Racha Kirakosian

Fellow, SCAS.
Associate Professor of German and the Study of Religion, Harvard University

Racha Kirakosian received her DPhil from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marie
Curie Research Fellow from 2010 to 2013. Prior to arriving at Harvard, she was Lecturer at
the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages in Oxford, Lecturer at Somerville College,
Oxford, and Director of Studies for German at Oriel College, Oxford. She has enjoyed scholar-
ships from the European Commission, Le conseil régional d'Île-de-France, Studienstiftung des
Deutschen Volkes, and the German History Society, among others.

Kirakosian was awarded Harvard Medical School’s William F. Milton Award for her research
on Gertrude the Great, and she has obtained numerous other stipends such as the Herzog Ernst
Research Scholarship of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, a Gerda Henkel Research Fellowship, and
a Huntington Library Mayers Fellowship. In March and April 2017, she was invited to a research
residency as the Director’s Visiting Scholar at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C. 

Kirakosian’s publications include studies on medieval German mysticism, female sanctity, and
medieval law. Her first monograph, Die Vita der Christina von Hane: Untersuchung und Edition
(De Gruyter, 2017), deals with the biography of a thirteenth-century Premonstratensian mystic.
She is also the translator of The Life of Christina of Hane into English (forthcoming). Another
forthcoming book explores the German reception of the visions of Gertrude of Helfta’s Legatus
divinae pietatis. Kirakosian and her students are currently developing digital editions of medieval
legends of Mary Magdalene (http://digital-editing.fas.harvard.edu). 

At SCAS, Kirakosian will conduct research on women’s history in medieval Europe and the
theatricality of visions.  

This information is accurate as of the academic year 2019-20.