July 12, 2010

Celebrating the Launch of International Voices in Biblical Studies

The web portal for the online, open access series, International Voices in Biblical Studies (IVBS), has been in development for over two years. After many months of collaboration with the editorial board, the International Cooperation Initiative Task Force, and SBL staff, and testing by information technology specialists, the site is now open for business!

With the official launch of the site, scholars now have access to editors in various regions of the globe to which proposals for books or full manuscripts for consideration may be submitted. All submissions are subject to blind peer review and are held to the high standards of other SBL publications. IVBS will electronically publish this scholarship in English, and when possible, in the primary language of the author.

The first publication in the series, Global Hermeneutics?: Reflections and Consequences, may be downloaded from the site. Please visit http://ivbs.sbl-site.org/home.aspx to view the portal and learn more about IVBS.

Sheffield Phoenix Press Joins SBL in Providing Online Books

It is with great pleasure that SBL welcomes Sheffield Phoenix Press (SPP) as a partner in our International Cooperation Initiative Online Books project. SPP, which launched its operations in 2004, has quickly become a highly respected publisher in the field of biblical studies. Continuing the best traditions of publishing from Sheffield, it makes its aim to support scholarship with high quality academic books and journals.

Sheffield Phoenix Press is located in the Department of Biblical Studies of the University of Sheffield. It is directed by its Publishers, David J. A. Clines (Editor of the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew), J. Cheryl Exum (formerly Editor of Biblical Interpretation) and Keith W. Whitelam (Joint Editor of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament), all members of the Department.

The first two titles from Sheffield Phoenix to appear in the Online Books are:
The Coming King and the Rejected Shepherd: Matthew’s Reading of Zechariah’s Messianic Hope, Clay Alan Ham, New Testament Monographs 4, 2005

“I Have Written to the King, My Lord”: Secular Analogies for the Psalms, Roger Tomes, Hebrew Bible Monographs 1, 2005

SBL is the exclusive North American distributor for Sheffield Phoenix Press publications. To order, please visit the SBL store.

Mentor Volunteers

This comment was received anonymously as part of SBL’s Membership Benefit survey this spring:

"Could you please reconsider the fact that not all of us have access to first class biblical scholars or professors; could SBL come up with some type of ‘mentorship lottery’ so there is a chance we could encounter professors as virtual mentors and where we can ask same professors to guide us and to help us with advice from their field of expertise."

SBL has a mentorship program through the International Cooperation Initiative —and you don’t have to enter a lottery to participate!

As part of the ICI Teaching Collaboration program, scholars have volunteered to serve as mentors or co-teachers via electronic media. You can find the list of volunteers at http://www.sbl-site.org/educational/ICIscholarList.aspx.

The scholars are listed alphabetically, and you can peruse their CV’s to find the perfect match for your interests. These scholars are ready to hear from you, so don’t hesitate to contact anyone on the list.

Share your experience with the mentorship program with us so that we can let others know it is working!

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting will be held November 19-23 in Atlanta, Georgia.  Registration is available online. Click here to view the program for the Annual Meeting.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the KJV, SBL in cooperation with the Nida Institute is holding a number of sessions in Atlanta. Sessions will populate the programs of the London and San Francisco meetings in 2011, filling out the overall theme "The KJV at 400: Assessing Its Genius as Bible Translation and Its Literary Influence." The Atlanta symposium will focus largely on the "Bible Translation" aspect of the theme, London on both elements, and San Francisco on "Literary Genius."

The program for the International Meeting in Tartu, Estonia, is available online! Be sure to register now and make your travel plans. The meeting, happening 25-29 July 2010 at the University of Tartu, is being held in conjunction with the European Association of Biblical Studies.

More information about the meeting is located on the SBL International Meeting webpage. There you will find helpful information on travel and currency, a complete guide to numerous tours, and exhibitor and advertiser information.

Optional Profile Free Membership Drawing — May and June 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. May and June 2010 winners are:

Arden Autry
Zohar Hadromi- Allouche
Jack M. Sasson
Dr. Judit Blair

As our privacy policy indicates, we will never divulge this information 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!

