February 17, 2021 Newsletter
SBL Newsletter View this issue in your browser or see the archive.

Watch for Black History Month Tweets

In celebration of Black History Month, the Society will feature the voices of African American scholars in biblical, religious, and theological studies. There will be daily posts highlighting the scholarship of Black thinkers, promulgating resources for scholars of color, and emphasizing our initiative to promote diversity in biblical studies. We will also make the work of these brilliant scholars available via JSTOR Open Access. We encourage you to use these resources in your teaching and research. Follow us on Twitter @SBLsite and help us advance the field!

New Africana Scholarship Resources

To support the advancement of minoritized scholarship as well as minoritized students interested in pursuing biblical studies, SBL is developing a collection of resources on Africana Scholarship. These resources are linked under the Education drop-down on the SBL site. There you can find the archived videos of the two sessions from the Black Scholars Matter Symposium as well as three new pages, which will be continually be updated: Resources for Students Interested in Pursuing a PhD in Biblical Studies, Bibliography for Africana Scholarship, Anti-racism, and Minoritized Biblical Interpretation, and Contacts for Black Church Studies Programs.

Save Ancient Studies in America

SASA regularly produces new, interesting video content for both lay, educational, and scholarly audiences. Visit SASA's YouTube Channel to watch episodes from series of SASA-produced videos, including "Ideas for Ancient Studies," "Ancient Kitchen," "Ancient FanFiction," and recordings of thier past live events.
Click here to watch.

Alum Access to Atla’s Research Tools

SBL wants to highlight a service that Atla provides to institutions that subscribe to Atla for Alum research tools. This subscription provides institutions’ alumni/ae the ability to access the same Atla products they used as students.  The most popular offerings are Atla’s full-text  journal collections, Atlas and Atlas PLUS. Browse or search this  list of subscribing schools to see if your alma mater provides access to alums. For further information or to explore ways for your alma mater to subscribe, please contact: https://www.atla.com/about/contact-us/.

Call for Papers

Theological Librarianship, an online, open access journal of Atla, invites submissions of original essays from graduate students. The winning essay will be published in the Fall 2021 issue. Essays should address topics that lie within the intersection of librarianship and religious and theological studies and that potentially impact libraries. Submissions are due no later than June 1, 2021. More Information

Support SBL

Amazon Purchases: Thank you to all our Amazon Smile supporters! If you haven’t signed up, just go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose Society of Biblical Literature as your charity of choice. Then make all of your future Amazon purchases via amazonsmile.com and they will donate a percentage of your purchase to us. It costs you nothing extra. This is a great time of year to sign up, since all our small purchases add up!

You can also support SBL by accessing Amazon from this link.

SBL Calendar

See Events on the SBL Calendar

SBL on Twitter

@BibleOdyssey shares content related to Bible Odyssey and biblical studies in general.


@SBLSite
Want to continue conversations from the Annual and International Meeting? We recommend the hashtag #SBLsite on Twitter.

@SBLPress will be posting new publications, e-book releases, and special sales.

Annual Meeting Call for Papers

The call for papers for the 2021 Annual Meeting call for papers is now open. The deadline for submission is 24 March 2021.

Humanities in Class Digital Library

SBL is excited to announce that it has joined the Network of Humanities Content Providers with the Humanities in Class Digital Library. SBL provided lesson plans and the Bible Electives in Public Schools: A Guide to be included on the site. Visit The Humanities in Class Digital Library to create a free account and explore more resources provided by SBL and other partners including the American Historical Association, American Philosophical Society, University of Michigan, UCLA, and more!

Ancient Studies Online Conference

Digital Hammurabi and Save Ancient Studies Alliance have partnered to an online conference for ALL Ancient Studies scholars, scheduled for Sunday - Monday, August 15th - 16th, 2021.

We aim to bring together scholars who do not normally have the opportunity to present and engage with scholarship, including:

  • those who completed a PhD and are now professionals in other fields,
  • those who left PhD programs, or have had to take time out of their studies,
  • contingent faculty,
  • academics from marginalized groups,
  • teachers, professors, and staff from all educational institutions,
  • cultural resource management professionals, and
  • independent scholars.

Any scholar of the Ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, broadly defined, is welcomed and encouraged to submit an academic paper proposal in the subject areas of Religion, Culture, or History. In addition, all presenters are strongly encouraged to participate in at least one of the two discussion groups.

