Category Archives: Events

Events, Suomeksi

Naiset ja Raamattu: Wikipedian kertomana

By Rick Bonnie and Helen Dixon (translated by Ville Mäkipelto)

Viime viikon perjantaina järjestetty ”Naiset ja Raamattu” Wikipedian muokkausilta (”edit-a-thon”) oli menestys. Tapahtuman järjesti Pyhät tekstit ja traditiot muutoksessa -huippuyksikkö ja se oli avoin kaikille Helsingin Teologisen tiedekunnan henkilökunnan jäsenille ja opiskelijoille. Huolimatta siitä, että paikalla oli vain noin tusina ihmistä, osallistujat ja Wikimedia Suomen vapaaehtoiset loivat ja täydensivät kymmeniä artikkeleita suomen- ja englanninkieliseen Wikipediaan. Continue reading Naiset ja Raamattu: Wikipedian kertomana →

Events

Wikipedia edit-a-thon “Women and the Bible”

The CSTT organises a Wikipedia edit-a-thon, open to the entire Faculty of Theology, on the theme of “women and the bible,” in honor of International Women’s Day (March 8). The event will be held Friday, March 10 in the 5th floor faculty hall (Vuorikatu 3), 2:30pm – 6pm (or later if people want to stay on).  The CSTT will provide training for everyone to edit Wikipedia at the event with help of Wikimedia Finland volunteers.

Research has shown that ca. 90 percent of Wikipedia editors are male. This has a profound impact upon what content is being created and updated on this influential encyclopedia. As Wikipedia is the most used encyclopedia and is often the first place that high school pupils, university students, and laypeople look for information, addressing this gender imbalance is of high importance.

Together, on March 10, we plan to improve both the Wikipedia pages on female Finnish biblical scholars and on women in biblical literature, in a social and casual atmosphere. The CSTT will provide an assortment of snacks and celebratory drinks.

You are very welcome to join us! Please register (for free) here, so we can keep an accurate headcount: https://goo.gl/forms/hevMVDbLU29o55mp1.

 

Events

Report on the “Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East”

By Saana Svärd and Agnès Garcia-Ventura

The “Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East” took place in Barcelona February 1-3, 2017. The workshop was hosted by IPOA, the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies of the University of Barcelona (Spain), and organized in cooperation with the Centre of Excellence in “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions” (University of Helsinki, Finland). Organizers were Agnès Garcia-Ventura (IPOA, University of Barcelona) and Saana Svärd (University of Helsinki). The workshop was a continuation of the “First Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East.” The first workshop was organized by the same two scholars at the University of Helsinki in October 2014 and hosted by the Centre of Excellence in “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions.”

The aim of both meetings was to discuss different methodological and theoretical approaches to gender within the framework of ancient Near Eastern studies (including archaeology, art history and text studies) and to enable fruitful dialogue between these approaches. Moreover, for this second workshop, colleagues from neighboring disciplines were also encouraged to submit proposals, in order to enrich these conversations further. As a result, the second workshop included colleagues from the disciplines of Assyriology, Archaeology, Egyptology, Phoenician and Punic studies, and Biblical studies (see the full program).

The conference lasted three days and featured 33 communications, a poster session where six posters were presented, and a projects panel where nine new and ongoing projects where discussed. The event was well attended and all in all included roughly 90 participants, including speakers and poster presenters. The speakers and poster presenters came from various universities in twelve countries, namely Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

The results of such a rich and diverse conference cannot be summed up in a short blog post. Suffice it to say here that the sheer chronological, geographical and methodological scope, as well as the general high quality of papers, promises good things for the future of gender studies within the context of ancient Near Eastern studies.

The organizers: Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Saana Svärd

Since both workshops have been well received and the number of participants has increased, the organizers decided to plan a third workshop in the series, hoping the initiative will have continuity as a biannual conference. Thus, the third edition of the meeting, co-organized in cooperation with Professor Katrien De Graef, will be hosted by the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 2019. More information will be published in due time. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions and/or if you want us to keep you posted on other future ventures related to gender studies and ancient Near Eastern studies we may launch. You may contact us at: agnes.ventura[AT]gmail.com or saana.svard[AT]helsinki.fi.

