Susanne Zwierlein

Research Associate

Susanne Zwierlein is a historian of the Middle Ages interested in the political, cultural, and literary history of medieval Europe. Her research focuses in particular upon diplomatics, manuscript studies, and vernacular literature ranging between the Carolingian period and late medieval times. Her interests include the historical auxiliary sciences, political thought, intellectual history, and digital editing. She is the author of Studien zu den Arengen in den Urkunden Kaiser Ludwigs des Frommen (814-840) (Harrassowitz, 2016) and collaborated on the new MGH critical edition of the diplomata of Louis the Pious (MGH, Diplomata Karolinorum II, Harrassowitz, 2016).

She received her PhD from Bonn University in 2013 with a thesis on the diplomata of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious. Originally trained in Classical Philology (Latin), Italian Language and Literature, and Medieval and Modern History, she received her first degree in 2006 with a thesis on historical and literary studies on the Scuola Siciliana at the court of Frederick II.

Dr. Zwierlein held positions as Research and Teaching Assistant at the universities of Bonn and Marburg. Before coming to the United States, she was a Marie Curie Research Fellow of the European Union based at the University of Salento. She was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard University prior to joining MIT.

She has been awarded further fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the University of Florence, the Albertus-Magnus-Institute Bonn, and the German Historical Institute of Rome.