She is professor of Islamic studies at the University of Bonn[1] and at the Evangelical Theological Faculty (ETF), Leuven.
She then completed her doctoral studies in Bonn, where, in 1991, she obtained her PhD with a thesis on the Christian-Islamic controversy in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the history of the impact of the so-called Gospel of Barnabas.
Schirrmacher is also scientific director of the Institute for Islamic Studies of the German Evangelical Alliance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In addition, she is member of the Academic Advisory Board of the “Academic Council of the Federation of German Criminal Investigators” (BDK), Berlin,[10] and member of the steering committee of the “Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS)”,[11] a research center of the University of Bonn.
Schirrmacher is involved in leading dialogue initiatives (as of 2017)[15] such as letters of response to the open letter A Common Word Between Us and You from 138 Muslim theologians to the leaders of Christian churches and at the invitation of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture of Yale University as well as at the follow-up conference “Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Muslims and Christians” or the “Berlin Forum for Progressive Muslims” (2011; 2013), a symposium of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.