Christiane Zimmermann

Christiane Zimmermann, Dr. phil.

Born: 1967 in Völklingen

Since April 2010 project researcher and co-ordinator of the Academy project Runic Writing in the Germanic Languages (RuneS); head of the research unit Kiel.

Academic career:
1986–1993 MA programme in Scandinavian Studies, English and Economics at the University of the Saarland, 1993 MA-thesis on “Word Formation and Language Grouping with Special Reference to the Earliest Stages of the Germanic Languages”; 1994–1999 PhD programme in Scandinavian Studies, English and Archaeology at the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, PhD thesis on Old Norse word formation, focusing on the synchronic system of agent noun formation.

1993–1994 project researcher in the DFG-funded project "Linguistic database of the runic inscriptions in the Older Futhark"; from 1994–1999 and again since 2000 lecturer in the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Kiel. 

Since 1993 member of the editorial team of the new edition of the Scandinavian runic inscriptions in the older fuþark; 1993–1999 associate member of the DFG-funded project "Linguistic database of the runic inscriptions in the older fuþark; 2001–2006 co-applicant and member of the project "Linguistic database and edition of the runic inscriptions in the older fuþark". From 2000–2008 member of the editorial committee of the European Journal of Scandinavian Studies, Kiel (formerly: skandinavistik) and from 2001–2006 contributor to the Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. 2013–2014 member of the core group of the CAS research group Reading and interpreting runic inscriptions at the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters.

Fellow of the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters (since 2013); member of the advisory board of the journal Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies (since 2020); Christiane Zimmermann represents German-speaking runology as member of the International Runic Advisory Group (since 2010).

Main research interests:
Historical and comparative Germanic linguistics, Scandinavian language history, word formation, runic writing and literacy, Historical Pragmatics, research on text types, saga literature.

Selected Publications