Katja Krause

Katja Krause is a historian of science and philosopher specializing in medieval thought, currently serving as Leader of the Max Planck Research Group 'Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body, ca. 800–1650' and holding a professorship at Technische Universität Berlin. Her work bridges the history of science, philosophy, and cross-cultural intellectual exchange, focusing on the empirical turn in medieval Latin, Arabic, and Greek traditions.

• PhD in 2014 from King’s College London
• Postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (2014-2016)
• Assistant Professor at Durham University (2016-2017)
• Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity School (2017-2018)

Her research investigates the conjoined emergence of philosophical and scientific empiricism in the thirteenth century, particularly through Averroes’ influence on Latin Aristotelianism. She explores how medieval thinkers integrated sense experience with universal principles in disciplines like medicine and natural philosophy, emphasizing the role of internal psychological processes (memory, generalization) in grounding scientific knowledge.

Recent publications include analyses of Albert the Great’s synthesis of Arabic Neoplatonism with Aristotelian models, the evolution of medical epistemology, and the translation of Thomas Aquinas’s works. Her edited volumes address premodern scientific practices across Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin traditions, highlighting transnational knowledge transfer.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Max Planck postdoctoral fellowship
  • Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften fellowship