Ivanyi, Katharina

In light of the contemporary social and geo-political significance of Muslim societies, in all their diversity and contradictions, Islamic Studies scholarship has a special role to play. I hope to live up to this responsibility in my research and teaching by examining historical topics in their complexity and relevance to the present day, as well as by trying to situate contemporary issues in the necessary historical depth. One example of this is a recent project in which I examine Islamic legal debates regarding the status of dead lands (i.e. uncultivated lands) in Islamic law, including contemporary debates regarding the environment, climate change and the sustainable use of natural resources.

• Pre-modern Islamic law
• Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), in particular the Hanafi school of the late classical period
• History of Islamic ideas and concepts
• Modern Islamic thought

• 1999-2003 Bachelor's degree in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Biblical Hebrew), Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, UK
• 2003-2005 M.Phil. in Oriental Studies (Modern Middle Eastern Studies), Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, UK
• 2005-2006 MacCracken Fellowship, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University (NYU), USA
• 2006-2012 Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, USA
• 2012-2013 Assistant Professor (tenure track), Religious Studies and History, St. Michael’s College, Colchester, Vermont, USA
• 2013-2017 Assistant Professor (tenure track), Department of Religion, Columbia University, New York, USA
• 2017-2020 Academic Advisor, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, BM.I, Republic of Austria
• 2020-2021 Research Fellow, ERC Project “Geographies and Histories of the Ottoman Supernatural Tradition: Exploring Magic, the Marvellous, and the Strange in Ottoman Mentalities” (GHOST), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), Rethymnon, Greece
• 2021-2022 Marie Jahoda Scholarship, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna
• 2022 University Assistant (post-doc) in Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna
• 2022-2025 FWF Elise Richter Fellow, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, Principal Investigator (PI), Habilitation Project V943-G, Hanafi Jurisprudence in Western Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, 12th-15th Centuries
• since September 2025 Professorship of Cultural and Intellectual History of the Islamic World, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna