Biography

Elisa Heinrich is a historian working at the intersection of gender history, queer history and disability studies. Before joining the EUI, she was visiting professor for queer history and biographical studies at Vienna University and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Innsbruck.

Elisa obtained her PhD from the University of Vienna in 2021 with a dissertation on friendship and homosexuality in German women’s movements around 1900. During her doctorate, she was a visiting fellow at the Basel Graduate School of History and at Cornelia Goethe Centre for Gender Studies, Frankfurt. Her first monograph, based on her PhD and published in 2022, received several awards. By conceptualizing intimacy as a methodological tool, the book not only provides a fresh look at the multifaceted relationships between feminist activists but also helps to better understand the functioning of social movements in general. Elisa is the co-editor of a special issue on political friendship and of an issue on the history of homosexualities. She is also the co-author of a collaborative biography on radical feminist and German nationalist Kaethe Schirmacher.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Elisa will be working on her new research project on knowledge production, activism, and self-representation of people with disabilities in Central Europe from the 1970s to 1990s. As in all of her projects, Elisa works towards placing the experiences and representation of marginalised subjects at the centre of history and historical debate

Mentor

• Monika Baar