معرفی
Lennart Lehmhaus (PhD, 2013) is Akademischer Rat (≈ assistant professor) at the Institute for Jewish and Religious Studies, Faculty of Protestant Theology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. Previously he was a post-doc researcher and lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin (DFG-SFB 980 “Episteme in Motion”), a Rothfeld and Albert J. Wood Fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Pennsylvania), and Harry Starr Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies.
Education
- PhD (Dr. phil., summa cum laude), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2013
- MA (magna cum laude), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf & Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg, 2006
- Year-long study program, Hebrew University Jerusalem, 2002–2003
- Polish language & culture, Jagiellonen-University Kraków, 2004/2005
Research Interests
Lehmhaus investigates ancient and medieval Jewish cultures through rabbinic and Talmudic texts, focusing on the history of medicine, knowledge production, and sciences in Late Antiquity and the early Islamicate period. He explores how Jewish traditions of healing, pharmacology, and medical lore interacted with Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, Syriac, Persian and early Islamic medical discourses, and how these traditions were transmitted, transformed, and re-appropriated across cultures. Additional interests include the literary and ethical dimensions of Midrash, contemporary Jewish identity and culture, and the trajectories of Jewish motifs from antiquity to modern Israeli and American contexts.
Research Output Trends
Across more than 35 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, Lehmhaus consistently combines philological precision with comparative cultural analysis. His work moves from close readings of rabbinic lists and recipes to broad questions of epistemic strategies, pain and suffering, disability, gynaecology, and the construction of medical authority. Recurring themes include the role of lists and catalogues as epistemic tools, the intersection of medicine with ethics and martyrdom, and the transcultural flow of pharmacological knowledge. His forthcoming monograph Talmudic Bodies of Knowledge and multi-volume Sourcebook of Medical Passages in Talmudic Texts will consolidate these strands.
Scientific Awards & Fellowships
- Albert J. Wood Fellow, Katz Center, University of Pennsylvania (2024–2025)
- Rothfeld Research Fellow, Katz Center (2017–2018)
- Harry Starr Research Fellow, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University (2016–2017)
Grants & Collaborative Networks
Lehmhaus is Principal Investigator and coordinator of the DFG-funded research network Between Encyclopaedia and Epitome – Talmudic strategies of knowledge-making in the context of ancient medicine and sciences (2022–2026), a collaboration between Tübingen University, University College London, and Freie Universität Berlin.
Editorial & Series Leadership
He is the founding editor (2022-) of the monograph series ASK – Ancient Cultures of Sciences and Knowledge (Mohr Siebeck) and has edited or co-edited multiple volumes, including Defining Jewish Medicine (2021, open access) and Collecting Recipes: Byzantine and Jewish Pharmacology in Dialogue (2017).