Keynote addresses will be given by

  • Dr. Mark Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton University
  • Heba abd el-Gawad, Postdoctoral Researcher for "Egypt's Dispersed Heritage: Views from Egypt" at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London
  • Dr. Moudhy al-Rashid, Assyriologist and Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford
  • Saber Parian, Independent Scholar, Iran

The conference will also include two round-table discussions to conclude each day:
- Diversity in Ancient Studies: Problem Solving Through Outreach
- Lateral Thinking: Academic Skill sets in the “Real” World

To propose a paper, panel, or just for more information, please visit the website:
https://www.saveancientstudies.org/virtual-conference

Luce Foundation Launches Re-Envisioned Religion and Theology Program

The Henry Luce Foundation is furthering its goal of stimulating new thinking in religious and theological studies by reimagining its religion and theology initiative. This newly envisioned initiative will both encourage innovative and diversified scholarship and promote the development of public-facing projects. Lookout for the call for new inquiries in the coming months!
More information

New from SBL Press

Four e-books, two of which were previously unavailable electronically, have been added to the SBL Press store for Black History Month.


Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse
Gay L. Byron and Vanessa Lovelace, editors

Gay L. Byron and Vanessa Lovelace bring together scholars from the US, the Caribbean, and India in this collection of cross-generational and cross-cultural readings of the Bible and other sacred sources. Each article addresses contemporary topics, including the #BlackLivesMatter movement, domestic violence, and human trafficking, while at the same time uncovering the complicated portrayals of children, women, and other marginalized persons in biblical narratives. Contributors employ gender and feminist criticism, social-scientific methods, postcolonial and psychoanalytical theory, and hip-hop culture to reveal the inherently intersectional dynamics of race, gender, and class at work in womanist thought and analysis. Cheryl B. Anderson, Margaret Aymer, Valerie Bridgeman, Gay L. Byron, Stacy Davis, Wil Gafney, Bridgett A. Green, Sharon Jacob, Jennifer Kaalund, Vanessa Lovelace, Layli Maparyan, Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Love L. Sechrest, Mitzi J. Smith, Shively T. J. Smith, Althea Spencer-Miller, Emilie M. Townes, and Marlene Underwood challenge interpreters from various disciplines to include new voices and bold, innovative interpretive approaches.

Paperback • Hardcover • E-book

Scripturalizing Revelation: An African American Postcolonial Reading of Empire
Lynne St. Clair Darden

Lynn St. Clair Darden’s reading of Revelation examines John the Seer’s rhetorical strategy and imperial cult imagery through the lens of African American scripturalization supplemented by postcolonial theory. The scripturalization proposes that John the Seer’s signifyin(g) on empire demonstrated that he was well aware of the oppressive nature of Roman imperialism on the lives of provincial Asian Christians. Yet, ironically, John reinscribed imperial processes and practices. Darden argues that African American biblical scholarship must now attend adequately to these complex cultural negotiations lest it find itself inadvertently feeding the imperial beast.


“Yet with a Steady Beat”: U. S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation
Randall C. Bailey, editor

The essays, from the generation of scholars following the writers of the historic Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Fortress, 1991), address issues of cultural criticism, utilization of Black religious sources such as the Negro spirituals and sermons, histories of struggles of Afro-diasporan peoples, and ideological criticism in interpreting the biblical text. Contributors include Randall C. Bailey, Wilma Ann Bailey, Harold V. Bennett, Brad Ronnell Braxton, Norman K. Gottwald, Carolyn M. Jones, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Ronald N. Liburd, Hugh Rowland Page, Tina Pippin, Abraham Smith, and Demetrius K. Williams.


They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism
Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Fernando F. Segovia, editors

Critics from three major racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States—African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American—focus on the problematic of race and ethnicity in the Bible and in contemporary biblical interpretation. With keen eyes on both ancient text and contemporary context, contributors pay close attention to how racial/ethnic dynamics intersect with other differential relations of power such as gender, class, sexuality, and colonialism. In groundbreaking interaction, they also consider their readings alongside those of other racial/ethnic minority communities. The volume includes an introduction pointing out the crucial role of this work within minority criticism by looking at its historical trajectory, critical findings, and future directions. The contributors are Cheryl B. Anderson, Francisco O. García-Treto, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Frank M. Yamada, Gale A. Yee, Jae-Won Lee, Gay L. Byron, Fernando F. Segovia, Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Demetrius K. Williams, Mayra Rivera, Evelyn L. Parker, and James Kyung-Jin Lee.
 

 

New from Bible Odyssey

Phoenicia
Bible in the Civil War
Womanist Biblical Interpretation
The Song of Songs—Sacred or Secular?
The Bible in the Civil Rights Movement
Galatians 3:28


 

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Handbook SBL HANDBOOK OF STYLE   REVISED, UPDATED, EXPANDED

Extensive changes and additions render the first edition outdated
Essential for publishing in ancient Near Eastern, biblical, and early Christian studies
Definitive answers to questions of style, spelling, transliteration, and citation

Hardcover $39.95  •  ISBN 9781589839649  •  368 pages
                        Kindle ASIN B00WVGD4AY  •  Google Play  ISBN 9781589839656

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