"A particular help to me at the time was that although I received a comparatively generous scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, at the same time I was under pressure to complete the doctorate within a period of two years. Even though I didn’t quite manage that, this target was of great help to me."
"My most extraordinary experience was my trip to Munich’s State Library where, after some degree of persuasion, I finally held the 13th-century Arabic manuscript that was the subject of my dissertation in my hands, carefully turning the pages with their colourful illustrations, because this material contact allowed me to feel a particular proximity to the author and his cultural environment."
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was meeting the man who is now my husband in the garden of the Institute of Islamic Science in the little café organized by the students themselves on Altensteinstrasse in Berlin, and the subsequent dances at all the Orient/Asia parties in Berlin, Bonn and Cologne."
"My topic still concerns me today, because even now researchers from various countries – Germany, Italy, the USA, the Lebanon, Iran and Turkey – approach me to discuss my theories, to realize joint projects such as an Italian translation of the Arabic work that was the subject of my doctorate, to seek my opinion on their research, or to ask me to tell their students about my results."
"In the course of my academic career I almost gave up when, in September 2013, I lost my job. Fortunately for me I will now, completely unexpectedly, be embarking on a junior professorship in Arabic Literature and Rhetoric in Later Centuries with tenure track, which is initially being funded by the Leibniz Prize money from Prof. Thomas Bauer."
Dr. Syrinx Carola von Hees
Junior Professor, with tenure track, of Arabic Literature and Rhetoric in Later Centuries at the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Science, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Born in Harderberg now Georgsmarienhütte (Kreis Osnabrück), lives today in Münster
Dissertation topic: Die Kosmographie des Qazwini. Die Entwicklung eines Weltkonzepts in einer Zeit politischen Umbruchs im Iraq des 13. Jahrhunderts
completed in: 1999