Stefan Schröder

I am a cultural historian working on the medieval period. I received my PhD in Medieval History from the University of Kassel, Germany, in 2007. Since than I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Kassel (2007-2011), Erlangen-Nuremberg (2011-2012) and Helsinki (since 2012). In my dissertation I have analysed 'Otherness' in late medieval pilgrimage reports to the Holy Land. Several related articles as well as a co-edited anthology deal with specific aspects of medieval travelling or on images of Islam and Judaism. In a forthcoming book I examine the exchange of geographical and cartographical knowledge in medieval Islamic and Latin-Christian maps from the 12th to the 15th century. First outcomes are articles e.g. on cultural transfer related to climate maps, on theoretical questions regarding the relation of knowledge and power in maps as well as on the changing spatial concepts in maps of Iberian provenance. In the current research project funded by the Academy of Finland I focus on the cultural history of the crusades in the Late Middle Ages. My research interests encompas different aspects of cultural history ranging from identity, cultural encounter, life-writing, material culture, spatial turn, hybridity to cultural memory and the uses of the past.