Fields of Interest: history of refugees, German history, European history, history of Christianity

Bio: Maximilian Scholz specializes in the social and religious history of early modern Europe. His first book, Strange Brethren: Refugees, Religious Bonds, and Reformation in Frankfurt, 1554-1608 (University of Virginia Press, 2022) explores the fate and impact of Reformation refugees by looking at one center of refugee life, the German city of Frankfurt am Main. Dr. Scholz contends that refugees determined the nature of the religious changes taking place in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. He also believes that Europe’s early modern refugee crisis can (and should) inform current debates about displacement and accommodation. You can read Dr. Scholz's 2018 editorial on the history of refugees in Germany, which appeared in FOCUS, by following this link.

Dr. Scholz received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University. He won a Fulbright Grant for his research in Germany and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen before coming to FSU. He has since won research grants from the American Philosophical Society (2022), DAAD (2021), and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (2020). His research appears in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History, Migration and Society, Sixteenth Century Journal, and Journal of Urban History, and he has written book reviews for the Sixteenth Century Journal, German Studies Review, and Central European History.

Teaching: Dr. Scholz regularly teaches WOH2023 “The Modern World to 1815," EUH4144 “Reformation," and WOH3440 "History of Refugees, 0-2000."

Peer-Reviewed Publications:

Strange Brethren: Refugees, Religious Bonds, and Reformation in Frankfurt, 1554-1608 (University of Virginia Press, 2022) https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Brethren-Religious-Reformation-Frankfurt/dp/0813946751/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=strange+brethren&qid=1623027636&sr=8-1

"The Expanding Definition of Refugee in Early Modern Hesse-Kassel and Württemberg" Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History, vol. 112, no. 1, 2021, pp. 296-307. https://doi.org/10.14315/arg-2021-1120114. 

"Sacred Welcomes: How Religious Reasons, Structures, and Interactions Shape Refugee Advocacy and Settlement," coauthored with Benjamin Boudou and Hans Leaman. Migration and Society 4:1 (Summer 2021): 99-109. https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2021.040110

"Religious Refugees and the Search for Public Worship in Frankfurt am Main, 1554-1608.” Sixteenth Century Journal 50:3 (Fall 2019):765-782. https://www.escj.org/article/religious-refugees-and-search-public-worship-frankfurt-am-main-1554%E2%80%931608

“Over Our Dead Bodies: The Fight Over Cemetery Construction in Nineteenth-Century London.” Journal of Urban History 43:3 (May 2017): 445-457. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096144215584152 earl y modern Europe; reformation; renaissance; Germany; refugees; Christianity; Holy Roman Empire