Robert Rollinger

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Robert Rollinger (born 17 September 1964 in Bludenz, Austria) is an ancient historian and Assyriologist, known for his works on Herodotus, the Persian-Achaemenid Empire, ancient empires and cross-cultural encountering in the ancient world. He is a full professor at the University of Innsbruck and a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

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Academic career

He studied Ancient History, History, and Ancient Near East studies at the University of Innsbruck from 1984 to 1989, where he earned his MA in 1989 with an interdisciplinary thesis on Herodotus’ Babylonian Logos. 1993, he earned his Ph.D with. a dissertation focused on early forms of historical thinking in the Ur III-period. In. In 1999, he finished his habilitation on cultural connections between Greece and the Ancient Near East during the 8th and 5th century BCE. He was a lecturer, senior lecturer and reader in the department of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Innsbruck from 1990 until 2005. Since 2005, he has been holding the chair for “cultural interactions between the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean” in the department of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Innsbruck. His academic teachers were Reinhold Bichler and Karl Oberhuber. [1]

In 2007, he was a visiting professor at the University of Hildesheim. From 2010-2015, he was the Finland Distinguished Professor at the University of Helsinki in the Department of World Cultures where he headed the research project “Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East.” From 2006-2008 and 2010-2011, he was a visiting professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations at the Aga Khan University in London. From 2013-2017, he was chair of the “Melammu” project (an endeavor dedicated to studies on the “intellectual Heritage of Assyria and Babylonia on East and West”), which gathers together scholars with international renown. In 2019, the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles invited him to become a Getty Scholar. Since 2020, he holds the NAWA-chair at the University of Wrocław where he is the head of the international project “From the Achaemenid to the Roman Rule: Empires in Contexts – the Processes of Long Lasting.” [1]

Rollinger is editor and co-editor of numerous journals and series, among which are Oriens et Occidens (Franz Steiner Verlag), Classica et Orientalia (Harrassowitz), Studies in Universal and Cultural History (Springer), Philippika (Harrassowitz), Melammu Symposia (Austrian Academy of Science), Empires Through the Ages in Global Perspective (de Gruyter), and the Ancient History Bulletin, Ancient West & East. [1]

He is a member of international research groups hosted at the Collège de France and the Durham University, as well as a member of the core group of the European Network for the History of Ancient Greece. He is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. [2]

In recent years, his research has focused on the history of empires in the ancient Near East and the Classical world as well as universal history with a comparative approach. He has published over 150 articles and is editor/co-editor of over 70 volumes. [3]

Selected publications

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Rief, Astrid. "Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Robert Rollinger_english". University of Innsbruck.
  2. "ÖAW Mitglieder Detail". www.oeaw.ac.at.
  3. Rief, Astrid. "Robert Rollinger_bibliography". University of Innsbruck.