Michael Stausberg earned his Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of Bonn (1995). He worked at universities in Sweden (Uppsala), Germany (Heidelberg, Tübingen), and Switzerland (Bern) before joining the University of Bergen (Norway) in 2014. Stausberg lectured at the Collège de France (Paris) and the Getty Center (Los Angeles). He was a Fellow at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies (Erfurt). Additionally, he chaired a group at the Center for Advanced Studies, Norwegian Academy of Sciences (Oslo), and was also a Visiting Fellow at Trinity College (Cambridge).