Hanna Zoe Trauer studied Jewish studies and philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin and completed her MA in 2016 with a thesis on the reception of Avicennian concepts in Jewish philosophy, focussed on the Hebrew translations of Al-Trabizi’s commentary on Maimonides. She is currently a doctoral student and research associate in the Collaborative Research Center ‚Episteme in Motion. Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period‘. Her research interests include Medieval Hebrew and Arabic philosophy, transfer and translation from Arabic to Hebrew, as well as medieval exegesis and biblical commentaries in their relation to philosophy.

Imagination and Prophetic Dreams in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Exegesis

Hanna Zoe Trauer’s research project examines medieval concepts of imagination and revelation in Hebrew and Arabic Jewish Philosophy. Focussing on the conceptualization of prophetic dreams in the exegetical and philosophical works of medieval Jewish authors, the project aims to shed light on how Aristotelian and Galenic psychology, Arabic philosophy, as well as Jewish traditions from biblical and rabbinical literature influenced exegetes and philosophers in the Middle-Ages. The intertwining of those various influences gave rise to innovative conceptions of prophetic knowledge and altered the status of dreams and imagination in the depiction and description of prophetic revelation.