Photo Credit: John Cairns via the Holberg Prize
About Professor Lyndal Roper
Lyndal Roper is Emeritus Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. She was the first woman to hold the Regius Chair in History, and the first Australian. Roper’s most recent publication, Summer of Fire and Blood: A History of the German Peasants’ War (1524-6) details the greatest uprising in western Europe before the French Revolution (Winner, Cundill Prize 2025). She has written a biography of the reformer Martin Luther and has published on witchcraft and on gender and the German Reformation. She has lived and worked in Germany (where she held a Humboldt Fellowship and was Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg). She was a graduate of the University of Melbourne and holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Melbourne and the University of Basel. She is the Holberg Laureate 2026.
‘Dr Liar’ meets ‘The Devil Himself’: Martin Luther and Thomas Müntzer
23 September 2026 | 5.30 for 6 – 8.30pm AEST
Forgan Smith (Building 1), Room E109
The University of Queensland
Join Lyndal as she explores Luther and Müntzer’s connection to the Peasants’ War and to one another; and how the afterlife of their enmity has shaped modern Germany.
History and Commemoration: Cycling the German Peasants’ War of 1525
25 September 2026 | 12.30 – 2.30pm AEST
The Law Foyer, Law School Building
The University of Sydney
Join Lyndal as she reflects on the importance of experiencing history for her research and writing of Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War, Winner of the 2025 Cundill History Prize.
Brotherhood: Gender and the German Peasants’ War
1524-26
30 September 2026 | 5.30 – 7.30pm AEST
Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre, Elisabeth Murdoch Building
The University of Melbourne
Join Lyndal as she delivers the 2026 Annual Academy Lecture, on how masculinity and brotherhood underpinned the German Peasants’ War; and how the roles and voices of women have been remembered.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to a scholar who has made outstanding contributions to research in the humanities, social science, law or theology, either in one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work.
The Holberg Prize is named after the Danish-Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg, who excelled in all of the sciences covered by the award.
