Dr. des. Yannik Ehmer

Burgstr. 26, room 116
10178 Berlin
Office hours by appointment
Email: yannik.ehmer[at]hu-berlin.de
curriculum vitae
- since 10/2025 Research and teaching assistant to the Chair of Israelite History in its Ancient Near Eastern Context (Prof. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper), Humboldt University of Berlin
- 05/2025-09/2025 Research assistant as part of the ERC project "DEMBIB: From Text to Literature"
- 12/2021-05/2025 Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University of Berlin (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper; grade: summa cum laude)
- 01/2024-05/2024 PhD Researcher at Yale Divinity School (Academic Sponsor: Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Vayntrub)
- 09/2023-12/2023 PhD Researcher at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
- 03/2023-01/2024 Berlin Certificate of Teaching at the Berlin Center for Higher Education
- 04/2022-04/2025 PhD fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
- 2021-2022 Research and teaching assistant to the Chair of Religious, Literary and Contemporary History of Early Christianity (Prof. Dr. C. Gerber), Humboldt University of Berlin
- 10/2014-06/2021 Studying for two degrees (Philosophy, Mathematics and Protestant Theology) at Humboldt University of Berlin and Free University of Berlin
- 2018-2021 Master of Arts in Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin (Thesis: "'My Thinking Relates to Theology like Blotting-Paper to Ink' – The Relationship between Philosophy and Theology in Walter Benjamin's Thinking")
- 2015-2021 Graduate degree (Diplom/Examen) in Protestant Theology at Humboldt University of Berlin (Thesis: "Discursive Wisdom?! New Perspectives on the Poetics and Composition of Prov 10:1–22:16")
- 2017-2021 Student assistant to the Chair of Israelite History in its Ancient Near Eastern Context (Prof. Dr. Dr. B. U. Schipper), Humboldt University of Berlin
- 2014-2021 German Academic Scholarship Foundation undergraduate fellow
- 2014-2018 Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Mathematics at the Humboldt University of Berlin (Thesis: "Being-at-the-Limit – Traces of Jewish Thinking in Jacques Derrida's Philosophy")
- 2016-2017 Exchange year at the University of Edinburgh (Philosophy, Mathematics and Protestant Theology)
- 2011-2014 Abitur and International Baccalaureate at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main
- Born on 17 September 1994 in Gelnhausen, Germany
- Wisdom literature
- Concepts of matter and embodiment in the Hebrew Bible
- Concepts of time and space in the Hebrew Bible
- Ontologies, epistemologies, aesthetics, and ethics in the Hebrew Bible
- Philosophical hermeneutics in relation to historical-critical exegesis
- Queer studies and gender studies in relation to historical-critical exegesis
- Metacriticism and genealogies of Hebrew Bible scholarship
Lectures
- "Reflections on מִקְרֶה - Qohelet’s Materialism(s)" as part of the 2025 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA (11/2025)
- "Tender Metaphors - Notes on an Eco-Aesthetics of Biblical Metaphor" as part of the 2025 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA (11/2025)
- "Sapientia Discursiva – The Hermeneutics of Sapiential Thinking" as part of the 25th Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in Berlin (08/2025)
- "Queer Philologies" as part of the interdisciplinary research seminar “Mensch Frau* forscht und entwirft neue Text(ilien)”, organized by Prof. Dr. Dorothea Erbele-Küster, Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz) (01/2025)
- "Less Loss More Abundance" - Queering Prov 10:1-22:16 as part of the 2024 SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA (11/2024)
- "And a word in its time - how good (it is)!" - The Dynamics of Time and Iterative Wisdom in Prov 10:1-22:16 as part of the 2024 SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA (11/2024)
- "Towards an Aesthetics of the מְשָׁלִים – Theoretical Reflections on Prov 10:1–22:16" as part of the 2024 SBL International Meeting in Amsterdam, NL (08/2024)
- "Metatextuality in the Book of Proverbs - Second Order Thinking in Proverbs 10:1-22:16" as part of the 2023 SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX (11/2023)
- "Indecent exegesis and theological transgressions - scenes of queer imagination" as part of the lecture series "Religion* - Geschlecht* - Hermeneutik*: Zur Performanz religiöser Texte", organised by the project group Gender in den Theologien, Humboldt University of Berlin (01/2023)
Publications
- Monographs
Knotted Knowledge: New Perspectives on the Poetics and Composition of Prov 10:1–22:16 (in preparation).
- Edited Volumes
co-edited with Bernd U. Schipper, Towards an Aesthetic Reading of Hebrew Bible Poetry (under contract; Bloomsbury: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies).
- Articles
"Uncanny Resemblances – Prov 9 as an Introduction to Proverbial Thinking," ZAW 137/1(2025): 60-83.
"Doing and Undoing Wisdom – Reading Prov 10:1–22:16 as 'Dynarchive'," HeBAI 13/3 (2024): 351-378.
- Reviews
Review of Rotasperti, Sergio: Metaphors in Proverbs. Decoding the Language of Metaphor in the Book of Proverbs. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 117/4-5 (2022): 374-376.
Recent courses
- Introduction to the Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible (seminar; HU)
- Selected Topics in Hebrew Bible Literature (Advanced Training; tutorial; HU)
- Bad Readings – Eroticism, Sexuality and Gender in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel (in collaboration with Dr. Robert Kade; seminar; HU), awarded the award for excellence in teaching of the Theological Faculty of HU for the best course of the winter semester 24/25
- Undoing Time - Queer Temporalities (block seminar; University of Hamburg)
- Beyond Orthodoxy and Heresy - Ancient Christianity and its Margins (seminar; HU)
- Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature (tutorial; HU)
Organisation of conferences
- "Queer und Trans Studies/Readings – Theorie und Praxis im Dialog" as part of the autumn school HOW TO DO GENDER STUDIES, organised by the Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin (Sept. 9-Oct. 2, '25)
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"Metakritische Salongespräche" ("Metacritical Soirées"), Workshop at Humboldt University of Berlin (with Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Vayntrub, upcoming)
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"My heart is astir with a good word" (Ps 45:2) – Towards an Aesthetic Reading of Hebrew Bible Poetry at Humboldt University of Berlin, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper, funded by Thyssen-Stiftung (June 2-4, '24)
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"Grenzüberschreitungen: Queere Perspektiven auf Religion und Migration" ("Transgressions: Queer Perspectives on Religion and Migration") as part of the event series "Stipendiat*innen machen Programm", in collaboration with Rieke Schröder (Aug. 25-27, ’23)
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3rd Berlin-Oxford Summer School "New Perspectives on the Book of Proverbs" at Humboldt University of Berlin, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper (June 18-22, '18)
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"Genie und Anti-Genie – die Rolle des*der Künstler*in im kunsttheoretischen und gesellschaftspolitischen Diskurs" as part of the event series “Stipendiat*innen machen Programm”, in collaboration with Louisa Denker (June 3-5, "16)
Transfer of knowledge
Organisation of the event "Forbidden Fruit" (Voguing Ball) at Parochialkirche, in collaboration with the artists Ambrosia and Fifi Fantôme, pastor Corinna Zisselsberger and superintendent Dr. Bertold Höcker
Memberships and Affiliations
- Society of Biblical Literature
- "AG Gender in den Theologien"
- Associate member of the research unit "New Creation? - Aitiological Reception of the Genesis Narrative in Discourses on Cosmos, Humanity and Gender in Early Christian Literature", funded by the DFG (Prof. Dr. Christine Gerber and Prof. Dr. Cilliers Breytenbach)
- Affiliated Early Career Researcher in the international working group "Renewed Philology"