Events

Samuel-Kings Editors’ Workshop (Thu 12 Jan, Helsinki)

On 12.–14.1.2017 the University of Helsinki will host the Samuel-Kings Editors’ Workshop which will bring together the critical edition projects of The Göttingen Septuagint and The Hebrew Bible – A Critical Edition (HBCE) on the Books of Samuel and Kings. The workshop sessions will consist of hands-on work with practical text-critical issues. As both projects aim at establishing a critical, eclectic text – the closest attainable approximation to the archetype – the focus will be especially on the most difficult critical decisions.

As a part of the workshop, on Thursday 12.1.2017 18:00–19:30, there will be an opportunity for everyone interested in textual research to get to know the five projects, their goals and their methods, their problems and their discoveries.

Venue: Faculty of Theology, Faculty Hall (Fabianinkatu 24, 5th floor)

18:00–19:00 — Short presentations:
– Göttingen 1 Samuel (Anneli Aejmelaeus, Helsinki)
– Göttingen 2 Samuel (Tuukka Kauhanen, Helsinki)
– Göttingen 1–2 Kings (Pablo Torijano, Madrid)
– HBCE 1 Kings (Jan Joosten, Oxford)
– HBCE 2 Kings (Andrés Piquer, Madrid)

19:00–19:30 — Discussion

For more information, please contact: tuukka.kauhanen@helsinki.fi

Events

Programme for 2nd Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East

1 Comment

We have the pleasure to invite participants to the  “Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology, and the Ancient Near East.” The workshop will be held in Barcelona, February 1-3, 2017 and hosted by the IPOA (University of Barcelona) and organized in cooperation with The Centre of Excellence in ‘Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions’ (University of Helsinki). The aim of the meeting is to discuss different methodological and theoretical approaches to gender within the framework of ancient Near Eastern studies (including archaeology, art history and text studies) and to enable fruitful dialogues between these approaches and between different fields.

The provisional program of the meeting can be seen below. It is free for participation, but registration is needed. If you are planning to join us, please send an email to one or both of us: Dr. Saana Svärd and Dr. Agnès Garcia-Ventura
***************************************************

Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East
Universitat de Barcelona, February 1-3, 2017
Hosts: IPOA, Universitat de Barcelona / Centre of Excellence “Sacred Texts in Change” in the University of Helsinki
Organizers: Agnès Garcia-Ventura (“Sapienza”, Università degli Studi di Roma / IPOA, Universitat de Barcelona)  / Saana Svärd (University of Helsinki)

Wednesday February 1st 2017
9.00-9.45: welcome and introduction
9.00-9.15: Welcome: Adelina Millet Albà, director of the IPOA
9.15-9.45: Presentation and introduction to the workshop: Agnès Garcia-Ventura & Saana Svärd, “Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East: An Introduction”

9.45-11.15: panel 1 (Chair: Adelina Millet Albà)
9.45-10.15: Ann Guinan, “Dressing the Whore of Babylon for the 21st Century: Sex, Gender and Theory in Mesopotamian Studies”
10.15-10.45: Gioele Zisa, “Queering šà-zi.ga Therapy. Considerations on the Relations between Masculinity, Sickness and Anatomy”
10.45-11.15: M. Erica Couto-Ferreira: “Domesticating the Female Body: Ancient Mesopotamian Discourses on Fertility and (Re)production”

11.15-11.45: coffee break

11.45-13.45: panel 2 (Chair: Katrien De Graef)
11.45-12.15: Helga Vogel: “Is ‘Harem’ a Useful Category for Describing and Analysing the Living Conditions of ancient Near Eastern Women?”
12.15-12.45: Leire Olabarria: “Kinship and Gender in Dialogue: Approaching Relatedness in ancient Egypt”
12.45-13.15: Jacquelyn Williamson: “Nefertiti and the ‘Docile Agent’”
13.15-13.45: Thais Rocha da Silva: “Gender Studies and Daily Life in ancient Egypt: Theoretical Problems and new Perspectives”

13.45-15.00: lunch break (catered lunch for speakers and poster presenters)

15.00-16.30: panel 3: poster session (Chair: Agnès Garcia-Ventura)
15.00-15.30: presentation of posters (plenary, room 0.1)
15.30-16.30: discussion of posters (individually, with each presenter, room 0.3; the poster room will be also open during breaks on Thursday and Friday).

