My dissertation, ‘Student Deviance in the Holy Roman Empire: the varying attitudes and responses to Deposition and Pennalismus in early modern German universities’, investigates the fluctuating perceptions of certain aspects of student culture and deviance in the universities of the Holy Roman Empire. In particular, the focus will be on the often-violent student initiation ritual in the early modern period known as the Deposition and another related practice which involved first year students serving the seniors known as Pennalismus. To provide context, my dissertation will also map the proliferation of other forms of student misrule in this period. Furthermore, it will seek to explain when and how these practices fell in and out of favour with the authorities. This will in turn facilitate an interrogation of the historical significance of these transformations, with respect to creating ideals of student behaviour and conversely influencing their deviant opposition.