Dr. Gabriele Meyer-Fellow 2026
Julia Pohlmann completed her studies in Jewish Studies and History at the University of Potsdam before continuing her academic career at the University of Aberdeen. There, she completed her doctorate under Professor Thomas Weber from 2020 to 2025. During this time, she deepened her expertise through prestigious international research stays and fellowships, including at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism in Jerusalem.
She is currently preparing a postdoctoral project at the University of Bonn in collaboration with Professor Ulrich Schlie. Under the working title “Creating a Pan-European Imagined Jew? Narratives, Projections, and Political Uses Across Borders,” she will conduct research there starting in 2026. Her research focuses on the history of ideas in political imagination, anti-Semitism research, and modern Jewish history, with a particular focus on Poland, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States.
The fellowship is supported by the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.
Project: New Bindestrichidentitäten? German speaking Jews in Hamburg and London from 1945 to 1993
During my time at the IGdJ, I am focusing on a new research project that deals with the pan-European definition of the ‘imagined Jew’ and ‘hyphenated identities’ as instruments of political rhetoric and memory politics. At the intersection of historical and intellectual history research, I intend to examine the diversity of the ‘discourse on Jews’ in order to renegotiate social, cultural, and historical capital (Anthony D. Smith). In the current phase of the project, I will use the IGdJ library's collections, conduct archival research, and present the results of my research for discussion within the institute.