September 24, 2010

Annual Meeting Registration Rates Change October 1

Register now for the Annual Meeting to be held November 20-23 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. Thursday, September 30, is the last day to register at the discounted rate of $175 for members and $95 for student members. If you are planning to attend, save up to $50 by registering before October 1.

Annual Meeting Session Highlights

Art and Religions of Antiquity (S23-104)
Tuesday, Nov 23, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: M302 - Marriott Marquis
Statues, suicide, and sacred space--this session explores the rich ground between visual and literary representation, making connections between images and language about images in religious traditions. Ranging from Mesopotamian daimons to medieval Manichaean manuscripts, the presentations demonstrate the full breadth of inquiry about art and religion in antiquity available in the common forum of the Society.

Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics (S22-208)
Monday, Nov 22, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: International North - Hyatt Regency
The Greek middle voice is difficult to define and has no exact grammatical equivalent in English. The theory of deponency, which posits a special category of verbs that are middle or passive in form but active in meaning, has recently been challenged. This session aims to evaluate and possibly suggest a revision of the traditional grammars regarding voice and deponency.

Getting a PhD: From Application to Dissertation (S20-218)
Saturday, Nov 20 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Room: The Learning Center - Hyatt Regency
This session highlights the various aspects of the PhD process. Whether you plan on studying Stateside or Pondside our two presenters, who have each received their degrees from such programs, aim to prep you for such experiences. If you are in the thick of the PhD process, attend this session to glean some studious wisdom and insight and to get your questions answered!

Historical Jesus (S21-122)
Sunday, Nov 21, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: International North - Hyatt Regency
Reconstructions of the historical Jesus have often communicated as much about the orientation of the historian as they have about the Jesus of history. In particular, the role of the faith of the historian has often played a significant role. We will explore this issue through the eyes of scholars with significantly different presuppositions. Participants include Mark Powell, Darrell L. Bock, Craig S. Keener, Robert Webb, Amy-Jill Levine, and Robert Miller.

Ideology, Culture, and Translation/Bible and Visual Art (S22-321)
Monday, Nov 22, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Room: A701 - Marriott Marquis
This session will focus on the recently published Bible Illuminated (2008). Additional information and a sample chapter are available at http://illuminatedworld.com . Bible Illuminated is a bright, dynamic and evocative interpretation of the Bible. Intermixed with the text are vivid images, all meant to inspire discussion and instigate the interchange of perspectives.

SBL Forum (S21-232)
Sunday, Nov 21, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: International C - Marriott Marquis
This session combines the notion of “interpretive communities” and the recent explosion of Reception History within Biblical Studies to focus on how one interpretive community, namely, Judaism, has “received” biblical texts in various discourses such as film, opera, history, and literature. Participants include Dan Clanton, Marc Bregman, Scott M. Langston, Helen Leneman, and Katherine Low.

Career Center

Candidate registration is available through your Annual Meeting registration this year. If you have already registered for the Annual Meeting, please email Gayle Knight to register for the Career Center as a candidate.

Employer Registration is available for institutions that want to post a job and register it for interviews at the Annual Meeting: click here.

International Meeting

The 2010 International Meeting in Tartu marked the 28th SBL meeting held outside of North America. Estonia was the 21st country to host our members. We eagerly anticipate the 2011 International Meeting in London, UK, during which we will be hosted by King's College London. King's College London's Strand and Waterloo campuses lie immediately north and south of the Thames in the picturesque heart of downtown. Mark your calendars for the meeting, with the opening session on Monday, July 4 and sessions continuing through the morning of Friday, July 8. We hope to see you there!

Teaching the Bible

We are currently taking a series of steps that will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of "Teaching the Bible," SBL's e-pub dedicated to providing secondary educators with academic, biblical resources. As part of this process, we are asking readers of "Teaching the Bible" to fill out a ten-question survey on www.surveymonkey.com. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions that can be found on the following link and help shape the future of this e-pub. Thank you.

Optional Profile Free Membership Drawing — September Winners!

