Walter Pohl was Professor of Medieval History at the University of Vienna and Director of the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he is currently group leader for the ERC Synergy Grant ‘HistoGenes’. His fields of study cover the transformation of the Roman world and early medieval history, especially the role of ethnicity and identity formation, the history of Eastern Central Europe and of the Eurasian steppe peoples, early medieval historiography, and the uses of the medieval past in the modern period. Among his books are „Die Germanen“, „Werkstätte der Erinnerung“, „Die Völkerwanderung“, „Le origini etniche dell’Europa“, “The Avars“.
