (http://www.perspectivia.net/content/publikationen/francia/francia-recensio/2014-3/FN/bang_hoefert)

Article ‘Bartholomaeo Georgius (1505–1566) [English]’. In: Thomas, David / Mallet, Alex (eds.): Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 6 (= CMR 6). Leiden 2015, pp. 318–327.

Article ‘Johannes Löwenklau’ (1541–1594) [English]. In: Thomas, David / Mallet, Alex (eds.): Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 6 (= CMR 6). Leiden 2015, pp. 466–474.

Article ‘Türkenbüchlein’ [English]. In: Thomas, David / Mallet, Alex (eds.): Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 6 ( = CMR 6). Leiden 2015, pp. 516–532.

‘Body and Gender in the Middle Ages’. In: etü. Journal of History Students ( published by students at the Department of History, University of Zurich) Spring Semester 2014, pp. 52–54.

Review of François-Joseph Ruggiu (ed.): *The Uses of First Person Writings. Africa , America, Asia, Europe. Les usages des écrits du for privé. Afrique, Amérique, Asie, Europe*. Brussels 2012. In: L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History 24 (2013), pp. 139–142

Review of Lazaro, Soranzo: *Ottomannus*. On the state, power and violence, as well as other hidden and secret matters of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Translated into modern German and re-edited by Hans Hattenhauer and Uwe Bake. Frankfurt am Main 2009. Reviewed in the Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 39, 2 (2012), pp. 146ff.

Almut Höfert / Claudia Opitz / Claudia Ulbrich: ‘Editorial.’ In: Ibid. (eds.): Global Gender History. ( L’homme. European Journal of Feminist History, vol. 23, no. 2). Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau-Verlag 2012, pp. 5–12.

Review of Jenny Rahel Oesterle: Caliphate and Kingship. Representations of Power by the Fatimids, Ottonians and Early Salian Dynasty at Religious Festivals. Darmstadt 2009. Reviewed for H-Soz-Kult on 12 January 2011.

Review of Andrew Marsham: *Rituals of Islamic Monarchy*. Accession and Succession in the First Muslim Empire. Edinburgh 2009. Reviewed in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73 (2010), pp. 314–316.

Review of Monica Juneja / Margrit Pernau (eds.): Religion and Borders in Germany. Towards a Transnational Historiography. Reviewed for *Werkstatt Geschichte* 53 (2010), pp. 115–117.

Review of Thomas Kaufmann: ‘Türckenbüchlein’. On the Christian Perception of the ‘Turkish Religion’ in the Late Middle Ages and the Reformation ( Research in Church and Dogmatic History 97). Göttingen 2008. Reviewed in *Historische Zeitschrift* 290 (2010), pp . 417ff.

Review of Gerald MacLean: *Looking East. English Writing and the Ottoman Empire before 1800*. Basingstoke 2007. Reviewed for H-Soz-Kult, 17 September 2009.

Review of Franz Fuchs (ed.): Ottoman Expansion and European Humanism. Proceedings of the interdisciplinary symposium held on 29 and 30 May 2003 at the Stadtmuseum Wiener Neustadt ( Pirckheimer Yearbook for Renaissance and Humanism Research 20), Wiesbaden 2003. Reviewed in the *Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung* 35 (2008), pp. 690–692.

Almut Höfert: ‘The glorious days of the jihad are history. Islam does not seek world conquest: A response to Egon Flaig.’ In: *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung*, 19 October 2006.

Review of Sabine Klocke-Daffa / Jürgen Scheffler / Gisela Wilbertz (eds.): Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716) and the Cultural Encounter between Europe and Asia. Contributions to Travel Studies and the History of Science ( Lippische Studien 18), Lemgo 2003. Reviewed for H-Soz-Kult, 19 March 2004.

Translation by Sylviane Agancinski: ‘The Sexual Conflict. (Translated from the French by Almut Höfert).’ In: Schwarte, Ludger / Wulf, Christoph (eds.): Body and Law. Anthropological Dimensions of the Philosophy of Law. Munich: Fink 2003, pp. 195–210.