by Luke Wilkinson

In this episoide of In Theory, Luke Wilkinson (Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge) interviews Henrike Lähnemann. They first discuss the intellectual and personal background of Professor Lähnemann’s recent book, with Eva Schlotheuber, The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents (Open Book Publishers, 2024). They then discuss the range of ideas with which nuns in late medieval Germany were grappling. In particular, they discuss how the subject of enclosure offers a mode through which to think through the contemporary debates around the Reformation. The theme of enclosure leads to a conversation about space as a crucial context in the formation of nuns’ ideas and practices. The interview then shifts to a deeper consideration of the role of sound in the power, practices, and ideas of medieval nuns.

Henrike Lähnemann is Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics at the University of Oxford. Henrike studied Germanistik, History of Art and Theology in Bamberg, Edinburgh, Berlin and Göttingen. Her PhD explored the literary world of Nürnberg during the late medieval period. She worked at the University of Tübingen from 1995 to 2006, teaching medieval German language and literature. There she co-edited a book on the history of the Book of Judith in the Middle Ages and co-edited an 11th century commentary on Williram of Ebersberg’s Song of Songs. From 2006, she moved the University of Newcastle, as Chair of German Studies, where she began to research the religious makeup of the Lüneburg area, with a focus on the networks of nuns there. From 2009 to 2015, she was Chair of Women in German Studies. In 2015, she became Chair in Medieval German Literature and Linguistics. With Eva Schlotheuber, she has recently published a new book The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents (Open Book Publishers, 2024).

Luke Wilkinson is a PhD student in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge. He is working on a thesis on Muslim-Christian relations in Malta (1600-1800), where he grew up. He has been working as Contributing Editor at the JHI Blog since November 2022 and is now also Associate Editor for Project Noon, which aims to facilitate Hindu-Muslim 

Featured image: Cover of The Life of Nuns.