2007 SBL News

Back to 2008 News

November 12, 2007 Newsletter
 
New Website Design
SBL has a new website design with enhanced navigation--a new search function and lots of new content! http://www.sbl-site.org

Meeting News
Keep up-to date on news about the Annual Meeting by going to the Meetings and Events section of the SBL site http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/default.aspx

If you are in the exhibit hall in San Diego, use the Cyber cafe at the back of the exhibit hall.

If you cannot attend the meeting this year: search for blogs on Technorati, many members blog during the meeting or post comments and pictures on Flickr Just search for SBL or AAR SBL.

Publications News
For all the great new SBL Books go to the New Books page

Remember, even if you cannot attend, you can still get the meeting discount on all your SBL books.

Annual Meeting Exhibitor News
To see news about upcoming meetings go to the new Exhibitors page on the website.

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2007 Awards

Regional Scholars

Lee A. Johnson, Eastern Great Lakes Region
Lee A. Johnson is an Associate Professorof New Testament at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of St. Michael’s College in the Toronto School of Theology, where she was also taught courses in New Testament and Greek. She has published articles in Catholic Biblical Quarterly and Biblical Theology Review and has contributed to the ESCJ series by Wilfred Laurier Press on Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Caesarea Maritima. She is a member of the Context Group and is completing an article on the relationship between pneumatic gifts and the authority of women in the Pauline communities, using a cross-cultural comparison between glossolalic women in modern worship communities and the women at Corinth. She is also currently completing a manuscript entitled “The Epistolary Apostle: Paul’s Response to the Challenge of the Corinthian Congregation.” Lee presented “An Examination of Funk’s Apostolic Parousia in the Corinthian Correspondence: The Impact of the Epistolary Apostle” at the SBL Eastern Great Lakes regional meeting in March 2006.

Eric F. Mason, Central States Region
Eric F. Mason is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Judson University, Elgin, Illinois, and teaches in the areas of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism. He holds a Ph.D. in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity from the University of Notre Dame, an M.Div. from Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, and a B.A. from Union University. Mason was selected as a Regional Scholar by the Central States Region for his paper titled “Melchizedek in Hebrews and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” and he will present a revised version of the paper at the 2007 Annual Meeting. His monograph on priestly messianism in the Epistle to the Hebrews and Second Temple Jewish literature will be published by Brill, and he is co-editing a Festschrift that will appear in 2008. He is an associate editor for the journal Henoch: Studies in Judaism and Christianity from Second Temple to Late Antiquity.

Jeremy Schipper, Mid-Atlantic Region
Jeremy Schipper (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary, 2005) is a Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at Temple University in Philadelphia. Before coming to Temple, he taught for two years at Siena College near Albany, New York. His research has focused on the Former Prophets as well as disability in the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature. It has appeared in JBL, JSOT, VT, and CBQ. He is the author of Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible (T&T Clark, 2006) and the co-editor with Hector Avalos and Sarah Melcher of This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). Schipper serves as the co-chair with Rachel Magdalene of the Disability Studies and Healthcare in the Bible and Near East SBL program unit. He received the Regional Scholars Award for a paper subsequently published under the title, “Did David Overinterpret Nathan’s Parable in 2 Samuel 12:1–6?” (JBL 126 [2007]: 381–89). Portions of this paper will appear in his next book, which is tentatively titled “Proverbs of Ashes”: Confl ict and Parables in the Hebrew Bible. This book will examine the relationship between parables, genre, and conflict in the Hebrew Bible.

Susan E. Hylen, Southeastern Region
Susan E. Hylen is Mellon Assistant Professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt University. She has a Ph.D. from Emory University and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. The author of two books on the Gospel of John, her current research focuses on characterization in the Gospel. Susan presented a paper entitled “Metaphor and Ethics in Revelation” at the Southeastern regional meeting (SECSOR).
 
Michael Heiser, Pacific Northwest Region
 Mike earned an M.A. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania (major fi elds: Syria-Palestine and Egyptology) and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation was entitled “The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Noncanonical Second Temple Jewish Literature.” The dissertation sought to demonstrate the acceptance of divine plurality in Judaism into the Common Era and the Canaanite/Israelite roots of first-century Jewish monotheism’s notion of two powers in heaven. Mike’s paper submitted for consideration as a regional scholar was entitled “Are Yahweh and El Distinct Deities in Deut 32:8–9 and Psalm 82?” The paper was read at the 2006 Society of Biblical Literature’s Pacific Northwest regional meeting and was subsequently published online in the scholarly journal HIPHIL. Mike is currently the Academic Editor for Logos Bible Soft ware. He is responsible for targeting and evaluating potential data projects for scholarly products dealing with primary texts related to the languages of the Bible and the ancient Near East, overseeing scholars who are participating in team data projects for Logos, and creating content for the Logos platform. Before coming to Logos, Mike taught on the undergraduate level for twelve years.
 

Travel Grant Recipients

The SBL Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession is pleased to announce the 2007 Travel Grant award recipients:

Mercy Itohan Idumwonyi, Nigeria
 Mercy is currently Assistant Lecturer in Religion with a specialization in Old Testament studies at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria. She received her B.A. (1998) and M.A. (2002) in Religious Studies from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Her professional experience includes work as a research fellow for the Centre for Democracy & Development in Benin City and a year as Senior Program Officer for the African Women Empowerment Guild, also in Benin City.

Micheline Kamba Kasongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Micheline is currently a Ph.D. student in Theology at the University of Kwa- Zulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. She holds the equivalent of a B.A. in Theology from l’Université Protestante Au Congo (UPC) and both an M.A. in Theology and an M.A. in Education from UPC. She has served as a consultant for the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network of Central Africa and as consultant for Women’s Justice and Peace Commission of the WCC. In February 2006 she was elected WCC Central Committee member.

Siang-Nuan Leong, Singapore
Since 2005 Siang-Nuan has been a Ph. D. student in New Testament at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She holds a B.A. from the University of Singapore, a postgraduate diploma from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and both a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology from Singapore Bible College. She has worked as a secondary school teacher and has taught a short-term intensive course in the Myanmar Christian Preachers Training Centre. She translated the Letter of Titus for the Chinese New Version Bible (2006).
 

Program Committee Travel Grant Awardees

Jacob Cherian, Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore, India
Paul, Poverty, and “Equality”: A Plutocritical Reading of 2 Corinthians 8:1–15 Paul and Politics Group (S19-27)
Ernest M. Ezeogu, Spiritan International School of Theology, Enugu, Nigeria The Politics of Bible Translation in Nigeria: A Case of the Igbo Catholic Bible African Biblical Hermeneutics Section (S17-3)
“Out of Egypt I Have Called My Son”: Matthew’s Infancy Narrative in Afrocentric Perspective Contextual Biblical Interpretation Consultation (S18-9)
Panelist, Contextual Biblical Interpretation Consultation (S18-112)
 
Alexey Lyavdansky, Russian State University for the Humanities
 Politeness Strategies in Biblical Hebrew Directive Utterances Bible Translation Section (S17-55)
Vasile Mihoc, Theological School Sibiu St. Paul and the Jews in John Chrystostom’s Commentary on Romans 9–11 Joint Session: Bible in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions Consultation/ Romans through History and Cultures Group (S19-82)

Stelian Tofana, Babes Bolayi University
 The Interdependency between Destiny and Humankind and Creation according to Romans 8:18–23: An Orthodox- Patristic Perspective Joint Session: Bible in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions Consultation/ Romans through History and Cultures Group (S19-82)