Irmtraud Fischer

Austria´s first woman theologian qualified as a professor

„You have to have intact aspirations and not stop halfway.“

Irmtraud Fischer is a pioneer in a field traditionally dominated by men: After completing a degree in education, she began studying Catholic theology and religious education at the University of Graz in 1977. She received her doctorate in 1988 and in 1993 she qualified as a professor with her thesis “Die Erzeltern Israels. Feministisch-theologische Studien zu Gen 12-36” (The Ancestors of Israel. Feminist-theological Studies on Gen 12-36), which was published by de Gruyter Publishers, Berlin, in 1994. This made her not only the first woman in Austria to qualify as a professor of theology, but also one of the few people in this field to conduct research from a feminist perspective. The title of her work has become a defining term and has had a lasting influence on theology, even in today’s school textbooks: There is no longer any mention of Erzväter, patriarchs, but rather of Erzeltern, ancestors – a gender-neutral term.

From 1997 to 2004, she was Professor of Old Testament and Women’s Studies in Theology at the Catholic Faculty of Theology at the University of Bonn. Since March 2004, she has held the Chair of Old Testament Biblical Studies at the University of Graz, where she was also Vice-Rector for Research from 2007 to 2011. Irmtraud Fischer was a visiting professor in Marburg an der Lahn in 1993, Vienna in 1995, Bamberg in 1995/96, Jerusalem in 2001 and Rome in 2011. In addition to her numerous publications, the international collaborative project The Bible and Women, which she co-initiated and directs and in which nearly 300 researchers worldwide are involved, is a central milestone in her academic work. The project deals with a gender-inclusive reception history of the Bible – a world first. It examines how biblical female figures have been understood throughout the centuries and how women have interpreted the Bible.

Since 2000, Irmtraud Fischer has been co-editor of the Vienna Yearbook of Theology. She was president of the European Society for Women’s Theological Research (ESWTR) and chair of the Working Group of German-Speaking Catholic Old Testament Scholars (AGAT).