Michaela Hohkamp

Prof. Dr. Michaela Hohkamp serves as Professor for Early Modern History/Space and Region at Leibniz University Hannover's Faculty of Philosophy within the Department of History. Previously, she held the Christian-Gottlob-Heyne-Professorship at Leibniz University Hannover (2011-2013) and was Professor for Theory and Methods in History and Gender History at the Free University of Berlin (2008-2011).

Her academic journey began with studies in Medieval and Modern History, Sociology, Political Science, and Art History at the University of Göttingen (1978-1986), followed by doctoral work completed in 1998. She earned her habilitation at the Free University of Berlin in 2007. Her career includes significant research positions at the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen, a visiting fellowship at Stanford University (1997), and a guest position at the European University Institute in Florence (2003/2004).

Professor Hohkamp's research centers on the history of early modern violence, power structures, family and kinship networks, women's and gender history, and historiography. Her groundbreaking work examines how kinship functioned as political infrastructure among European nobility, revealing how gendered relationships shaped political authority and conflict resolution. She has pioneered analysis of the conceptual boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence in early modern contexts, particularly through gendered lenses. Her scholarship consistently bridges historical methodology with anthropological approaches to kinship and social organization.

Analysis of her publication trends reveals a deepening engagement with spatial dimensions of historical analysis in recent years, examining how geographical frameworks shaped political authority. Her work demonstrates remarkable continuity in exploring family networks as political tools while evolving to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives on time, space, and representation. This evolution reflects broader shifts in historical methodology toward more integrated analyses of social, political, and spatial dimensions of early modern life.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• Fellowship at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld (2017)
• Fellowship from the Dr. Jacques Körfer Foundation (2005-2006)
• DAAD Scholarship (1988)
• Max Planck Society Fellowship (1986-1995)

Professor Hohkamp has supervised five doctoral candidates to completion, including Detlef Berghorn, Sven Erdner, Svenja Müller, Friederike Willasch, and Julia Heinemann. Her research has been supported by Volkswagen Foundation funding for projects on denunciation practices, and she has held significant administrative roles including Research Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover (2013-2015) and Dean of Studies at FU Berlin (2011). She currently serves as BAföG representative and Alumni Representative at the Historical Seminar.

She maintains active involvement in multiple scholarly networks including the Working Group for Historical Women's and Gender Studies, the Working Group on Gender History of the Early Modern Period, the Family and Kinship Network of the German Studies Association, and the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen's working group on Early Modern Period history. These affiliations demonstrate her commitment to collaborative, interdisciplinary research within her field.