Dr Diana Matut
Director of the Old Synagogue Essen appointed Honorary Professor
- 06.07.2026
The Faculty of Humanities at the UDE is awarding Dr Diana Matut, Director of the Old Synagogue – House of Jewish Culture in Essen, the title of Honorary Professor, thereby strengthening its research and teaching in Jewish culture, language and history. The title will be conferred by the University Rector and the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities on Thursday, 9 July, from 4 p.m. on the Essen campus. Matut will then give her public inaugural lecture. Registration is required.
Dr Diana Matut is a scholar of Jewish studies, Yiddish studies and musicology. She is internationally recognised as a leading expert on Jewish literary and musical cultures, especially Yiddish song and text traditions from the Middle Ages to the present day. Since October 2023, she has been Director of the Old Synagogue Essen. She is also a Research Fellow at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and teaches, among other places, at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
With the honorary professorship, the Faculty of Humanities is strengthening its research and teaching in Jewish culture, language and history. “Diana Matut combines international cutting-edge research, musical practice, museum work and public scholarship in an exceptional way,” says Professor Dirk Hartmann, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). “With her, we are gaining a colleague who will sustainably enrich the Faculty in the fields of Jewish Studies, Yiddish Studies, music history, Public Humanities and cultural education.”
An important reason for the closer collaboration is a joint project by Dr Diana Matut and UDE Professor Susanne Zepp-Zwirner on the Jewish cultural history of Latin America. Funded by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, the project examines Jewish literature, music and artistic forms of expression in Latin America.
Students will also benefit from the honorary professorship: topics such as Jewish cultural history, Yiddish language and literature, Jewish music, migration, diaspora, gender and memory culture are to be brought together across disciplines and integrated into teaching formats, excursions and practice-based projects.
Note:
The conferment of the honorary professorship and the public inaugural lecture will take place on Thursday, 9 July, at 4 p.m. in R11 T00 D03 on the Essen campus. Registration is required by 12 noon on 9 July at info@alte-synagoge.essen.de, subject line: Inaugural lecture
PROGRAMME
• Musical welcome
• Welcome address by the Rector, Professor Barbara Albert
• Welcome address by the Dean, Professor Dirk Hartmann
• Laudation
Professor Susanne Zepp-Zwirner, Institute of Romance Languages and Literatures
• Ceremonial presentation of the certificate by the Rector and the Dean
• Inaugural lecture
Dr Diana Matut: "Normativity and Transgression. Women and Yiddish Song Cultures of the Early Modern Period”
• Musical finale
Music: Dr Alan Bern, Artistic Director of Yiddish Summer Weimar, accordion, and Mark Kovnatskiy, violin