Confirmed poster presenters (by alphabetical order): Mina Dabbagh, Sara González, HESTIA research group (Ana Delgado, Meritxell Ferrer and Mireia López-Bertran), Elena Martínez Rodríguez, Michèle Meijer, Omar N’Shea, TÀCITA MUTA research group (Cristina Yúfera, Georgina Rabassó and David Muñoz).

16.30-17.00: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.00-19.00: panel 4 (Chair: Jacquelyn Williamson)
17.00-17.30: Katrien De Graef: “A Room of Her Own? On the Origin, Meaning, and Functioning of the Gagûm in Old Babylonian Sippar”
17.30-18.00: Josué J. Justel: “Remarkable Women from Tikunani: The Role of Women in Palatial Administration”
18.00-18.30: Anne-Isabelle Langlois: “The Princess Iltani’s Archives uncovered at Tell al-Rimah (18th century BC)”
18.30-19.00: Laura Cousin / Yoko Watai: “Onomastics of Women in the Neo-Babylonian Period: An Approach from Gender Studies”

Thursday February 2nd 2017
9.30-11.30: panel 5 (Chair: Ann Guinan)
9.30-10.00: Sophus Helle: “The Dynamics of a Three-sex Model”
10.00-10.30: Ilan Peled: “Identifying Gender Ambiguity in Texts and Artifacts”
10.30-11.00: Megan Cifarelli: “Problematizing Masculinity and Militarization at Hasanlu, Iran”
11.00-11.30: Laura B. Mazow: “Of War and Weaving: ‘Swords’ and the Complexities of Archaeological Reconstructions of Gender”

11.30-12.00: coffee break

12.00-14.00: panel 6 (Chair: Josué J. Justel)
12.00-12.30: Jana Matuszak: “Assessing Misogyny in Sumerian Advice Literature, Dialogues, and Diatribes”
12.30-13.00: Frauke Weiershäuser: “Narrating about women, narrating about men”
13.00-13.30: Vanessa Juloux: “Philosophy of action and pragmatic approach: a concrete example with ʿAnatu of Ugarit”

13.30-13.45: group photo

13.45-15.30: lunch break

15.30-17.00: panel 7 (Chair: Frances Pinnock)
15.30-16.00: Stephanie Lynn Budin, “Potent Images: The Nude Female Icon as Locus of Power”
16.00-16.30: Elisa Roßberger: “The gendered body as symbolic artefact. Changes in terracotta production in early second millennium Mesopotamia”
16.30-17.00: Erin Darby: “Sex Symbols: Ritual Production and Performativity in Female Near Eastern Terracottas”

17.00-17.30: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.30-19.00: panel 8 – projects panel (Chair: Saana Svärd)
In this panel some current ongoing (or just launched projects) will be presented. In addition, participants will be encouraged to discuss networking possibilities and development of future projects to promote the study of gender in the ancient Near East. The following projects (provisional list) will be presented:
Beth Alpert Nakhai: “Field Safety: Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin”
Katrien De Graef: “GAND = Gender and Assyriology: New Developments”
Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme: “Food and Identity in Biblical Literature”
Amy Gansell: “Introducing a Queen to the Virtual Reality Simulation of Nimrud’s Northwest Palace”
Josué J. Justel & Agnès Garcia-Ventura: “Editing a handbook on women in the ancient Near East in Spanish”
Ilan Peled: “LaOCOST – Law and Order: Cuneiform Online Sustainable Tool”
Stephanie Budin“Women in Antiquity. Real Women across the Ancient World”

