- The history of witchcraft
- The history of science
- The history of medicine
- The history of the occult
- The history of women in science
- The history of the body
- The history of sexuality
Some of her most notable works include:
- _Die Geschichte der Hexenverfolgungen in Europa_ (The History of Witchcraft Persecutions in Europe, 1989)
- _Die Alchemie_ (Alchemy, 1991)
- _Das Buch der Natur: Eine Geschichte der Medizin von der Antike bis heute_ (The Book of Nature: A History of Medicine from Antiquity to the Present, 1995)
- _Die okkulte Tradition im deutschen Idealismus_ (The Occult Tradition in German Idealism, 1997)
- _Die Frauen in der Wissenschaft: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart_ (Women in Science: From Antiquity to the Present, 2000)
- _Der Körper: Eine Geschichte_ (The Body: A History, 2002)
- _Die Geschichte der Sexualität_ (The History of Sexuality, 2004)
Risse was a prolific and influential scholar whose work has had a major impact on the study of the history of science, medicine, and the occult. She was a member of the German Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. She died in 2014 at the age of 61.