Education

2023 – Dr.phil. Jewish Studies, University of Vienna
2013 – MA Jewish Studies, University of Vienna
2012 – Mag.phil. Slavonic Studies (Russian), University of Vienna
2010 – Bakk.phil. Jewish Studies, University of Vienna

Research Interests

Gender(s) and sexuality(ies) in Judaism; Christian-Jewish relations in the High and Late Middle Ages; Conceptualisation of the Jewish body; Medieval gender and queer history; Medieval antisemitism; Old Testament Pseudepigrapha; Old (church) Slavonic literature; medieval and early modern Hebrew palaeography and codicology

PhD Thesis

The Motif of Jewish ‘Male Menstruation’ and its Function in High and Late Medieval (1100–1500) and Early Modern (1500–1700) Christian Sources

defended September 2023 (with excellences)

Advisors: Prof Armin Lange (Department of Jewish Studies, University of Vienna), Prof Miri Rubin (School of History, Queen Mary University of London)

Reviewers: Prof Bettina Bildhauer (University of St Andrews), Prof Irven Resnick (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

Teaching

Summer term 2024:
- “Gender(s) and Sexuality(ies) in Judaism.” Seminar, Department of Jewish Studies
- “Women and their Environments in the Hebrew Bible and Qumran.” Lecture, Department of Jewish Studies

Summer term 2021 – “Gender(s) and Sexuality(ies) in Judaism.” Seminar, Department of Jewish Studies

Project work

2021/2023/2025: Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Awards for Scholarly Excellence in Research of the Jewish Experience (Link https://baronawards.univie.ac.at/ )

2017–2021: „An End to Antisemitism!“ University of Vienna, New York University, Tel Aviv University, European Jewish Congress (Link https://anendtoantisemitism.univie.ac.at/ )

Edited publications (selected)

Experiencing the Hebrew Bible: Spotlights on History and Tradition. Band 2 von Baron Lectures: Studies on the Jewish Experience. Paderborn: Brill | Schöningh, forthcoming. With Amy Fedeski and Alina L. Schittenhelm.

Baron Lectures: Studies on the Jewish Experience. (Link https://brill.com/view/serial/BAL) Paderborn: Brill | Schöningh, since 2022. With Armin Lange.

“An End to Antisemitism!” (Link https://www.degruyter.com/serial/aeas-b/html) Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019 – 2021. With Armin Lange, Dina Porat and Lawrence H. Schiffman.

Publications (selected)

2023 Quellen zur jüdischen Geschichte im Heiligen Römischen Reich und seinen Nachfolgestaaten: Judendeutsch, Jiddisch, Hebräisch, Judenspanisch, 16.–20. Jahrhundert. Vollständig überarbeitete und erweiterte Neuauflage. Wien: Böhlau, 2023. With Dieter J. Hecht, Louise Hecht, Avraham Siluk and Stephan Wendehorst.

2022 "Von menstruierenden Männern und zügellosen Frauen. Sexualität und Geschlecht im mittelalterlichen Antisemitismus." In Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 31 (2022): 91–110.

2022 "Creating an Unlike to Dislike: Constructions of Jewish Identity and Alterity in Christian Exempla Stories" In Constructing and Experiencing Jewish Identity (Paderborn: Brill | Schöningh, 2022), 30–49. DOI: 10.30965/9783657708406_003

2021 "Inferiority Embodied: The 'Men-struating' Jew and Pre-Modern Notions of Identity and Difference." In Confronting Antisemitism trough the Ages: A Historical Perspective (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), 135–59. DOI: 10.1515/9783110671995-008

Public Outreach

2022 Public Lecture »Und sie bluten wie die Frauen«. Geschichte eines antisemitischen Motivs

Listen to the recording (in German only) (Link https://www.ifk.ac.at/medien-detail/vortrag-von-kerstin-mayerhofer-und-sie-bluten-wie-die-frauen-geschichte-eines-antisemitischen-motivs.html)

2022 "Menstruation als antisemitisches Motiv." science.orf.at, 09.01.2022, https://science.orf.at/stories/3210798/.