Katja Föllmer was born on October 17, 1974. She was a senior researcher and lecturer at the University of Göttingen. Katja Föllmer studied Iranian Studies, Arabic Studies, and Ethnology at the University of Göttingen between 1993 and 2002, earning a Master of Arts degree. Katja Föllmer received her doctorate in Iranian Studies in 2007 with a thesis on “Satire im Iran von 1900 – 2000: Eine Analyse exemplarischer Texte” (Satire in Iran from 1900 to 2000: An Analysis of Exemplary Texts) (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden; 2008), and her habilitation in Iranian Studies in 2017 with a thesis on “Das vorislamische Erbe Irans: Zwischen Tradition und Reform und Modernisierung” (The Pre-Islamic Heritage of Iran: Between Tradition and Reform and Modernization) (Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 2022).Her research interests include concepts and ideas from the pre-Islamic heritage in Iranian societies, issues in Iranian cultural and religious history from antiquity to the present, Persian historiography, identity construction, classical and modern Persian literature, and Sufism and Persian Sufi literature.Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds) is a Persian poem by Farid ud-Din Attar, translated into German as Die Konferenz der Vögel by Katja Föllmer (2014). She published Satire in Iran Von 1990 Bis 2000: Eine Analyse Emplarischer Texte (Satire in Iran from 1990 to 2000: An Analysis of Empirical Texts) (2008); and also, Das Vorislamische Erbe Irans: Zwischen Islamischer Tradition Und Reform Und Modernisierung (Iran’s Pre-Islamic Heritage: Between Islamic Tradition and Reform and Modernization) (2022).Dr. Katja Föllmer passed away on June 11, 2025, at the age of 50. May her soul rest in peace.
