Erica Passoni

Before coming to Princeton, Erica received a BA in German Studies, English, and American Studies, as well as an MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.

Erica’s research investigates how early modern German-speaking societies determined who qualified as human and to what degree, during a period of profound religious transformation and unprecedented global encounter among cultures. Her dissertation, “The Other Among Us: Early Modern German Discourses on Atypical Bodies, 1500–1770,” offers the first interdisciplinary study of early modern German responses to individuals with congenital physical variations, such as skeletal dysplasia, limb differences, and fused joints. Erica’s archival-based research demonstrates that people with atypical bodies became a proving ground for defining humanity itself. They were at the center of some of the most urgent questions of the time: How are divine messages to be interpreted? Where does the soul reside and how does one prove it? How does the womb generate life and when does life begin? 

Erica’s work has been supported by the Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research Abroad in the Humanities, and by the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Honorific Fellowship.

In addition to her research, Erica has served as the Project Coordinator for Princeton University’s Environmental History Lab and as organizer of various initiatives for Princeton’s Program in Medieval Studies and German Department. She has also taught in public primary and secondary schools as a German and English language instructor for exchange students, refugees, children, and immigrant youth. 

She currently serves as a Graduate Peer for SHARE (Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education), and as Professional Development Associate with GradFUTURES (Princeton Graduate School).

Articles:

Academic

- Passoni, Erica. “Atypical Bodies and Confession in Reformation Germany,” invited contribution for Routledge Resources Online – The Renaissance World. Forthcoming (April 2027).

- Passoni, Erica. “New-World Wonders: German Ethnographic Encounters in the Early Modern Period,” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies. Forthcoming (Fall 2026).

- Passoni, Erica. “Bloodletting in the Latin West,” ed. Kristen Poole and Duncan Hardy, Routledge Resources Online – The Renaissance World (2025). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367347093-RERW243-1

Non-Academic

- Passoni, Erica, Hirose, Lynn. “Thriving as an International Scientist and Scholar: Reflections from the GradFUTURES Learning Cohort,” GradFUTURES, Graduate School, Princeton University, June 2026. https://gradfutures.princeton.edu/ThrivingCohort

3MT Competition 2026

- “Curious Bodies and the Early Modern German Quest for the Human.” 3MT Finals, Princeton University, Graduate School, 2026. https://youtu.be/bGqLQa8vZU4?si=VUe3ksaDpSQo5HZ