20.00 Conference dinner (for speakers and poster presenters, by invitation)

Friday February 3rd 2017
9.30-11.30: panel 9 (Chair: Beth Alpert Nakhai)
9.30-10.00: Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme: “Death at the Hand of a Woman: Hospitality and Gender in the Hebrew Bible”
10.00-10.30: Sandra Jacobs: “’The Disposable Wife’ and Her Status in the Hebrew Bible”
10.30-11.00: Federico Dal Bo: “Women are like cattle”. Some Remarks on early Jewish Juridical Vocabulary on Women and Nature
11.00-11.30: Adelina Millet Albà: “Real characters or literary characters? The Matriarchs in the Bible”

11.30-12.00: coffee break

12.00-14.00: panel 10 (Chair: Saana Svärd)
12.00-12.30: Natalie N. May: “Female Scholarship in Mesopotamia?”
12.30-13.00: Sanae Ito: “Female and Male Scribes related to the Queen’s Household in the Assyrian Empire”
13.00-13.30: Frances Pinnock: “Amorite ladies at the Neo-Assyrian Court: building up an image, deconstructing an image, transmitting an image”
13.30-14.00: Amy Gansell: “Introducing a Queen to the Virtual Reality Simulation of Nimrud’s Northwest Palace”

14.00-15.30: lunch break

15.30-16.30: panel 11 (Chair: Stephanie Lynn Budin)
15.30-16.00: Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel: “Gender, Sense and Sensitivity in Ancient Mesopotamian Rituals”
16.00-16.30: Mónica Palmero Fernández: “Inanna/Ishtar: religion, gender and power in the 3rd millennium B.C., or how to weave interdisciplinarity into the socio-political and socioeconomic analysis of belief”

16.30-17.00: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.00-18.30: panel 12 (Chair: Megan Cifarelli)
17.00-17.30: Beth Alpert Nakhai: “The Women of Jerusalem: Capital City Life in Israel’s Iron Age”
17.30-18.00: Helen Dixon: “Locating Phoenician Women: Space, Gender, and Social Roles in the Iron Age Central Levant”
18.00-18.30: Mireia López-Bertran: “Shrines for women?: Phoenician-Punic sanctuaries as feminine arenas”

18.30-19.00: concluding remarks and farewell

Events

Kings and Power: Exploring Jewish Texts in their Hellenistic Contexts (Helsinki, 3-4 Dec)

Helsinki, 3–4 December 2016
Bookshop Arkadia, Nervanderinkatu 11

Please pre-register by 18 November:
https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/75042/lomake.html

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact
Tuukka Kauhanen (tuukka.kauhanen@helsinki.fi) or Elisa Uusimäki (elisa.uusimaki@helsinki.fi).

Continue reading Kings and Power: Exploring Jewish Texts in their Hellenistic Contexts (Helsinki, 3-4 Dec) →

Events

CSTT contributions at SBL and ASOR Annual Meetings 2016, San Antonio

This year, the combined annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religions takes place November 19–22 in San Antonio (Texas, USA).

We have, once again, made the scheduling for your annual experience easier by gathering together all contributions of our Finland-based Centre of Excellence in Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions to these annual meetings. The contributions are grouped under four headings corresponding to the different research teams in our centre. You can find the abstracts of the papers and more information on the sessions by using the excellent AAR/SBL online program book and mobile planner.

Prior to the AAR/SBL annual meeting, there is also the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in San Antonio, which takes place November 16-19 in the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta hotel. Our CSTT contributes to that meeting too!

We hope to meet you all in San Antonio!

 

Team 1. Society and Religion in the Ancient Near East

CSTT-director Martti Nissinen is a member of two editorial boards: S19-101 Ancient Near East Monographs and S20-229 Writings from the Ancient World.

