Rebekka Habermas (3 July 1959 – 21 December 2023) was a German historian and professor of modern history at the University of Göttingen. Habermas made substantial contributions to German social and cultural history of the 19th century. She held visiting positions at universities in Paris, Oxford, Montreal and New York City, among others.
Habermas died on 21 December 2023, at the age of 64.[1][4][5]
Work
Habermas' work focused on the history of the bourgeoisie, legal history, administration history, gender history, the history of criminality, and historical anthropology.[3] In her research and books, she was aware of people and the conditions under which they acted. She introduced international research into Germany, for example translating the teaching of Michel Foucault with whom she had studied in Paris.[4]
Habermas held a number of visiting appointments:[2]
Theodor Heuss Professor at The New School in New York (autumn term, 2016)
From 2010, Habermas served as spokesperson for the research training group Dynamiken von Raum und Geschlecht (Dynamics of Space and Gender), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.[2][9] In 2011, she received the Geisteswissenschaften International, a humanities prize awarded by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels to support translation of distinguished academic books.[2] In 2012, she was inducted into the Academia Europaea.[3] Two years later, she received honorable mention in competition for the Chester Penn Higby Prize, an award bestowed biennially by the Journal of Modern History for the best essay published in the organ.[10]
Habermas served as editor of the journal Historische Anthropologie[1][11] and co-editor of the series Campus Historische Studien. In addition, she was a member of numerous research groups, including Historische Anthropologie, Geschlechterdifferenz in europäischen Rechtskulturen. She was a board member of Göttingen's Zentrum für Theorie und Methodik der Kulturwissenschaften, and a contributor to the conception and planning of Wolfgang Benz's series Europäische Geschichte. She sat on other commissions and juries as well, including the European Research Council's scientific review panel for social sciences and humanities.[2]
Publications
Rebekka Habermas (1991), Wallfahrt und Aufruhr: Zur Geschichte des Wunderglaubens in der frühen Neuzeit (in German), Frankfurt/Main: Campus-Verl., ISBN3-593-34570-6
—— (1993), "Geschlechtergeschichte und 'anthropology of gender'. Geschichte einer Begegnung", Historische Anthropologie (in German), vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 485–509, doi:10.7788/ha.1993.1.3.485, ISSN0942-8704, S2CID145049229
—— (1994), Klaus Tenfelde; Hans-Ulrich Wehler (eds.), "Weibliche Religiosität – oder: Von der Fragilität bürgerlicher Identitäten", Wege zur Geschichte des Bürgertums (in German), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, pp. 125–148, ISBN3-525-35673-0
—— (2000), Manfred Hettling; Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (eds.), "Rituale des Gefühls. Die Frömmigkeit des protestantischen Bürgertums", Der Bürgerliche Wertehimmel (in German), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, pp. 169–192, ISBN3-525-01385-X
—— (2000), Frauen und Männer des Bürgertums: Eine Familiengeschichte (1750–1850) (in German), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, ISBN3-525-35679-X
—— (2006), Joachim Eibach; Günther Lottes (eds.), "Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte", Kompass der Geschichtswissenschaft (in German), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, pp. 231–245, ISBN3-8252-2271-3
—— (2008), Diebe vor Gericht: Die Entstehung der modernen Rechtsordnung im 19. Jahrhundert (in German), Frankfurt, M.: Campus-Verl., ISBN978-3-593-38774-1