Rob Meens is mainly interested in cultural history in a broad sense, with a particular emphasis on the period between 500 and 1200 AD. Some specific theme's discussed in his research are: views on purity and impurity, violence and reconciliation, the human body, eating and drinking, paganism and magic, religion and ritual, confession and penance. With Ludger Körntgen (Mainz) he leads a project that deals with editing early medieval handbooks for confessors.