Preference in all upper school classes, high school diploma with distinction, the grade “very good” in all partial examinations and top marks in the written scientific work. These are the legal requirements for a doctorate under the auspices of the Federal President, including the award of a ring of honor from the Republic of Austria. About twenty students in Austria complete a Sub Auspiciis doctorate per year, which is not even one percent of all doctoral students. A Bad Ischler has now succeeded: Elisabeth Höftberger did her doctorate on Thursday “Sub Auspiciis”.
Born in Bad Ischl in 1991, Elisabeth Höftberger’s maiden name was Zierler. She is the daughter of the Ischl carpentry entrepreneur Martin Zierler. She attended the college for economic professions with a focus on social management in Bad Ischl. She then decided to study to become a teacher in the subjects of religion and German and to study Catholic theology at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg. She completed her doctoral studies in Catholic theology.
In her dissertation “Religious Tradition in Motion”, Höftberger deals with the dynamics of church tradition. “The topic is highly topical, especially in times of religious and political tension and in view of processes of change in religious culture,” emphasized the dissertation supervisor and laudator Professor Gregor-Maria Hoff.
Höftberger is very committed to voluntary work in the church, social and musical fields, including as a member of the parish council and leader of the ecumenical team for responsibility for creation in the parish of Bad Ischl. As a student, she was chairwoman of the Salzburg Catholic University Youth and a member of the honorary board of directors of the Salzburg Theological Center.
“Commitment to a just world and a good future is very important to me personally and professionally,” says Elisabeth Höftberger. “The theology degree made me sensitive to a differentiated view of the diversity of identities, cultures and religions.” The young academic lives in the Salzkammergut , is married and the mother of a daughter and a son.
Source: Nachrichten
