| Faculty of Catholic Theology, Research, Personalia

Marga Bührig Prize for Dr Paulina Hauser

The theologian Dr Paulina Hauser has been awarded the Marga Bührig Prize for her dissertation "Human rights violations against women, a socio-ethical analysis from a global perspective", which she submitted at the University of Erfurt. The prize, endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs, is one of the most highly endowed theological awards in the world. The award ceremony will take place on 17 October at the Literaturhaus in Basel.

Dr Paulina Hauser

In her dissertation, Dr Paulina Hauser deals with the human rights of women worldwide from an ethical point of view, which represent a difficult key point in discourses on gender and culture. The interdisciplinary and culturally sensitive study systematically explores the topic of women's human rights from a global perspective. Gender-specific aspects of human rights violations are analysed; philosophical, socio-theoretical and socio-ethical perspectives are discussed. The structural and symbolic realisation of gender justice is presented in this study as an approach to sustainably protect women's human rights.

The jury recognised Paulina Hauser's work as "extraordinarily important and relevant for our time". It is "an urgent appeal for a transformation of society as a whole". Hauser reminds us that church actors must also be part of an "alliance of the willing" in order to come closer to real justice.

Dr Paulina Hauser

... is a social ethicist and theologian. She received her doctorate from the University of Erfurt in 2024 and was nominated for the University of Erfurt's doctoral prize for her dissertation in 2025. She was also honouredby KfW Development Bank and the Development Economics Commission of the “Verein für Socialpolitik” with the Award For Practice-Oriented Development Research. After studying theology and economics, Paulina Hauser was a consultant for the world church in the diocese of Fulda from 2018 to 2023, and from 2019 to 2023 she was also a delegate to the Synodal Way of the Catholic Church in German. Since 2023, she has been working as a personal advisor to the President of the German Caritas Association.