Hartmut Leppin

Projects and positions at the research center
Principal Investigator

Project management: “Religious Violence” in Historical Perspective | Research Focus 3 – Fragmented Orders: Social Cohesion under Conditions of Radical Plurality

Funding period 2012-2017
Project management: Imperial Politics and Spaces of Religions in the 3rd Century | Research Field 2

Funding period 2007-2012
Project management: Biblical Justification Narratives in Late Antique Environment – the Role of Imperial Women | Research Field 2

Subject areas
History

Main research
Christianity, Greek history

  • Biografische Angaben

    2021-23: Vice Dean of the Department of Philosophy and History

    Since 2021: Long-term project “A Historical and Theological Commentary on John of
    Ephesus”

    2021: “Humanities international” prize

    Since 2020: Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Historische Kolleg

    2019-2022: Board member at the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Byzantium between
    Orient and Occident” Mainz / Frankfurt

    2019: Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)

    Member of the Accademia Ambrosiana

    Erwin Stein Prize

    2017/8: Member of Panel SH 6 of the ERC

    2015/6: Fellow of the Faculty of Classics and Robinson College in Cambridge / UK

    Since 2015: Member of the Board of Trustees of the Historisches Kolleg München

    Since 2015: Chair of joint DFG-NCN and DFG-ANR meetings for the entire field of humanities and social sciences

    2015-2023: Head of the Leibniz Prize project “Polyphony of Late Antique Christianity”

    2015-2018: Sub-project leader in the CRC 1095 “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes”

    2015-2016: Founding spokesperson of the SFB 1095 “Discourses of Weakness and
    Resource Regimes”

    2015: Leibniz Prize

    2014-2021: Involved in the “Personnel Decisions” research group

    Since 2013: Member of the selection committee for the Karl Christ Prize

    Since 2012: Involved in the GK “Theology as Science”

    Since 2011: Member of the advisory board of Ceraneum (Lodz)

    2011: Approval of a Koselleck project “Christianizations in the Roman
    Empire”

    Since 2008: Various ad hoc reviews for the DFG (SFBs, FORs, KFGs, etc.)

    2008-2016: Member of the Scientific Commission of the Union of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities

    2008-2016: Member of the review board “Ancient Cultures” at the DFG

    Since 2008: Full member of the German Archaeological Institute (Berlin)

    Liaison lecturer of the German National Academic Foundation

    2008: Call to the University of Cologne (rejected)

    Since 2007: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Frobenius Institute (Frankfurt / Main)

    2007-2019: Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence “Formation of normative
    orders”

    2007-2017: Member of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy (Munich)

    2007-2011: Senator of the Goethe University

    2007: Member of the German Archaeological Institute

    Appointment at Humboldt University Berlin (rejected)

    2005-2014: Involved in the IGK “Political Communication from Antiquity to the Present”

    2005-2008: Project leader in the research group “Knowledge culture and social change”

    2005-2007: Dean of the Department of Philosophy and History

    Since 2001: Professor (C 4 / W 3) of Ancient History in Frankfurt / Main

    2001: Call to the University of Hanover (rejected)

    1997-2001: Heisenberg-Stipendium

    1996/97: Feodor Lynen Scholarship

    1995/6: Representative of the Chair of Ancient History Greifswald

    1995: Habilitation in Ancient History, FU Berlin

    1990-1995: Research assistant at FU Berlin

    1990: Dr. phil., Marburg

    1989: Scholarship from the DAAD

    1988: 1st state examination, Marburg

    1982-1988: Studied history, Latin and Greek in Marburg, Heidelberg and Pavia

    Scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation

  • Publikationen

    Auswahl

    Leppin, Hartmut, 2021: Finding a Common Cause. Fourth Century Discourses on Rulership, in: Philip Forness / Alexandra Hasse-Ungeheuer / Hartmut Leppin (Hg.), The Good Christian Ruler in the First Millennium: Views from the Mediterranean World and Neighbouring Regions (Millennium Studies 92), Berlin / Boston, 39-64.

    Leppin, Hartmut, 2022: Paradoxe der Parrhesie. Eine antike Wortgeschichte, Tübingen.

    Leppin, Hartmut, 2023: The Early Christians. From the Beginnings to Constantine. Cambridge.

    Leppin, Hartmut, 2024: Frühchristliche Gräber und soziale Anerkennung, ZThK 121, 19-47.

    Leppin, Hartmut 2025: From Constantine to Justinian, in: Joëlle Rollo-Koster u.a. (Hg.), The Papacy I. Two Swords, Cambridge, 56-80.

    Leppin, Hartmut 2025: Multilingualität und Recht in der Spätantike, Rechtsgeschichte / Legal History 33, 18-35.

News from the research center

Event
02.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Forensic Truth Regimes

Movie, Panel Discussion

The event explores how documentary film and aesthetic investigations can reopen unresolved questions of justice and accountability by revisiting the 1992 killing of two Romanian Roma men at the German-Polish border and examining the counter-forensic potential of visual media to critique legal violence and truth regimes. It is part of the series “Visual Truth Regimes,” organized by Laliv Melamed (Goethe University Frankfurt, TFM), Felix Trautmann (HBK Braunschweig / Institute for Social Research), and Franziska Wildt (Institute for Social Research).

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Event
02.06.2026 | Brussels

Zusammenhalt, Vertrauen und Demokratie in Europa

Panel Discussion, Lecture

Vertrauen, Zusammenhalt, Demokratie – drei große Begriff, die in Europa derzeit allgegenwärtig sind. Doch wie belastbar sind sie eigentlich und was beschreiben sie? Was genau meinen wir eigentlich, wenn wir von politischem Vertrauen und gesellschaftlichem Zusammenhalt sprechen? Und braucht es – wie häufig behauptet – ein gewisses Maß an sozialer oder kultureller Homogenität, damit Vertrauen wachsen und Zusammenhalt entstehen kann? Diesen Fragen widmen wir uns in der aktuellen Ausgabe der Crisis Talks – auf dem Podium und im Gespräch mit unseren Gästen.

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Event
22.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Rechtsextremismus und Polizei - Erscheinungsformen, Umgangsweisen, Perspektiven

Panel Discussion

Die Diskussion knüpft an den Sammelband „Rechtsextremismus als Herausforderung für Polizei und Gesellschaft“ an, der aktuelle Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Praxis und Zivilgesellschaft zusammenführt.

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News
18.05.2026

Videopodcast-Reihe „Our Planet, Our Health“ gestartet

Mit „Our Planet, Our Health“ startet eine neue Videopodcast-Reihe zu Fragen globaler Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Die Reihe, gehostet von Dr. Romina Rekers, ist eine Initiative des Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme (GHJ), gefördert von der Höppschen Stiftung.

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Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

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Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung

Britz, Gabriele (2026): "Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung". In. Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 41-48.

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Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025

Schmidt, Rebecca Caroline; Forst, Rainer; Günther, Klaus (2026): "Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025". In: Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 13-18.

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