Reimitz, Helmut

My research focuses on the history of Europe in the early Middle Ages (3rd to 11th centuries)—a period in which the transformation of the Western Roman Empire gave rise to many of the social, political, and religious structures that continue to shape Europe to this day. It was during this period that a view of the world as a world of peoples slid more firmly into place, in which medieval Latin Europe clearly differed from—and increasingly distinguished itself from—the other successor empires and cultures of the Roman Empire: the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. However, this is just one example of my interest in how pluralistic constellations in various social contexts—such as law, religion, social orders, and politics—helped people understand and organize a rapidly and constantly changing world. 

My aim is not to examine the early Middle Ages as the period of origins of national, institutional, or religious genealogies. Rather, I would like to develop a perspective on the history of this period that takes as its starting point the question of diversity—a challenge that all social communities and societies faced then and continue to face today. How was diversity managed in an era of rapid change and fundamental transformations? Which forms of diversity were accepted and integrated into the various societies of the Roman and post-Roman worlds, and which were not? What categorical frameworks emerged through the social and political management of diversity?

• The Transformation of the Roman World and the Emergence of Europe
• Identity and Diversity in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
• Manuscript Cultures and the Organization of Knowledge
• Historiography and Historical Thought
• The Formation and Transformation of Legal Landscapes from the Late Roman Empire to the Societies of the Early Middle Ages

• 1998 State Exam at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Member of the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Master of Advanced Studies, Historical Research and Archival Sciences)
• 1999 PhD,  University of Vienna (with honours) Dissertation: “Der Codex Vindobonensis lat. 473: ein karolingisches Geschichtsbuch aus St. Amand (The Codex Vindobonensis lat. 473: a Carolingian history book from St Amand)
• 1999-2002 post-doc researcher at the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
• 2002 tenure track position as senior researcher at the Institute for Medieval history research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
• 2005 tenured position as senior researcher at the Institute for Medieval History at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
• 2004-2008 head of the Early Medieval Department of the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
• 2005-2006 Visiting Fellow at the Netherland Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) -  research group “Rulers, History and Exegesis. The Formation of a Political Identity in the Carolingian Empire”
• Sept. 2008-2013 Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University
• 2009-10 Executive secretary of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University
• 2013 – Appointment as Full Professor, History Department, Princeton University
• 2014/15 and 2015/16 Old Dominion Fellow, Council of Humanities, Princeton University
• Winter 2016/17 Visiting Research Fellow at the Sonderforschungsbereich Visions of community. Comparative approaches to ethnicity, region and empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Spring 2017 Professeur invité at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
• 2018-2022 Executive Committee of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University
• Fall term 2021/22 Visiting researcher, Center for Advanced Study, University of Tübingen
• 2019-2023 Director of the Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton University
• Winter 2023 Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America
• Spring 2023 Appointment as Shelby Cullom Davis ’30 Professor of European History, History Department, Princeton University
• 2025 Director, Digital Lab at the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• 2026 appointment as Director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (starting July 1 2026
• since July 2026 Professor of Early Medieval History, University of Vienna