Every month, we randomly select two members from the pool of those who have filled out the Optional Profile for a free one-year membership. July and August 2010 winners are:

• Scott Edwards
• Nuria Calduch Benages

As our privacy policy indicates, we will never divulge information from your profile to a third party. Thank you to all of you who have supplied this optional data. If you have not yet filled in the information (or you would like to update it), you may do so by logging into our website with your SBL Member # and going to the “my profile” tab, which will appear on the left hand side of the screen in the box where you logged in. While you are filling out the Optional Profile, please make sure all of your profile information is up to date!

Supporting the Society

Many of you have already sent in contributions to the 2010 Society Fund. This will go a long way in supporting the Career Center at the Annual Meeting, the ICI program, the Review of Biblical Literature, as well as many other SBL projects.
The whole Society appreciates and counts on the support of the yearly core donors especially in these difficult times.
If you have not sent in a donation yet, please donate today.

Submit your events to Sharon Johnson.

September 2010
9/26- 9/28	Innsbrucker Deuteronomium-Tagung A congress on Deuteronomy presented by the Theological Faculty in Innsbruck, Austria More information
9/30- 10/2	“Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality” Sponsored by: Institute for the Study of Antiquity & Christian Origins, Dept. of Religious Studies, and Dept. of Classics of the University of Texas at Austin The conference explores the stratified nature of social, political, economic, and religious spheres at Corinth, and how the resulting inequalities are reflected in literary texts and material remains. The analysis focuses on a specific population center (the Corinthia) over a given period of time (Hellenistic to Late Antique). More information
9/30-10/2	Infancy Gospels: Stories and Identities While the traditions concerning the birth of Jesus have always figured prominently in culture, art and Christian piety, the so-called ‘Infancy Gospels’ have been somewhat neglected in modern research, being viewed as they are as legendary or belonging to folk literature. The aim of this research seminar is to reconsider the canonical and apocryphal traditions on the infancy of Jesus, taking the themes of the identity embodied in the discourses and the multiple ways of reading the texts (historical, narrative, psychanalitic, feministic, artistic, liturgical readings, aso). This research programm will be hold in three sessions in Switzerland in autumn 2010. Session 1: University of Lausanne, 09/30/2010 - 10/02/2010, with Loveday Alexander, Philipp Alexander, Ra'anan Boustan, Claire Clivaz, Jörg Frey, Christophe Guignard, Sabrina Inowlocki Meister, Moises Mayordomo, Enrico Norelli, Francesca Pascendi, Anders Runesson, Jens Schröter Next two sessions are listed below, in November and December. Information on all three sessions: http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/evenfance/
October 2010
10/1- 10/3	The Iconic Books Symposium at Syracuse University Iconic books are texts revered as objects of power rather than just as words of instruction, information, or insight. In religious and secular rituals around the globe, people carry, show, wave, touch and kiss books and other texts, as well as read them. This third symposium on iconic books gathers scholars of book history, of visual culture, and of various religious traditions and time periods to analyze iconic uses of scriptures and other texts. More information
10/7	A Day to Defend Public Education October 7, 2010, has been designated as a national day of action to defend public education and to protest its privatization. The AAUP supports these efforts. More information
10/13-10/15	Contesting Religious Identities, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Through the development of cross-disciplinary debates and integrative approaches this conference is envisioned to articulate analyses and insights as well as new research questions and agendas for the subject area of religious identity.  The conference has its own website with a wealth of information. Questions on the programme can be directed to Professor Anne-Marie Korte or to Professor Bob Becking. Questions regarding housing an other logistics should be sent to Karin Hens.
10/21-10/22	The Jewish War against Rome (66-70/74): Interdisciplinary Perspectives A symposium at the Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen More information
10/23	Festschrift Conference honoring Reverend Professor Paul N. Tarazi, Little Falls, New Jersey, USA  For more information please see the flyer at (http://ocabs.org/TaraziFestschrift2010.pdf).
