Prof. Dr. Daniela Blum – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Dr. Daniela Blum

University of Freiburg
Medieval and Modern Church History

Senior Fellow
FRIAS Project Group “Dialogicity“

October 2026 – December 2027

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ORCID ID

E-Mail: daniela.blum@theol.uni-freiburg.de

Last Update: 01.09.2026

Curriculum Vitae

Daniela Blum has been Professor of Medieval and Modern Church History and Regional Church History at the University of Freiburg since September 1, 2024. Previously, she held a professorship in church history at RWTH Aachen University.
Within the church history of the High Middle Ages, her interests lie in the intersection of hagiography and theology, as well as Christian concepts of the body. She focuses on questions of Christian image theology and the processes of teaching and learning within church and theological history, including museological contexts. Additionally, she is interested in a “bottom-up” approach to church historiography of the 19th century. Her professional background includes research positions at the University of Tübingen and the Diözesanmuseum Rottenburg. She earned her doctorate in 2014, receiving the Lepold-Lucas Prize, the University of Tübingen’s doctoral prize, and the Schöpflin Prize. Between 2019 and 2023, she served as project manager for “Heiligenleben” at the WIN-Kolleg of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
From 2005 to 2010, Daniela Blum studied Catholic Theology (Dipl.), Political Science, and Psychology (M.A.) in Tübingen and Rome, supported by a Cusanuswerk scholarship.

Selected Publications

„Zwischen Verbot und Duldung. Der Umgang der deutschen Bischöfe mit der Abtreibungsfrage im besetzten Westdeutschland (1945–1947)“, in: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 67/2 (2026) [in print].
Absurdität und Gottesrede. Theologisch-transdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf eine Herausforderung der Gegenwart (Transformation transdisziplinär 6), Baden-Baden 2026 (ed. with Martin Kirschner, Annette Langner-Pitschmann & Michael Quisinsky]. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748965695
„Kirchengeschichte als Leutetheologie. Religiöse Selbst- und Weltdeutungen in der Vergangenheitsform“, in: Saskia Wendel, Gunda Werner & Jessica Scheiper (ed.): Ewig wahr? Zur Genese von Glaubensüberzeugungen und ihrem Anspruch auf Wahrheit und Unveränderlichkeit – ein interdisziplinärer Diskurs (Quaestiones Disputatae 332), Freiburg i.Br. 2023, 217-231.
Entscheidung zur Heiligkeit? Autonomie und Providenz im legendarischen Erzählen vom Mittelalter bis zur Moderne (Myosotis. Forschungen zur europäischen Traditionsgeschichte), Heidelberg 2022 (ed. with Marie Gunreben, Nicolas Detering & Beatrice von Lüpke).
Multikonfessionalität im Alltag. Speyer zwischen politischem Frieden und Bekenntnisernst (1555–1618) (RST 162), Münster 2015.

FRIAS Project

Dialogicity: Open-Ended Inquiry through Dialogue in the Premodern World

This project investigates dialogue as a central epistemic practice in the premodern world (c. 1200–1800). It examines dialogical forms—from scholastic quaestiones and disputationes to institutional and literary accounts of exchange—as epistemic practices in their own right. By analysing the vocabularies, structures, performative settings, and material framings that shaped how dialogues unfolded, the project explores how knowledge was opened, tested, and transformed in these communicative encounters. The aim is to conceptualise “dialogicity” as a historically grounded and methodologically productive category and to assess how we know what we know about past
dialogue practice. The data is written language (Latin and vernacular). In addition, the project has a practical dimension. Through conceptual work, public dialogues (“Ringdialoge”) and expert residencies, the project develops a methodological framework that culminates in a DFG proposal for a larger collaborative research initiative.