Henriette Hellinger is a PhD researcher at the International Research Training Group ‘Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes’. She received her bachelor’s degree in History and Scandinavian Studies from the University of Greifswald in 2021 and her master’s degree in History and Culture of the Baltic Sea Region in 2023. Having written her bachelor thesis about gender constructions in early Norwegian Law Codes and her master thesis about celibacy among the Scandinavian clergy in the Middle Ages, her PhD project focusses on expected clerical behaviour, recorded irregularities and the reasons for changing tolerance towards disobeying members of the clergy.
Henriette Hellinger
University of Greifswald
IRTG Baltic Peripeties
Anklamer Str. 20
17489 Greifswald
Germany
Room: 1.02
+49 3834 420 3592
henriette.hellinger[at]uni-greifswald.de
Bodies, Violence, Gender Roles: Shifting Expectations of Clerical Behaviour in Medieval Scandinavia
My doctoral project focuses on the expectations of clerical behaviour, largely dictated by canon law and ecclesiastical discourse of the time. While certain desirable behaviours and lifestyles for members of the clergy were known and promoted by the Scandinavian church from its beginnings, there are numerous accounts of clerical misconduct, regular breaches of canon law and even long-term disregard for certain conventions. The reaction of the papacy and papal legates to these incidents varied from time to time, and at times there was even tolerance of clerical behaviour that was explicitly contrary to canon law.
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT- Participation in the University of Groningen Summer School Medieval “Lived Religion”. Challenges and Approaches, Groningen [online], June 24-28, 2024.
- “Bodies, Violence, Gender Roles: Shifting Expectations of Clerical Behaviour in Medieval Scandinavia,” international workshop Resonant Conflicts. Turning Points in the Baltic Sea Region, organised by the IRTG Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes, Department for Language and Literature, NTNU Trondheim, May 22-24, 2024.
University studies and degrees
- Since April 2024
- Doctoral Researcher at the International Research Training Group “Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes” at the University of Greifswald.
- 2021 – 2023
- M.A. History and Culture of the Baltic Sea Region at the University of Greifswald.
- 2022
- Erasmus+ semester at Södertörn University Stockholm.
- 2017 – 2021
- B.A. History / Scandinavian Studies at the University of Greifswald.
Professional background
- 2023
- Participant of “KarriereWegeMentoring” for female graduates with PhD interest.
- 2021 – 2023
- Student Assistant for the M.A. programme “History and Culture of the Baltic Sea Region” at the University of Greifswald.
- 2021 – 2023
- Student Assistant at the Chair for Nordic History, University of Greifswald.
- 2020
- Internship at Kulturhistorisches Museum Stralsund.