2010 Society Fund

Congratulations to all our graduates, you have earned your undergraduate diplomas, Master's degrees, and Ph.D. degrees. We know that you have worked hard and there have been individuals who advised and encouraged you along the way. What better way to say thank you to your professors and colleagues – make a donation today to honor those who have contributed to your success. Visit our website at www.sbl-site.org – donate to SBL.

Calendar

July 2010
7/21-7/23	Aileen Guilding Conference: The Septuagint and the Old Testament in the New The Society for Old Testament Study is sponsoring a conference on 'The Septuagint and the Old Testament in the New' in honour of the late Aileen Guilding, who was Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield 1948-1965 and Head of Department 1959-1965. Speakers include Kristin De Troyer, Steve Moyise, George Brooke, John Tudno Williams, Jenny Dines, James Aitken, John Jarick, and Angela Thomas. The conference will take place at the University of Sheffield. The programme and booking form are available from the SOTS website . Information is also available on the the Department of Biblical Studies website
7/22-7/24	From the 21st Century BC to the 21st Century AD: The Present and Future of Neo-Sumerian Studies in Madrid, immediately prior to the scheduled Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Barcelona. The conference features twenty-seven speakers organized into eight thematic panels on different aspects of the corpus of Ur III texts and the society it describes. More information
7/25- 7/29	SBL International Meeting, Tartu, Estonia SBL will be meeting in conjunction with the European Association of Biblical Studies
7/25-7/29	Judaism in the Mediterranean Context Ninth European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) Congress Ravenna, Italy More information
7/26-7/28	Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense LVIV The book of Joshua and the land of Israel University of Leuven - Belgium More information
7/26-7/30	The Christian Association of Librarians in Africa-K (CALA-K) is pleased to announce this year's annual conference.The impact of the last conferences on libraries and libraries who have attended is a testimony to what the conferences mean to theological librarians. This year's Conference will be held at CORAT Africa premises in Karen, Nairobi-Kenya: Main theme: Improving access to information: the changing role of the librarian More Information
7/27-7/29	Indonesian Biblical Scholars Meeting in Jakarta The theme is The Development of the Wisdom's Tradition in the Bible. For more information e-mail Yonky Karman
7/27-7/31	Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas The 65th General Meeting of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS) will take place in Berlin from July 27 to July 31. The Presidential Address will be given by Prof. Adela Yarbro Collins of Yale University. SNTS is the international society for New Testament Studies. It has nearly a thousand (elected) members from all over the world More information
7/29-7/31	The 14th Congress of International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) will be held in Helsinki, Finland together with the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT)1-6 August 2010). More information
August 2010
8/1-8/6	The 20th Congress of IOSOT (International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament) will be held in Helsinki, Finland. There will be 15 main speakers and two panel sessions. Call for papers Joint Congresses are International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) 29-31 July, International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS) on 2 August, International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS) 2-4 August and International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) 4-6 August. More information
8/2	Twenty-Third Congress of the International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS), which will be held in conjunction with the Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) in Helsinki. More information
8/9 - 8/11	Who Do You Think You Are? A Conference On Gender And The Transmission Of Identity In The Hebrew Bible And Dead Sea Scrolls King's College London For more information see:  http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/trs/events/
September 2010
9/10-9/11	Biblical Women: Reading and Writing Women in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Queen's University, Belfast. More Information
9/15- 9/17	Old Testament Society of South Africa – 53rd Annual Congress The Old Testament Society of South Africa will hold its annual congress at the North-West University (Vaal Triangle Campus). The theme for this year’s congress is “The Old Testament and Ethics”. Paper proposals are accepted until May 29, 2010. More information
9/22-9/24	Conflict and Convergence: Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms An international conference highlighting the diverse ways of studying the Psalms.The conference is associated with the Theology Faculty at the University of Oxford and the Society for Old Testament Study and is convened by Dr Susan Gillingham and Professor John Barton. The location will be at Worcester College, Oxford, England. More information
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: claire.clivaz@unil.ch Information Brochure