Susanne Hafner

M.A., Universität Regensburg (Germany), Vanderbilt University and Cornell University
Ph.D., Universität Hamburg (Germany)

• Medieval Studies
• Manuscript Studies
• Gender Studies

Susanne Hafner holds a Dr. Phil. from the University of Hamburg and is an assistant professor of German and the director of Fordham’s Center for Medieval Studies. Her research interests focus on the vernacular literatures of Central Europe, the reception of classical literature in the Middle Ages, codicology, and gender studies. Much of her work is manuscript-based and looks at the way in which knowledge was transmitted and stories were told in the original codices rather than the modern editions. In her current book project, Virgilian Masculinities, she examines the glosses in medieval copies of the Aeneid and the way in which medieval readers were re-interpreting the information on the Aeneid’s male characters they found in the text. She is particularly interested in the cultural shifts that occurred over time and, more specifically, how changing or competing notions of masculinity were negotiated in the manuscripts’ margins.