Cutting-edge research after the standard retirement age

Prof Dr Uwe Meves, emeritus Germanist at the university, has once again been awarded a "Lower Saxony 65+ Professorship". The expert on the German language and literature of the Middle Ages has already held this status for two years. Now he has once again prevailed in a prominent field of applicants.

Meves is one of eleven top researchers who can research and teach beyond the legal age limit and receive support from the "Niedersächsisches Vorab" programme. Over the next year and a half, Meves will complete his research project: "Election proposals for the admission of Germanists to the Prussian Academy of Sciences (1826-1900) Introduction. Edition. Commentary". The programme "The Lower Saxony Professorship - Research 65+" was launched in 2008 as a joint programme of the state of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation. According to the concept, excellent research knows no age limits.

"The continuation of the Lower Saxony Professorship for Prof. Dr Uwe Meves is an impressive recognition of his research work. At the same time, it underlines the high reputation that Oldenburg German Studies enjoys," explained Prof Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice President for Research.

Meves retired in 2009 and was first awarded the Lower Saxony Professorship in 2010. He began his academic career at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he completed his doctorate in 1976 with a study on minstrel epics. After his second State Examination, he conducted research at the University of Trier and was appointed to the Oldenburg professorship for older German language and literature in 1987.

His research and teaching specialisms include medieval literature in a social and cultural-historical context and the academic history of German studies. He is spokesman for the international editorial board of the critical edition of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's correspondence; numerous of his projects have been funded by the German Research Foundation.