Birgit Emich

Birgit Emich is a Full Professor and Chair of Early Modern History at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main since January 2017, having previously held the same position at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg from April 2010 to December 2016. She serves as Vice Dean of Faculty 08 (October 2019-September 2021), member of the Faculty Council, and member of the Steering Committee of the Research Center for Historical Humanities since 2022. Her academic journey includes positions as Senior Lecturer at University of Münster, interim professorships at multiple institutions, and a Heisenberg Fellowship from the German Research Foundation.

Her research interests focus on cultural history of early modern politics and administration, patronage systems, the Papacy and Papal States, Protestant Reformation and confessional cultures, polycentricity of premodern Christianities, and religion and de:toxification. Emich employs interdisciplinary approaches to examine power structures, administrative practices, and religious dynamics in early modern Europe, particularly within the Roman Curia and Catholic Church institutions.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on polycentric religious structures, particularly examining how early modern Catholicism functioned as a global yet locally adapted religious system. Her work increasingly explores canonization processes, saint-making, and the intersection of kinship networks with religious authority. A significant thread throughout her scholarship is the examination of administrative practices within the Papal States and how formal bureaucratic structures coexisted with informal patronage networks.

• Academy Prize of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities 2003
• Heisenberg-Fellowship of the German Research Foundation
• Annual Prize of the Scientific Society in Freiburg im Breisgau 2005
• Senior Fellowship at the Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study Greifswald
• Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (since 2023)

Professor Emich has secured substantial third-party funding through multiple DFG projects, including the research group "Polycentricity and Plurality of premodern Christianities" (as co-spokesperson since 2020) and the DFG-ANR project "Graceful 17: Global Governance, Local Dynamics" (since 2023). She currently leads the research group "Religion and De:Toxification" (starting January 2025). Her editorial work includes co-editing the book series "Kulturen des Christentums - Neue Zugänge zur Frühen Neuzeit | Cultures of Christianity - New Approaches to Early Modern History" since 2022.

She serves on numerous academic advisory boards including the Leibniz Institute of European History Mainz, the Gerda Henkel Foundation (as Chair since 2025), and the German Historical Institute in Rome. Professor Emich is actively involved in international scholarly networks, serving as a reviewer for prestigious foundations including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Swiss National Science Foundation.