Rate My Professor Karla Pollmann

Prof. Dr. Karla Pollmann is President of the University of Tübingen and Professor of Latin Late Antiquity. Born in Tübingen in 1963, she studied Classics, Divinity, and Pedagogy at the Universities of Tübingen, Munich, Cambridge, and Bochum. She earned her PhD in Classics from Ruhr University Bochum in 1990 and completed her Habilitation in Classics at the University of Konstanz in 1994. Her academic career includes positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Konstanz, Lecturer and later Professor of Classics at the University of St Andrews, and various leadership and professorial roles at the Universities of Kent and Reading. From 2018 to 2022, she served as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor of Classics and Theology at the University of Bristol, where she is now an Honorary Professor. She also holds Honorary Professorships at the University of Aarhus and the University of Stellenbosch, and is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Green College, University of British Columbia.

Prof. Pollmann’s research focuses on the literature and culture of the Early Roman Empire and Early Christianity, as well as the history of their reception. Key publications include a commentary on Statius’ Thebaid Book 12, works on Augustine’s hermeneutics, and the monograph The Baptized Muse (Oxford University Press, 2017). She was Editor-in-Chief of the three-volume Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine (Oxford University Press, 2013). She has supervised over thirty PhD students, delivered numerous named lectures including the Eleventh Augustine Lectures in Malta and the Winckelmann Lecture at the University of Salzburg, and serves as Co-Editor of journals and monograph series such as Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum and Millennium. She is a member of the Academia Europaea and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her honors include the Humboldt Research Prize in 2020 and an Honorary Doctorate from Dōshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, in 2023. She is active in editorial roles, academic advisory boards, and international scholarly networks.