I am the Dorot Professor of Judaic studies and professor of religious studies at Brown University.
I received my Ph.D. in Ancient Judaism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1993. My research focuses on the social and religious history of Jews and Judaism in antiquity, but I also have broader research interests on Jews and Judaism as well as on issues of method and theory in the study of religion and the digital humanities. My books include Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice, How the Bible Became Holy, and Judaism and the Economy: A Sourcebook (editor). Recent work includes a forthcoming book, An Enchanted World: The Spiritual Landscape of Late Antiquity (Princeton University Press and the Italian edition Bollati Boringhieri) and “The Rabbinic Citation Network” (co-authored with Michael Sperling). I founded and direct the Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project.
At Brown, I teach a wide range of courses to both graduate and undergraduate students. My most recent courses include “How the Bible Became Holy,” “Antisemitism: A History,” “Great Jewish Books,” and “Happiness and the Pursuit of the Good Life” (which was one of the largest classes at Brown University). I also lecture widely and teach adult education classes.
I have received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment of the Humanities; was a Fulbright Scholar; and held the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professorship at the W. F. Albright Institute.
My full, “official,” research profile (and recent CV) can be accessed here. I post on Substack here.