Dr. Ryan Tobler

Ryan Tobler is a lecturer and historian at the University of Heidelberg with a dual appointment at the HCA and the Faculty of Theology. He specializes in American religious and cultural history and holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago (MA) and Harvard University (MA, PhD). At the HCA he teaches a wide range of courses, including the Proseminar “Introduction to American Religious History.” His academic research currently revolves around two book projects: American Sacraments, a study of ritual and religion in the early United States (based on his Harvard dissertation); and Souls at Sea: Religion, Reform, and the American Sailor, a study of the nineteenth-century maritime reform movement.

• History of North American Colonies and Nineteenth-Century United States, especially Religion and Culture
• American Christianities, Diversity and Conflict
• Religious Practice (Ritual and Liturgy)
• Nineteenth-century Social Reform
• American Maritime History
• Religious Innovation, New Religious Movements

Since 2023: Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Associate, HCA und Theology Faculty
2022-2023: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University
2021: PhD in The Study of Religion, Harvard University
2018: MA in The Study of Religion, Harvard University
2013: MA in Religious Studies, University of Chicago

• Book project: American Sacraments: Ritual and Religion in the Early United States
• Book project: Souls at Sea: Maritime Reform in the Early United States