Hartmut Leppin

Hartmut Leppin is Professor of Ancient History at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, where he has held a chair position since 2001. He leads the Department of Ancient History within the Historical Seminar (Department 08) at the university. Professor Leppin has turned down professorial offers from Hannover, Berlin (HU), and Cologne, choosing to remain at Frankfurt. He has been recognized with prestigious awards including the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation, the Erwin Stein Prize (2019), and the Humanities International Prize. For the Academic Year 2024/5, he has been invited to the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin.

Professor Leppin studied history and classical philology in Marburg, Heidelberg, Pavia, and Rome. He completed his state examination in Marburg in 1988, received his doctorate there in 1990, and habilitated at the Free University of Berlin in 1995. He served as a substitute professor in Greifswald in 1995/6 and held Feodor-Lynen and Heisenberg Fellowships for research stays in Nottingham and Göttingen before joining Frankfurt in 2001.

Leppin's research focuses on the political history of ideas in antiquity, Christianization processes, late antiquity, and entanglement history. He is currently working on a book about the global history of the Roman Empire that attempts to incorporate non-Roman perspectives. His work often examines transcultural and transepochal connections, with particular interest in how different cultures interacted within and beyond the Roman Empire. The publication trends show consistent output across multiple subfields including religious history, political theory, and cultural interactions in late antiquity, with particular emphasis on polyphonic perspectives of early Christianity.

Among his notable awards and recognitions are:

• Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation
• Erwin Stein Prize (2019)
• Humanities International Prize (Geisteswissenschaften International)
• Feodor-Lynen Fellowship
• Heisenberg Fellowship

Professor Leppin serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Historische Kolleg in Munich and is a member of the advisory board of the Frobenius Institute and Ceraneum. He is also editor or advisory board member for numerous academic journals, series, and encyclopedias including Atti del Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull'Antichità Classica, BMCR, Historische Zeitschrift, Histos, Millennium-Jahrbuch, Millennium-Studien, and Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum. Additionally, he is a principal investigator for the Leibnizcampus Byzanz (Mainz/Frankfurt).

From October 2015 to December 2023, Professor Leppin directed the DFG-funded project "Polyphony of Late Antique Christianity," which explored the diversity of Christianity within and beyond the Roman Empire, with particular attention to multilingualism and entanglement processes. This work led to an ongoing collaborative project with Philip Forness on the new edition, translation, and commentary of the Syriac church historian John of Ephesus. Starting July 1, 2025, he will serve as co-spokesperson (with Prof. Dr. Birgit Emich) for the research group "Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY)." Since early 2025, he has also been working on the potential field "Religion and De:Toxification."

As a visiting scholar, Professor Leppin has worked at institutions in Cambridge (UK), Changchun, Cairo, and Princeton. His scholarly supervision has guided numerous students through BA, MA, Staatsexamen, Magister, and doctoral programs, with many theses focusing on late antique Christianity, Roman social history, and political theory.