10/27	Workshop for Aspiring Academics, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh Registration is now open for the first Aspiring Academics workshop in Scotland, organised by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. The deadline for registration is September 30th 2010. Designed for research students in philosophy, theology, religious studies, biblical studies and history and philosophy of science, this workshop offers an opportunity for aspiring academics to gather and share information and advice, and to develop the skills necessary for a successful academic career in your discipline. See the webpage for more information
November 2010
11/1	Call for papers Deadline for the Association of Ancient Historians (AAH) Annual Meeting. The Thematic title of the 2011 meeting is “Adaptation in the Ancient World.” Papers are now solicited in the following areas of inquiry:Maritime interconnectivity in the Mediterranean (Chair, Elizabeth Green, Brock University); Greek and Roman Historiography (Chair, John Marincola, Florida State University); Ancient Political Theory (Chair, Ryan Balot, University of Toronto); Tyranny and Response (Chair, Sian Lewis, University of St. Andrews); New Directions in the History of War (Chair, Lee Brice, Western Illinois University); Swords and Sandals: The Ancient World in Modern Media (Chair, Rachael Goldman, CUNY); Religious Innovation and Empire (Chair, Robert von Thaden, Mercyhurst College); Women and Religion in Greece and Rome (Chair, Michelle Salzman, UCLA) Egypt (Chair, Carlis White, Slippery Rock University); The Ancient Near East (Chair, Cindy Nimchuk, Mercyhurst College); Open panel(s) for strong papers in other categories (Chairs, TBA) More Information
11/5-11/6	Infancy Gospels: Stories and Identities While the traditions concerning the birth of Jesus have always figured prominently in culture, art and Christian piety, the so-called ‘Infancy Gospels’ have been somewhat neglected in modern research, being viewed as they are as legendary or belonging to folk literature. The aim of this research seminar is to reconsider the canonical and apocryphal traditions on the infancy of Jesus, taking the themes of the identity embodied in the discourses and the multiple ways of reading the texts (historical, narrative, psychanalitic, feministic, artistic, liturgical readings, aso). This research programm will be hold in three sessions in Switzerland in autumn 2010. Session 2: University of Geneva, 11/05/2010 - 11/06/2010, with Frédéric Amsler, Jean-Claude Basset, Valentina Calzolari, Andreas Dettwiler, Adriana Destro et Mauro Pesce, Christian Grappe, François Rosset, Andrea Taschl-Erber A previous session was held in September 2010 and the final session is listed in December. Information on all three sessions: http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/evenfance/
11/17-11/19	Symposium on the Johannine Epistles Hosted by the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta. The Symposium will feature major presentations by D. Moody Smith, Jr., Judith Lieu, John Painter, and Jan G. van der Watt and short papers by Paul Anderson, R. Alan Culpepper, Peter Rhea Jones, Craig Koester, Andreas Kostenberger, Gail R. O’Day, David Rensberger, Urban C. (Cam) von Wahlde, and others. Registration: $150 payable to McAfee School of Theology Hotels:Hampton Inn (Northlake) or Comfort Suites (North Lake) Program and Schedule (draft copy) For more information contact: Diane Frazier, 678 547-6470 or Frazier_d@mercer.edu
11/19- 11/23	SBL Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia
December 2010
12/3-12/4	Infancy Gospels: Stories and Identities While the traditions concerning the birth of Jesus have always figured prominently in culture, art and Christian piety, the so-called ‘Infancy Gospels’ have been somewhat neglected in modern research, being viewed as they are as legendary or belonging to folk literature. The aim of this research seminar is to reconsider the canonical and apocryphal traditions on the infancy of Jesus, taking the themes of the identity embodied in the discourses and the multiple ways of reading the texts (historical, narrative, psychanalitic, feministic, artistic, liturgical readings, aso). This research programm will be hold in three sessions in Switzerland in autumn 2010. Session 3: University of Fribourg, 12/03/2010 - 12/04/2010, with Simon Butticaz, Elian Cuvillier, Luc Devillers, Daniel Gerber, Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, Jean-Daniel Kaestli, Isabelle Saint-Martin, Sever J. Voicu, Benedict Viviano Information: claire.clivaz@unil.ch Previous sessions were held in September and November 2010. Information on all three sessions: http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/evenfance/
January 2011
1/6-1/9	Linguistic Society of America 85th Annual Meeting Plenary Speakers:Barbara Johnstone, Carnegie Mellon University;Janet Pierrehumbert, Northwestern University;Ted Supalla, University of Rochester For Meeting information see:http://www.lsadc.org/info/meet-annual.cfm For Abstracts information see:http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/callforabstracts2011.pdf