The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) is the most important research funding prize in Germany. The winners each receive prize money of 2.5 million euros, which they are free to use for their research work.

2013 I Prof. Dr Thomas Bauer (Arabic and Islamic Studies)
Prof Dr Thomas Bauer received the Leibniz Prize in 2013 for his unique combination of philological interpretation and edition of texts with a broad and innovative approach to the history of culture and mentality. His studies on the literature of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods and his (re)discovery of Islam as a ‘culture of ambiguity’ are considered particularly groundbreaking.

Prof Dr Thomas Bauer's profile at the University of Münster
 

2021 | Prof Dr Kristin Kleber | Governance in Babylon: Negotiating the Rule of Three Empires (GoviB)

Funding period at the University of Münster
2021–2026

Abstract
The earliest society in the ancient world, Babylonia went through two major regime changes and was consecutively ruled by three empires: the Assyrian, the Chaldean and the (first) Persian. But little is known about how imperial rule was negotiated locally and how the strategies that rulers and the ruled applied in pursuit of their interests interacted and led to instability or stability. The EU-funded GoviB project will explore the politics and authority in the ancient city of Babylon. By analysing newly available textual and archaeological material, the project will shed light on what causes states to be stable or instable and how regime changes fail or succeed.

Prof Dr Kristin Kleber at the University of Münster
ERC project information

The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is the highest endowed German science prize and enables researchers employed abroad to conduct a long-term, pioneering research project at a university in Germany. The Humboldt Professorships are awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Their purpose is to facilitate long-term, future-oriented research work at German universities and research facilities and thereby strengthen Germany’s competitive edge as a research location internationally.

2015 | Prof Dr Katrin Kogman-Appel (Jewish studies)

Funding period at the University of Münster
2015-2024

Abstract
What do the illustrations in mediaeval Jewish manuscripts tell us about the life of Jewish communities at the time? What interaction existed between Jewish pictorial and book culture and that of Christian and Islamic cultures? Jewish scholar Katrin Kogman-Appel is widely regarded as a world authority on the Jewish Art of the Middle Ages. She understands art history in terms of cultural history and always relates both to aspects of social and religious history. A typical example of Kogman-Appel’s approach is her work on the so-called Leipzig Mahzor, a collection of prayers for Jewish holidays and one of the most famous examples of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages. The prayer book was produced in southwestern Germany around 1310 and is known to have been kept at Worms in the 16th century. Kogman-Appel directs her attention to the role of the Mahzor and the rites of late-mediaeval Jewish community life depicted; she also focusses on social cohesion within the Jewish community in Worms, which was then a centre of Judaism in Germany. By embracing the broader cultural context, Kogman-Appel has an impact beyond the confines of Jewish Studies on Mediaeval Studies in general.

Prof Dr Katrin Kogman-Appel at the University of Münster

Dossier of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation about Prof Dr Katrin Kogman-Appel

Researchers at the GKM are regularly inducted into numerous science academies worldwide. As a result, they play a central role in the promotion and dissemination of scientific knowledge and in strengthening the dialog between science, society, and politics.

North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of the Arts and Sciences

2024 I Prof. Dr. Katrin Kogman-Appel (Jewish Studies)

2013 I Prof. Dr. Erhart Graefe (Egyptology)

2013 I Prof. Dr. Christine Schmitz (Classical Philology)

2012 I Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer (Arabic Studies)

Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz

2023 I Prof. Dr. Michael Grünbart (Byzantine Studies)

2022 I Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser (Egyptology)


Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italien

2012 I Prof. Dr. Stephen Emmel (Coptology)

Royal Society of Canada

2018 I Prof. Dr. Hans Beck (Ancient History)



 

The DFG’s Emmy Noether Programme offers exceptionally qualified researchers in the early years of their career (usually up to four years into their post-doc phase) the opportunity to lead an independent junior research group for a period of six years in order to gain qualification for a potential professorship.

