Collegium Carolinum,
the German Historical Institute Warsaw (DHIW),
the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO),
in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts, Charles University,
cordially invite you to the first lecture of the Prague Histories Forum in the winter semester 2026/27:
PROF. CHRISTINA LUTTER (UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA)
Rethinking Medieval Power: Gender, Social Capital, and Relational History
Tuesday, 20 October 2026, 15:50–17:20
Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Špork Palace, Hybernská 3, Prague 1
Room 303, attic floor
The lecture will also be available online via Zoom. Please register using the following link: https://maxweberstiftung.zoom-x.de/meeting/register/yq0DKEQFRjS4TW3N2dNDeA
How does studying medieval women reshape our understanding of power, agency, and social relations? Moving beyond the recovery of exceptional individuals, Christina Lutter proposes a relational approach to medieval gender history, examining how gender intersected with status, kinship, education, religion, and other forms of social belonging.
Combining gender history with prosopography and historical network analysis, the lecture explores how individuals mobilized social capital through family ties, friendship, office, property, and neighbourhood connections. Examples from medieval Central Europe reveal how courts, cities, and religious communities sustained networks of patronage and political cooperation. This perspective brings women’s agency into view while showing how power was produced through relationships within and across institutions.
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Christina Lutter is Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Vienna and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on gender, social networks, and community formation in medieval and early modern Central Europe.
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