Chair of Medieval History / Prof. Dr. Petra Schulte

From a teaching perspective, the Chair of Medieval History covers the Middle Ages from about 500 to 1500, encompassing research topics of political history, legal and constitutional history, intellectual history as well as cultural history of the 14th to 16th centuries, i.e. the period of humanism and the Renaissance. From a geographical perspective, the focus is on Italy, France, and Germany. The team’s projects include foundational research while also combining different methodological approaches and lending historical depth to questions of the 21st century. Topics which are hereby discussed and contextualised include justice/equality, normality/exception, authority/obedience, faith/trust, self-interest/common good, and resilience. Furthermore, the holder of the professorship is involved in various committees of non-university academic institutions such as the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature and the Max Weber Foundation - German Humanities Institutes Abroad.

Closely connected to the professorship is the Cusanus Institute, which Prof. Dr. Petra Schulte heads as director. A central focus here is the merchant's son Nicholas of Cusa, born in Kues in 1401, who first made a career as a jurist, then as a papal legate, bishop and cardinal, and - taking up the developments of the 15th century - provided a novel interpretation of the relationship between man and God. One of the current projects of the Cusanus Institute is to digitalise, index and evaluate the famous book collection of Nicholas of Cusa in cooperation with the University of Trier, the St. Nicholas Hospital/Cusanus Foundation, and the Manuscript Centre of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Additionally, Prof. Dr. Petra Schulte is the spokesperson for the Trier College of Middle Ages and Modern Times (TRIKO), which was founded at the University of Trier in July 2019 as part of the Rhineland-Palatinate research initiative. The work in this project is conducted alongside international colleagues and is aimed at exploring the topic of the “value of information” from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining knowledge from the fields of history, linguistics, literature, philosophy, legal and political science. The core focus of the project is to investigate the acquisition, processing and interpretation of information and information asymmetries. Affiliated with TRIKO is the Young Research Group (JuKo), organised by Dr. Eric Burkart, who conducts research at the professorship in a position funded by the German Research Foundation.