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Martti Nissinen: “The Ritual Aspect of Prophecy” in Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Martti Nissinen: Presiding in Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature, theme: Manuscripts, Scribal Culture, Scribal Change

Nov 18 – 16:20–18:25 (ASOR)
Helen Dixon: Presiding the session “8H. Archaeology of Lebanon”

Nov 19 – 10:40–12:45 (ASOR)
Helen Dixon: “Perfuming the Dead: Evidence for the Use of Aromatic Oil and Resins in Phoenician Mortuary Practice” in Senses and Sensibility in the Near East II

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Helen Dixon: “’Place My Name Beside Your Own!’: Publishing in Perpetuity in Achaemenid Phoenicia” in Book History and Biblical Literatures

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Izaak J. de Hulster: “There were figurines in Yehud!” in Archaeology of the Biblical World

Nov. 19 – 17:25–17:55 (ASOR)
Saana Svärd: “Arabian Queens: Constructs of Gender and Ethnicity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire” in Gender in the Ancient Near East

 

Team 2. Text and Authority

Nov 19 – 9:00–10:45
Anneli Aejmelaeus: Presiding in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings, theme: “The Antiochian Text and Manuscripts: 2 Samuel”

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Anneli Aejmelaeus: Presiding in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings, theme: “The Antiochian Text and Manuscripts: 1–2 Kings and Joshua”

Nov 22 – 9:00–10:15
Anneli Aejmelaeus: “The Lucianic Text of 1 Samuel: A Revised and Augmented Edition of the Old Greek” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Tuukka Kauhanen: “Lucianic Readings in Non-Antiochian Witnesses in 2 Samuel” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Katja Kujanpää: “Altered for the sake of Argumentation: Divine Hardening in the Quotations in Rom 11:8–10” in Rhetoric and the New Testament

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Marika Pulkkinen: “The Distinct Functions of an Explicit Quotation and a Vague Reference in Paul’s Use of Psalms” in Intertextuality in the New Testament

Nov 19 – 13:00–16:00
Miika Tucker: “Renderings of the Infinitive Construct in Septuagint Jeremiah” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies

Nov 19 – 16:00–19:00
Drew Longacre: “A Text-Critical Analysis of Rahlfs 896 and 960” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:45
Drew Longacre: “Two Selective Texts of Exodus: A Material Analysis of P. Rendel Harris Inv. 54 c and P. Berlin 13994” in Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds

Nov 19 – 9:00–10:15
Pablo Torijano (visiting scholar): “Reassesing the Lucianic Tradition: Towards a New Methodology of Textual Characterisation” in Textual Criticism of Samuel – Kings

 

Team 3. Literary Criticism in the Light of Documented Evidence

The team leader Juha Pakkala is a member of the editorial board S20-104c TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Cricitism.

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Juha Pakkala: “The Influence of Political Treaties on Deuteronomy and Deuteronomism” in Book of Deuteronomy

Reinhard Müller: Presiding in Book of Deuteronomy, theme: “Treaty and Covenant: Deuteronomy in Light of the Neo-Assyrian and Aramaic adê-tradition”

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Reinhard Müller: “Yhwh and Ashur in Isa 30:27–33” in Formation of Isaiah

Nov 20 – 13:00–15:30
Reinhard Müller: Panelist in The Formation of the Pentateuch Review Session, theme “Review of Jan Christian Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid, eds., The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America (Mohr Siebeck Verlag, 2016).

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Urmas Nõmmik: “Parallelism in Prose – Help from Epigraphic Evidence?” in Biblical Hebrew Poetry

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Francis Borchardt: Presiding in Hebrew Bible and Political Theory, theme: “Jewish Ethnicity in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods”

Nov 21 – 13:00–15:30
Francis Borchardt: “The Hero and the Construction of Judean Ethnicity” in Hebrew Bible and Political Theory; Hellenistic Judaism

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Francis Borchardt: “Idolatry, Retribution, and the Judean Homeland: Deuteronomic Ideology in 4 Maccabees”  in Book of Deuteronomy

