Dr. Eva Marie Lehner

Postdoctoral Researcher

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
Room 2.016
Niebuhrstr. 5
D-53113 Bonn
elehner@uni-bonn.de

Member of

Research Area E - Gender (and Intersectionality)¹

Part of

Team Claudia Jarzebowski²

NEWS:
³

24–25 July 2025: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Embodied Experiences and Dependencies, Bonn (together with Dr. Emma Kalb⁴)
18 September 2025: "Deportation, Peuplierung, Menschenhandel – Dynamiken erzwungener Mobilität in der Frühen Neuzeit", Sektion auf dem Historikertag, Bonn (zusammen mit Dr. Eva Seemann und Dr. habil Florian Kühnel)
Since 2024: Body History Working Group⁵ (together with Dr. Emma Kalb⁴)

Academic Profile

Research

My research focuses on early modern European history, with particular expertise in the history of knowledge, culture, and the early colonial history of South Africa.

For my dissertation, I studied early modern parish registers from southern Germany, combining the history of knowledge with the history of bureaucracy. I analyzed records of baptisms, marriages, and burials, revealing how categories such as gender, social status, religion, marital status, body, and salvation were linked together to identify and classify people. This research demonstrates the differences between pre-modern and modern categorical knowledge of personal identification, as well as its fundamental mutability and negotiability. It encourages us to place current debates about personal data and identity in a broader historical context. The results of my research are published in the dissertation "Baptism - Marriage - Death: Practices of Registering in Early Modern Church Records," which was published in 2023 by Wallstein Verlag and awarded the dissertation prize of the 'Arbeitskreis Historische Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung'.

My current project focuses on eighteenth-century Cape Town, a Dutch colony that stands out among early modern settlements for its multicultural setting and settler colonialism, characterized by high mobility and inherent norms and practices of violence. This project aims to develop a conceptualization of the body in history, including practices of enslavement, forced migration, punishment, and the sexualization and racialization of bodies, through the lens of Cape Town's unique history.

As a lecturer, I teach courses in history, slavery, gender studies, colonialism, and cultural heritage. My approach is to combine theories such as intersectionality with historical source material. While my seminars focus mainly on early modern history, I encourage my students to consider the wider implications of historical events, especially concerning social, political, and economic developments, such as gender inequalities or cohesion.

Education

2021
PhD, History, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), summa cum laude
Thesis: "Taufe, Ehe, Tod – Verzeichnungspraktiken in frühneuzeitlichen Kirchenbüchern aus süddeutschen Gemeinden." [Baptism, marriage, and death – bureaucratic record keeping practices in early modern parish records from southern Germany.]

2014
MA, Early Modern History, Free University of Berlin (Germany)
Thesis: "'kein rechte nasen und mund gehabt.' Identitätskonstruktionen in den Tauf- und Sterberegistern der Pfarrei Sulzbach, 1543–1627." [Constructing identities in baptismal and burial registers from the parish community Sulzbach, 1543–1627.]

2013
Erasmus Scholarship, University of Vienna (Austria)

2010
BA, History and Performance Studies, Free University of Berlin (Germany)
Thesis: "Sexualität und Geschlecht. Zur Bedeutung von Körper und Kleidung bei Catharina Margaretha Linck alias Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel (hingerichtet 1721)." [Sexuality and Gender. The meaning of body and clothing in the criminal records on Catharina Margaretha Linck alias Anastasius Lagragntinus Rosenstengel (executed 1721)]

Academic Positions

Aug 2024–Jan 2025
Guest Research at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

July 2024
Guest Research at the University of Stellenbosch, LEAP (Laboratory for the Economics of Africa’s Past), South Africa

since 2021
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn (Germany)

2021
Lecturer, Department of History, Free University of Berlin (Germany)

2017–2020
Doctoral Researcher (funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG): Kirchliche Amtshandlungen und bürokratisches Ordnen. Verzeichnungspraktiken in Kirchenbüchern aus süddeutschen Gemeinden im 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhundert), Department of History, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

2014–2017
Research Assistant and Lecturer, Department of History, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

Additional Academic Activities

2024–2025
Representative (Postdocs and Research Group Leaders), BCDSS

since 2023
Member of the Antidiscrimination Team, BCDSS

2023–2024
Mentor for female students (movement University of Bielefeld)

2015–2021
Co-editor and co-publisher for the journal "WerkstattGeschichte"

2016–2019
Junior researcher, online source project "German History Intersections – Germanness" (GHI Washington, USA), together with Winson Chu, Hannah Margaret Elmer, and Martina Kessel

Third-Party Funding and Awards

2024
Argelander Mobility Grant, University of Bonn, 25,000 Euro

2021
Dissertation Award of the Arbeitskreis Historische Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung e.V
https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/news/news-bcdss/dissertation-award-2021⁶

2016
Travel grant by the University of Adelaide (Australia) for participating in the conference "Religious Materiality and Emotion," ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Europe 1100–1800

2014
Gender Studies Award, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Free University of Berlin (Germany) for my MA Thesis

2012
Funding by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) for an internship at the GHI (German Historical Institute) in London (UK)

