Regina Grundmann

Regina Grundmann is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Münster, where she has served on the faculty since 2015 (previously as Junior Professor from 2009-2015). She holds multiple leadership positions including membership on the Board of Directors of the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics. Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation" and serves as Principal Investigator for Research Field C on "Criticism of religion and apologetics" and Head of Project C3-6 on "Polemics, Criticism of Society and Religion in Talmud Parodies of the 19th to 21st century".

Professor Grundmann's research focuses on Jewish religious and cultural history, with particular expertise in rabbinic literature and contemporary halakhic literature. Her work examines responsa literature as a window into religious decision-making processes within Judaism, analyzing how rabbinic authorities address contemporary issues through traditional frameworks. She also investigates Talmudic parody as a creative adaptation of tradition to address modern challenges, and explores the intersection of Jewish tradition with questions of religious pluralism, migration, and diaspora.

Her publication record reveals consistent scholarly output across multiple venues, with a clear evolution from early work on Jewish-German literary figures like Heinrich Heine toward increasingly sophisticated analyses of responsa literature and Talmudic interpretation. Recent work demonstrates growing attention to the rhetorical dimensions of religious decision-making and the creative adaptation of tradition in response to modern challenges.

• Feodor Lynen-Forschungsstipendium für Postdoktoranden – Alexander von Humboldt foundation (2008)
• PostDoc-Stipendium – German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (2008)
• Doctoral scholarship – Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2004)
• Appointment as member of the Young Academy of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences (2011)
• Preisträgerin des 8. Forums Junge Heine-Forschung – Heinrich-Heine-Institut Düsseldorf (2006)

Professor Grundmann has successfully supervised multiple doctoral students whose dissertations examine diverse aspects of Jewish tradition and practice, including regulatory strategies of religious pluralism, Talmudic hermeneutics, humor as a coping mechanism in Jewish tradition, and neo-orthodox self-understanding in German-Jewish press. She has secured significant research funding through the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" and various Collaborative Research Centres focusing on law and literature, cultures of decision-making, and religious studies, demonstrating her ability to lead major interdisciplinary projects.

She leads or has led several significant research projects including the current C3-6 project on Talmudic parodies, C2-22 on tradition transfer in medieval Jewish compilation literature (until 2018), and D13 on violence in ancient Judaism (until 2012). Grundmann actively participates in multiple academic communities through her roles on the advisory board of the Jewish Museum of Westphalia, the Strategical Planning Commission of the Union of German Academies of Sciences, and as a jury member for the Johannes Zilkens Doctoral Prize.