Education

  • PhD, Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitics, UCLA (2007)
  • MA, Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitics, UCLA (2003)

Research

  • Israelite Religions
  • Northwest Semitic Inscriptions
  • Biblical Literature

Publications

Books

Articles, Essays and Book Chapters

  • “Domestic Religion in the Iron Age Southern Levant: A Material Religion Approach,” Avar, forthcoming.
  • “Silver Scripts: The Ritual Function of Purified Metal in Ancient Judah,” in New Perspectives on Ritual in the Biblical World (eds. Laura Quick and Melissa Ramos; Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 702; London: T. & T. Clark, 2022), 237-253.
  • “Building Solomon’s Temple: Crafting a Monumental Inventory in 1 Kings 7:13–17,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 10 (2021): 283-300.
  • “‘You Have Refined Us Like Silver is Refined” (Ps. 66:10): Yahweh’s Metallurgical Powers in Ancient Judah,” Advances in Ancient, Biblical, and Near Eastern Research 1/3 (2021), 83–115.
  • The Temple in Jerusalem: Solomon’s Temple as Literary Artifact in 1 Kings 6–7 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, under contract).
  • Ritual Space, Ritual Text: Reconstructing the Religions of Ancient Israel and Judah (London: Routledge, forthcoming) (co-author with Alice Mandell).
  • “Speaking with a Divine Voice: The Rhetoric of Epistolary Performance in Numbers 6:22-27.” In Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch: A Systematic and Comparative Approach (ed. C. Nihan and J. Rhyder; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns) (2021): 215-239.
  • “Spaces, Things, and the Body: The Material Turn in the Study of Israelite Religion,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 19/5 (2019): 1–42 (co-author Alice Mandell).
  • “Religion at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud,” Religions 10 (2019): 1-18 (co-author William M. Schniedewind).
  • “Wearing Divine Words: In Life and Death,” Material Religion 15/4 (2019): 433-455.
  • “Texts in the City: Monumental Inscriptions in Jerusalem’s Urban Landscape,” in Size Matters: Extra-Large Building Projects in the Ancient World (eds. F. Buccellati, S. Hageneuer, S. van der Heyden, F. Levenson; Berlin: Transcripts, 2019), 309-344 (co-author Alice Mandell).
  • “Holy Bowls: Inscribing Holiness in Ancient Israel,” Communicating through the Material in the Ancient World (eds. E. Cole and A. Mandell) MAARAV: A Journal for the Study of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures 23/1 (2019): 69–92.
  • “RIP: Reading Obituaries in Ancient Judah,” Ancient Near East Today vol. VI, no. 11 (2018) (co-author Alice Mandell).
  • “Literacy beyond Reading, Writing beyond Epigraphy: Multimodality and the Study of Northwest Semitic Inscriptions,” MAARAV: A Journal for the Study of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures 22/1-2 (2018): 79-112 (co-authored with Alice Mandell).
  • “Words Unseen: The Power of Invisible Writing,” Biblical Archaeology Review (January/February, 2018), 53–59.
  • “Jerusalem as Ritual Space.” In Routledge Handbook on Jerusalem (ed. S. Mourad, B. der Matossian, N. Koltun-Fromm; New York/London, 2018), 251-259.
  • “Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet el-Qom: The Literacies of Ancient Subterranean Judah,” Near Eastern Archaeology 80/3 (2017): 188-193 (co-authored with Alice Mandell).
  • “Inscribing Temple Space: The Ekron Dedication as Monumental Text,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 76/2 (2017): 188-193.
  • From Temple to Text: Text as Ritual Space and the Composition of Numbers 6:24–26,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 17/2 (2017): 10-26.
  • Reconsidering the Function of Tomb Inscriptions in Ancient Judah: Khirbet Beit Lei as a Test Case,” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 16 (2016): 192-245. (co-authored with Alice Mandell)
  • New Light on the Priestly Blessing from Ancient Judah,” The Ancient Near East Today (August 2016: Vol. IV, No. 8).
  • “Kinship Terms,” in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (vol. 4; Ledien: Brill, 2013): 470–477. (co-authored with Gary Rendsburg)
  • “May Yahweh Bless You and Keep You from Evil: The Rhetorical Argument of Ketef Hinnom Amulet I and the Form of the Prayers for Deliverance in the Psalms,” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 12 (2012): 202-236.
  • “Prayers of Petition” in the Psalms and West Semitic Inscribed Amulets: Efficacious Words in Metal and Prayers for Protection in Biblical Literature,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 36/1 (2011): 75-92.
  • “Amuletic Inscriptions and the Background of YHWH as Guardian and Protector in Psalm 12,” Vetus Testamentum 60/3 (2010): 1–12. [web]
  • “Assyrian Siege Warfare and the Background of a Biblical Curse,” Writing and Reading Warfare: Rhetoric, Gender, and Ethics and Ancient and Modern Contexts (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series, 2009).
  • “Building Houses and Planting Vineyards: The Inner-biblical Discourse on an Ancient Israelite Wartime Curse,” Journal of Biblical Literature 127/1 (2008): 19–35.

Honors & Awards

  • EPIC-Mellon Grant, UCLA (2017)
  • Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA (2016)
  • Center for Jewish Studies Travel Research Grant, Tel Dan Israel (2016)
  • CCLE IDP Grant, UCLA (Visualizing Ancient Jerusalem) (2015)
  • A Digital Atlas of Jerusalem (Affordable Course Materials Initiative Award, UCLA) (2015)
  • CCLE IDP Grant, UCLA (Visible Language: The Origins of Writing) (2014)
  • Joseph Aviram Prize, American Schools of Oriental Research (2011)
  • Regional Scholars Award, Society of Biblical Literature (2009)

Courses

Undergraduate
  • Jerusalem, the Holy City (Ancient Near East 10W)
  • Visible Language: The Origins of Writing (Near East M20)
  • Readings in Biblical Texts (Hebrew 120)
  • Deuteronomistic History (Hebrew 188FL)
  • Classical Prophetic Texts (Hebrew 188FL)
  • The Religion of Ancient Israel (Ancient Near East M135)
  • The Literary Traditions of Ancient Israel: Bible and Apocrypha (Jewish Studies 150A)
  • The Religions of the Ancient Near East (Ancient Near East M185)
  • First Civilizations (Ancient Near East 50A)

Academic Service

  • Co-chair, Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology Program Unit, Society of Biblical Literature, Annual Meetings (2009–2015)
  • Steering Committee Member, Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology Program Unit, Society of Biblical Literature, Annual Meeting (current-2015)
  • Steering Committee Member, Methods in the Historiography of Ancient Israel and the Levant, Society of Biblical Literature/American Schools of Oriental Research Joint Program Unit