Navigating the Intersections of Faith, Knowledge, and Reason.
Attending academic conferences in-person and now online is a major part of networking in Academia. National and international conferences are hosted year-round to connect scholars with other scholars and new ideas, approaches, and interpretive methods. Academic Conferences exist for networking and connecting with friends, but they are so much more. Academic conferences provide opportunities to share new ideas and respond to new research. Not everyone takes full advantage of the opportunities an academic conference provides, and fortunately, there are a growing number of ways to connect online.
Some of the ways that academics connect include Academia and specific University faculty pages. Some use LinkedIn or Twitter. Others, like myself, keep a blog or home page to promote research.
The academic conferences I attend include the Annual Meeting of Society of Biblical Literature and American Acadamy of Religion (SBL/AAR), Pacific Northwest Regional Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion (PNW-SBLAAR), Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence (CSBV), Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Connection (ANELC), Institute for Biblical Research (IBR), Tyndale House Study Groups, and the occasional conference as I am invited or learn about a field of research that connects with my own.
The Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Contact eLecture Series ends this week with a presentation on Eblaite by Dr. Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee, Associate Professor of Comparative Semitics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Hasselbach-Andee’s work includes a broad range of Semitic languages, and she has edited a volume recently published, called A Companion to Ancient Near…
This week, the Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Connection eLecture series featured the research of two scholars on the connections between Aramaic and Arabic in the ancient Near East. Dr. Na’ama Pat-El is an Associate Professor of Semitic Philology at Harvard University. Dr. Phillip Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Arabic program at the…
Benjamin Whittle, a research student at University College London in Hebrew & Jewish Studies, presented the ANELC eLecture today. Ben’s research is in contact between Hebrew and Greek. This presentation focused on how Hebrew verbal stems are codified in Greek translations of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets. The Septuagint (LXX), written in Greek, and the…
Dr. Marieke Dhont presented the ANELC eLecture this week, demonstrating linguistic connections between Greek and Jewish culture. In addition, her study provides evidence for a bilingual community of Jews in the Second Temple Period. This time period followed the introduction of Hellenism from the west into the whole of the ancient Near East. Hellenistic Greek…
This week’s ANELC eLecture was presented by Dr. Stefan Schorch, who is working on a collaborative project to develop a lexicon of Samaritan Hebrew. Samaritans separated from the main Jewish religious life in late antiquity. Their practices of prayer and worship increasingly moved toward Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem in Judah. While the two sects…
Professor Gary A. Rendsburg gave this week’s ANELC eLecture on ancient Near Eastern linguistic connections between Egyptian and ancient Hebrew. The lecture flowed naturally from last week’s, given on linguistic connections between Afroasiatic languages. While Dr. Aaron Rubin gave a detailed analysis of shared linguistic features, Dr. Rendsburg looked at specific words and phrases which…
This past Wednesday, the ANELC eLecture was presented by Dr. Aaron Rubin, a Semiticist at Penn State University. Dr. Rubin walked us through linguistic exchanges that suggest a kinship between Egyptian and Semitic languages. Semitic and Egyptian are two branches of a group of ancient Near Eastern languages referred to as Afroasiatic. Dr. Rubin’s presentation…
On Wednesday, the University College London and King’s College London hosted Dr. Mark Geller to present for the Ancient Near Eastern Language in Contact 2020 eLecture series. About 100 people logged on to listen to Dr. Geller speak about healing incantations and prayers. Dr. Geller gave an interesting presentation that focused on connections between incantation texts…
Alt: Why Biblical Commentary is Among the World’s Oldest Professions Today was the premier lecture for the Ancient Near Eastern Language in Contact 2020 eLecture series, hosted by University College London and King’s College London. Dr. Mark Weeden gave a lecture about Hittite language origins, with 150 people in virtual attendance. Even though Uruk (a site…