2012
ERASMUS scholarship for studying abroad, University of Vienna (Austria)

Conferences and workshop organizer

10/2024
Workshop "Dependency Theory and Intersectionality," together with Sara Eriksson and David B. Smith (BCDSS)

06/2024
Workshop "Exploring the Atlantic and Asian Dutch Empire and its Archives: actor-centered and gender approaches (17th–19th Century)," together with Hanna te Velde (IISH)

07/2023
Workshop SLAVERY, SERVITUDE, SERVICE: DIFFERENCE AND SOCIAL RELATIONS ACROSS SOUTH ASIA AND ITS GLOBAL CONNECTIONS, 1400–1800, A workshop organized by Emma Kalb, Eva Lehner, Nabhojeet Sen

11/2021
Conference "Kirchenbücher als historische Quellen. Perspektiven der Landes-, Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte," co-organized with Michael Hecht, founded by the Exzellenzcluster "Religion und Politik" and the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung, Münster (Germany)

11/2018
Workshop "Verzeichnungspraktiken – frühneuzeitliche Listen und Register," funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

11/2015
Workshop "Herrschaft und Identität," Free University of Berlin (Germany)

Memberships

Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (VHD)
Verein für kritische Geschichtsschreibung e.V.
Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung NRW
Arbeitskreis Historische Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung e.V.

Selected Publications

"Beyond Body and Soul: Shaping 'Emotional Communities' in Early Modern German Church Registers." In German History (forthcoming 2026).
"From Abduction to Adoption: Children from the Ottoman Empire as Prisoners of War in German-Speaking Territories at the End of the 17th Century." In Belonging, Materials, Dependency. Perspectives from Early Modern History, edited by Claudia Jarzebowski and Eva Marie Lehner. Dependency and Slavery Studies. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter (forthcoming 2025).
2024: "Religion, Slavery, and Resistance in Cape Town during the Dutch Colonial Period (1652–1795)." In Slavery, Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period, edited by Christoph Haar, 37–59. Paderborn: Brill.
2024. "Die Anfänge der Kirchenbuchführung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert in Franken: Ehe- und Taufbücher aus Nürnberg, Kulmbach und Altdorf." In Blätter für fränkische Familienkunde 47: 9–38.
2023. "Geschlecht, Gewalt und Sexualität in der Vormoderne. Das (Nicht-)Dokumentieren von Sexualität und Gewalt in frühneuzeitlichen Quellen." In Geschlecht, Gewalt und Gesellschaft. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Geschichte und Gegenwart, edited by Eva Labouvie, 105–120. Bielefeld: transcript. Open access⁷
2023. 'Taufe – Ehe – Tod.' Praktiken des Verzeichnens in frühneuzeitlichen Kirchenbüchern. Historische Wissensforschung 22. Wallstein Verlag.
2022. "'schön zusammen gewachsen, und eine andere gestalt (andern kindern gleich) erlanget' – Praktiken des Vergleichens von Kindern und ihren Körpern in frühneuzeitlichen Kirchenbüchern." In Entrechtete Körper – Vergleichen, Normieren, Urteilen, Leben, 1450–1850, edited by Cornelia Aust, Antje Flüchter, and Claudia Jarzebowski, 115–135. Stuttgart.
2021. "Seelen verzeichnen, Menschen erfassen: Frühneuzeitliche Kirchenbücher aus der Pfarrei Sulzbach in der Oberpfalz." In Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Oberpfalz und Regensburg 161.
2021. "'Catharina Schlegelin had hidden her pregnancy viciously from everybody': extramarital pregnancies in three different sources on infanticide from the 18th century." In History | Sexuality | Law. Open access⁸
2021. As editor. With Winson Chu, Hannah Margaret Elmer, and Martina Kessel. Germanness (online sourcebook on German History Intersections). Open access⁹
2020. "Geschlechterwissen in frühneuzeitlichen Kirchenbüchern." In Popularisierungen und Essentialisierungen von Geschlechterwissen. (Vor-)Moderne Wissenstransfers, edited by Muriel González Athenas and Falko Schnicke, 69–92. Beiheft Historische Zeitschrift 79. Berlin/Boston/München.
2020. As editor. With Teresa Schröder-Stapper. WerkstattGeschichte 2 (82) (differenzen einschreiben). Open access¹⁰
2019. "'einschreiben und vleißßig auffbehalten, auff daß man sich inn mancherlei fällen zeugnuß zu gebrauchen habe.' Dokumentieren als Praxisform in frühneuzeitlichen Kirchenbüchern." In Praxisformen. Zur kulturellen Logik von Zukunftshandeln, edited by Jan-Hendryk de Boer, 147–163. Kontingenzgeschichten 6. Frankfurt/New York.
2018. "'Nach der Hochzeit hätten Sie zusammen als vermeinte Eheleute gelebt, wären zusammen zu Tisch und Bett gegangen' – Sexuelle Diversität in der Frühen Neuzeit?" In Diversität historisch. Repräsentationen und Praktiken gesellschaftlicher Differenzierung im Wandel, edited by Natalie Krentz, Victoria Gutsche, and Moritz Florin, 55–78. Bielefeld.