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
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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Event
06./07.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Liberalism and the Masses: Revisiting José Ortega y Gasset’s Political Thought

Conference

Two-day Conference with Keynotes by Alan Kahan (University of Versailles/St. Quentin) and Javier Zamora Bonilla (Complutense University of Madrid)

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Event
04.05.2026 | Frankfurt

Meinungsfreiheit, Meinungsvielfalt und Verantwortung für die Demokratie: Wie gestalten Medien neue Räume für Debatten und Teilhabe?

Panel Discussion

Im Rahmen der Woche der Meinungsfreiheit 2026 laden die World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 in Kooperation mit dem Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, dem Hessischen Rundfunk, der Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft und dem Forschungszentrum Normative Ordnungen der Goethe-Universität herzlich zu einer Diskussionsveranstaltung am 4. Mai 2026 in den WDC-Hub im Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt ein.

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Event
29.04.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Kulturindustrie heute?

Panel Discussion

Das Gespräch „Kulturindustrie heute?“ widmet sich der Aktualität und Tragfähigkeit eines zentralen Begriffs der Kritischen Theorie. Die Filmwissenschaftlerin Gertrud Koch diskutiert im Rahmen der Gesprächsreihe "Frankfurter Schule" mit dem Filmkritiker Bert Rebhandl die gegenwärtigen Formen kultureller Produktion und Verbreitung vor dem Hintergrund von Digitalisierung, Plattformen und globalen Medienmärkten.

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Event
12.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus

Book Presentation

Buchvorstellung mit Christine Graebsch, Katrin Höffler, Jochen Bung & Ronen Steinke

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Event
28./29.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice

Conference

Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, funded by Höppsche Stiftung, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan. The Global Health Justice Programme and this conference are supported by the Höppsche Stiftung in Villmar.

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Event
14.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis

Lecture Series

Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.

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Event
10.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency

Lecture, Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

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Event
13.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Failed States and Cloudy skies: Tipping Points, Overshoot and Permanent Emergency, after America

Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

more information ›