2022 | Jun-Prof Dr Philip Bockholt | Inner-Islamic Transfer of Knowledge within Arabic-Persian-Ottoman Translation Processes in the Eastern Mediterranean (1400–1750)

Funding period at the University of Münster
2022–2028

Abstract
Translations played a crucial role in the making of the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period. As a transregional transfer of knowledge, translation processes were intertwined with the increasing religious and political polarisation between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shiite Safavids in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the junior research group will analyse translation as a concept, product, and process in a central region of the Islamicate world for the first time. By examining works that were widely read, translated and commented upon between 1400 and 1750, the project aims at contextualising translations from Arabic and Persian into Ottoman-Turkish with coeval trends of intellectual history. In merging approaches developed in the fields of Middle Eastern studies, translation studies, and material philology, the group can fill the gaps of previous research and replace reductive conceptualisations of translation with a novel understanding grounded in the sociocultural history of the region and period. This applies especially to translators, patrons and readership negotiating imperial identity, demarcating confessional boundaries, and adapting literary norms. Four research projects will examine translations pertaining to historiographical, biographical, encyclopaedic, and exegetic genres. Focusing on manuscripts as material objects, the projects will analyse the transmission and readership of the texts. Taking into account the content as well as paratextual elements such as ownership statements, seals, layout and illuminations, the junior research group will investigate translations as nexus between texts, translators (as authoritative actors) and literary practices. With this comprehensive approach, the group will shed light on networks of early modern knowledge production in the Eastern Mediterranean. By scrutinising prefaces, postscripts, ownership statements, and visual characteristics, it will trace individual mechanisms of knowledge transfer within broader confessional, political, and literary trends. Contextualising translation processes and relating them to tendencies in early modern intellectual history constitutes a genuine contribution to the field of intellectual history of the Islamicate world. To grant future research access to the collected data, the project will migrate it into the Bibliotheca Arabica project (Saxon Academy of Sciences, Leipzig) through a bio-bibliographical research platform.
Jun.-Prof Dr Philip Bockholt at the University of Münster

Eve Marie Becker
2024-2025 I Senior Fellow am Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg, Greifswald
2017–2018 I Fellow am Israel Institute for Advanced Studies der Hebrew University in Jerusalem/Israel
2016 bis 2017 I Distinguished Visiting Professor of the New Testament an der Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia/USA
2014 I Research Fellow am Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt

Lutz Doering
2014 I Honorary Fellow I Department of Theology and Religion (Durham University)
2014 I Fellowship des Institute for Advanced Studies (Jerusalem)
2011 I AHRC Research Fellowship, Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)
2011 I Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellowship Program
2010 I Woods-Gumbel Fellow, Tantur Institute (Jerusalem)

Michael Grünbart
2021 I Senior Fellow am Historischen Kolleg München im Kollegjahr 2022/2023
2020 I Fellow am IKGF "Faith and Prognostication" an der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
2018 I Petra Kappert Fellow am SFB 950 "Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa"
2017 I Fellow am IKGF "Faith and Prognostication" an der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Johannes Hahn
2021 I Verleihung der Ehrendoktorwürde der Eötvös-Loránd-Universität in Budapest

Gesa Schenke
2014 I Honorary Senior Research Associate (University of Oxford)

Humboldt Research Award
PD Dr. Christoph Michels (Ancient History)
2020-2025
Project: "Die Performanz von Wissen in der politischen Kommunikation des demokratischen Athen. Aristokratische Interaktionsfelder in den Briefen Frontos. Zwischen Übernahme und Abgrenzung. „Ideologietransfer“ im hellenistischen Königtum"

Anneliese Maier-Forschungspreis
2015 I Prof. Dr. Hans Beck (Ancient History)

Ausonius-Preis
2019 I Prof. Dr. Peter Funke (Alte Geschichte)

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis
2009 I Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser (Egyptologie)

Honorary Senior Research Associate University of Oxford
Prof. Dr. Gesa Schenke (2014)

Elected Members of the German Archaeological Institute
Prof. Dr. Peter Funke (1989)
Prof. Dr. Florian Janoscha Kreppner (2023)
Prof. Dr. Achim Lichtenberger (2022)
Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser (2020)

Forschungspreis der Universität Münster
2016 I Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser

Tractatus-Preis
2018 I Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer
 

2024
Bruno Biermann I Helga-Weippert-Preis
Manon Schutz I Philippika Preis 

2021
Nikita Artemov I Dissertationspreis des Fachbereichs Philologie der Universtität Münster
Matthias Geigenfeind I Armin Schmitt Preis für biblische Textforschung
Monnica Klöckener I Armin Schmitt Preis für biblische Textforschung

2013
Wolfgang Grünstäudl I Armin Schmitt Preis für biblische Textforschung