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Ville Mäkipelto: “Are There Old Greek Readings in the Antiochian Text of Joshua 24” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Timo Tekoniemi: “On the Verge of Textual, Literary, and Redaction Criticism: The Case of 2 Kings 17:7” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Ville Mäkipelto: “Theological Corrections in MT Joshua 24 as Revealed by the LXX” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate

Timo Tekoniemi: “Is There a (Proto-)Lucianic Stratum in the Text of 1 Kings of the Old Latin Manuscript La115?” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate

 

Team 4. Society and Religion in Late Second Temple Judaism

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Jutta Jokiranta: Presiding and introducing in Qumran; Mind, Society, and Religion in the Biblical World, theme: “Qumran in Mind: Exploring Cognitive Science of Religion and the Dead Sea Scrolls”

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Jutta Jokiranta: Organizing of book review session: New Books on Cognitive and Ritual Approaches to the New Testament and Early Christianity: Risto Uro, Ritual and Christian Beginnings (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Istvan Czachesz, Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Raimo Hakola: “The First Century CE Galilean Economy Reexamined: The Production and Trade of Fish as Source of Economic Growth” in Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy

Nov 18 – 8:20–10:25 (ASOR)
Rick Bonnie: “How Would Jews have Experienced the Early Synagogues?” in Senses and Sensibilities in the Near East I

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Hanna Tervanotko: “Scribes and Chresmologoi as Interpreters of Prophetic Collections” in Book History and Biblical Literatures

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Hanna Tervanotko: “Jeremiah and Ancient Greek Literature: Exploring Intertextual Connections between Jeremiah and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon” in Writing/Reading Jeremiah

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Elisa Uusimäki: “The Maskil of the Dead Sea Scrolls among the Hellenistic Jewish Sages” in Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Elisa Uusimäki: “Contextualizing Ben Sira’s Understanding of Lived Wisdom” in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Sami Yli-Karjanmaa: “Philo’s Position on Reincarnation” in Philo of Alexandria Seminar; theme: Reincarnation and Afterlife in Philo and His World.

Events

Workshop with Prof. Judith H. Newman (14 Oct, Helsinki)

You are warmly invited to attend a workshop with Prof. Judith H. Newman on “Scribal Bodies as Liturgical Bodies: The Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism”, to be held Friday, 14 October from 9:30-11:30 in Porthania Building lecture room P724 (7th floor of Yliopistonkatu 3). The workshop is open to all scholars and students interested in Second Temple Judaism and transmission of literary traditions.

Judith H. Newman is Associate Pjudy-newmanrofessor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Emmanuel College and holds a joint appointment with the Department for the Study of Religion in the area of early Judaism and a cross-appointment to the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She is also a faculty member of the Centre for Jewish Studies.

Prof. Newman specializes in the Hebrew Bible as well as Jewish literature of the Second Temple period. Her current research interests are in the ritual performance of texts particularly as this intersects with the formation of communities in early Judaism and Christianity. She is also interested in the development of scripture, early biblical interpretation, as well as method in the study of the Bible and early Judaism and Christianity. Emerging projects include work on literature of the Hasmonean period, particularly the book of Judith; and a study of time, temporality, and liturgy.

Events

Conference “Religion and Empire in the First Millennium BCE Levant” (Beirut, Oct. 22-25)

A conference jointly sponsored by the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions” at the University of Helsinki (CSTT), the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (FIME), and the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Continue reading Conference “Religion and Empire in the First Millennium BCE Levant” (Beirut, Oct. 22-25) →

Events

Workshop on Mortuary Rituals (Oct 27-28, Helsinki)

On October 27-28, 2016, there will be a workshop on mortuary rituals taking place at the University of Helsinki. The workshop is organised by the Centre of Excellence in Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions  and the Nordic project on Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis. The venues are at the Faculty of Theology, Fabianinkatu 24, 5th floor. Please find the preliminary program below. For further information, please contact: Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme (anne.gudme@helsinki.fi) or Kirsi Valkama (kirsi.valkama@helsinki.fi).

Continue reading Workshop on Mortuary Rituals (Oct 27-28, Helsinki) →