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HLCEES
Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies

Photo: HLCES

About HLCEES

The Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies (HLCEES) is one of the world-leading centres in the study of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. The Centre, which is part of the Asien-Afrika-Institut at the University of Hamburg, carries out interdisciplinary research in the main areas of the humanities and social sciences, including history, art history, linguistics, anthropology, and philology. Since 2002, it has been there to plan, conduct and coordinate small- and large-scale research projects, shape a focused research library, and provide a research and study environment for graduate and postgraduate students and guest researchers. It has organized workshops and conferences and published a wide range of scholarly publications resulting from its activities.

The Centre bears the name of the founder of Ethiopian Studies, the German Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704) (PDF), who, together with his main informant and aide the Ethiopian abba Gregorius (PDF), set the ground for the modern scholarly research on the languages, peoples, history and literature of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. In his correspondence and works Ludolf was a strong advocate of the importance to research the history and cultures of north east Africa, values to which the members of the Centre are strongly committed.

Here you can dowload the Power Point Presentation (PDF) and/or the flyer (PDF) introducing some of the centre's activities in brief.

HLCEES history

Ethiopian Studies in Hamburg began with the appointment of Prof. Ernst Hammerschmidt (1928-1993) (PDF) as Full (C4) Professor of African Studies (1970-1990). Prof. Hammerschmidt founded the monographic series "Aethiopistische Forschungen" and headed the Ethiopian cataloguing unit of the Union Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in German Collections.

In 1990, Prof. Siegbert Uhlig succeeded Prof. Hammerschmidt in the Chair of Ethiopian Studies (Chair "African studies with focus on Ethiopian studies, 1990-2004). Prof. Uhlig enlarged the activities of the Institute. He founded the scholarly journal Aethiopica, the series "Orientalia Biblica et Christiana" (co-edited with Ekkart Otto) and initiated the project Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (EAe).

In 2002, the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies (then Research Unit Ethiopian Studies / Forschungsstelle Äthiopistik) was launched to host and coordinate the ongoing and future activities.

In 2009, Prof. Alessandro Bausi was appointed Full (W3) Professor of Ethiopian Studies and took over the direction of the HLCEES. During his term, not only the EAe project was completed, but a host of other projects found home at HLCEES, including notably the ERC Advanced Grant TraCES and the long-term Academy of Sciences and Humanities project Beta maṣāḥǝft. Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung.

In 2023, Prof. Aaron Michael Butts took over the Chair for Ethiopian Studies at Universität Hamburg, becoming head of the HLCEES and bringing one more ERC Advanced Grant, BeInf – Beyond InfluenceThe Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity.

Our sponsors

The Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies is grateful to its sponsors both past and present. The following foundations, German and foreign, have contributed to the funding of the activities and publications of the Centre:

Getting here

Contact

Prof. Dr. Aaron Michael Butts
Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies
Alsterterrasse 1
20354 Hamburg
Tel: +49 40 2395-2-9422