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Curriculum Vitae

Susanne Härtel is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Religious Studies and Jewish Thought at the University of Potsdam, and also at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg. She studied History and Political Sciences as well as Philosophy at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Warsaw. Her MA thesis, within the field of History of Historiography, dealt with the development of European historical approaches in 20th century German academia.

During her doctoral studies, Susanne Härtel was research fellow at the Chair of the History of Religions as well as of the Center of Excellence, Cultural Foundations of Integration at the University of Constance. Her dissertation on "Jewish Cemeteries in the Holy Roman Empire (11th-16th C.)", which won the Constance District Prize supporting young academics at the University of Constance, was published by De Gruyter.

After completing her dissertation, Susanne Härtel was a postdoctoral researcher in Jewish History on the ERC project "FOUNDMED - Foundations in Medieval Societies. Cross-cultural Comparisons" at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. Since June 2017, she has been pursuing a project on Jewish life and its diverse communal manifestations in the Ottoman Empire ‘Together at one table? The culinary field as a crystallization point of Jewish affiliations in early modern Ottoman Europe’. At the Selma Stern Center, she leads the research group ‘Jewish-Jewish encounters in Ottoman Europe’.

since 2017 Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer as well as research group leader (“Jewish-Jewish encounters in Ottoman Europe”)

2015–2017 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Department of HistoryPostdoctoral Researcher (Jewish History) on the ERC project “FOUNDMED – Foundations in Medieval Societies. Cross-cultural Comparisons”

04/16 University of Constance, Department of HistoryDoctorate in Medieval History/ PhD thesis: “Jewish Cemeteries in the Holy Roman Empire (11th–16th C.)” (summa cum laude)Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dorothea Weltecke (Constance); Prof. Dr. Michael Borgolte (Berlin)

2014–2015 University of Zurich, Historical SeminarLecturer

2009–2014 University of Constance, Department of HistoryResearch fellow

2007–2008 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Department of HistoryResearch fellow

2003–2006 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Faculty of Arts I and IIIGraduate studies: Medieval History, Political Sciences and PhilosophyMA thesis: “The Problem of Europe in the German Historical Sciences of the 20th C. Fritz Rörig (1882–1952)” (with distinction)

2002–2003 University of WarsawVisiting student (History and Political Sciences), Erasmus Programme grant

2001–2002 Hebrew University, JerusalemVisiting student (History), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant

1998–2001 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Faculty of Arts I and IIIUndergraduate Studies: Modern History, Political Sciences and Philosophy

Research Areas

- Thematic:

  • Medieval Ashkenaz
  • Jewish-Christian Relations
  • Comparison and Entanglement of Medieval and Early Modern Jewries
  • Jewish Life in the Ottoman Empire
  • Endowment Studies
  • History of Historiography

- Methodic:

  • Transcultural History
  • History of Everyday Life
  • Historical Semantics
  • Material Culture