Over the last few months a number of my essays and articles have been published; a result of the COVID induced backlog beginning to clear. Just an update on what is out there and perhaps even available, if you have database access:
1. “The Promise and Challenges of Digital Humanities for the Study of Jews and Judaism in Antiquity,” in New Approaches to Textual and Image Analysis in Early Jewish and Christian Studies, ed. G. Allen et al., (Brill, 2022), 26-43 (DOI: 10.1163/9789004515116_004). This article surveys the field of digital humanities projects in this area. My major point is that while there are a lot of resources already available, far more attention to data structure and the FAIR principles could really help us to do much more sophisticated work.
2. “The Rabbinic Citation Network,” AJS Review 46 (2022): 291-319 (DOI: 10.1353/ajs.2022.0043). This article, which I did with Michael Sperling, was a long time in coming.
Abstract: This article is the first academic attempt to apply quantitative
methods of social network analysis to the Babylonian Talmud. We make
three contributions. First, we introduce a digital methodology for finding
and analyzing the citation chains in the Bavli. Second, we use our
analysis to show the general characteristics of this network, which we
find to be limited, densely connected, and centered around just a few
rabbis at its center. Finally, we discuss three use cases that point toward
further research that could throw light on the redactorial process of
the Babylonian Talmud. This research lays the groundwork for much
future work in applying quantitative methods to rabbinic texts.
3. “Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 29 (2022): 349-69 (DOI: 10.1628/jsq-2022-0021).
Abstract: This essay describes and traces the development of “Inscriptions of Israel/
Palestine,” a website devoted to collecting, making freely accessible, and analyzing
ancient inscriptions from the region of modern Israel/Palestine. The essay pays special
attention to some of the more important decisions that we have made and our
rationale behind them. One of the primary goals of this essay is to introduce the
process that we have used and the challenges that we have confronted (and continue
to confront) to scholars who are involved in or contemplating starting their
own digital humanities projects. At the end, I reflect more broadly on how what we
have learned might contribute to the development of digital humanities in the area
of Jewish studies.
4. “Does the Torah Prohibit Male Masturbation?”: Published at TheTorah.com, a short piece of the biblical story of Onan.
5. “Family/Fragments,” CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly 64:4 (Fall, 2022), 16-23. A bit more personal and experimental, reflecting on my academic interest in Jewish families.