Curriculum vitae

Present Occupation

01/09/2020 – 31/08/2021 Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Research Group “Cultural Brokerage in Pre-modern Islam”)

15/10/2015 – 31/08/2021 Editor-in-chief Index Islamicus & Visiting scholar at SOAS University of London

01/03/2014 – 30/09/2014 Senior Research Associate, Lecturer for the Master’s programme Intellectual Encounters of the Islamicate World, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Institute of Islamic Studies, Research Unit Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, Freie Universität Berlin.

01/10/2009 – 30/11/2013 Senior Research Associate, The European Research Council’s FP 7 Project “Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam” (Director: Prof. Dr. Sabine Schmidtke), Research Unit Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Several prolonged research stays at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

02/09/2008 – 31/08/2009 Academic Director, Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR), The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths, Cambridge (UK).

01/07/2004 – 31/03/2008 Research Assistant at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free University of Berlin: “Muʿtazilite Manuscripts Project” (Directors: Prof. Dr. Sabine Schmidtke, Institute for Islamic Studies, Free University, Berlin; Dr. David Sklare, Center for the Study of Judaeo-Arabic Literature, Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem). Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Research Group “Muʿtazilism in Islam and Judaism”).

2023 Dr. phil. in Islamic Studies (Freie Universität Berlin)
01/04/2001 - 09/2008 Ph.D. thesis project (University of Fribourg): Reconstruction, edition, translation and commentary of Kitāb al-Tawriya (‘Book of Concealed Ambiguity’) by the Karaite Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah (Jerusalem, 11th c. C.E.).

01/2001 - 09/2002 Research stay at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel. Attendance of various seminars at the Hebrew University (Hebrew Codicology & Palaeography, Shī‘ite and Mu‘tazilite exegesis, Judaeo-Arabic Literature).

01-08/2000 Research Fellowship at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and at Cambridge University Library supported by the Fondation Jean Nordmann (Fribourg).

1998/99 Stage annuel de perfectionnement en langue arabe en vue de la recherche at the French Institute of Arabic Studies (IFEAD) in Damascus (Syria).

1994-1996 M.A. (‘licence’) in Theology (1st field of study) and Philosophy (2nd field of study) at the University of Fribourg; M.A. thesis at the chair of Medieval Philosophy (advisor: Prof. Ruedi Imbach) on language concepts and epistemology in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed and his other works.

1992-1994 Studies in Jewish Thought, Philosophy and Semitic Languages at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; research grant by the Swiss University Conference.