Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature

Call For Papers: We will offer two sessions and co-sponsor a third. (1) The first session is an invited panel that investigates the emerging field of memory studies as a promising methodological framework for the analysis of biblical exile. In the main, this panel is interested in how events and stories about an exilic past are used in biblical literature to shape identity. First, in how memory studies might be a useful intervention for problems related to and emanating from exilic literature. Equally, this panel is interested in ways biblical literature on, about, or resulting from the exilic period(s) may challenge, reframe, and underscore the value of memory studies for the analysis of biblical texts. (2) The second session is an invited panel on “Late Antique reception histories of biblical flight: Part 1, pre-Constantinian period.” This is the first of two invitational sessions (the second to be held at the 2020 Annual Meeting) on the reception histories of biblical exile in the long late-antiquity. Many early Christian and non-Christian thinkers looked to biblical text(s) for types and models of flight. Invitees will the topic of biblical exile and its reception in the late ancient period. The year’s session will engage the pre-Constantinian period and next year’s session on the same topic will engage the post-Constantinian period. Speakers will explore the various methodological approaches to studying exile such as discourse analysis, space/place theory, digital humanities, material culture, etc. (3) In addition, we are issuing an open call for papers for a third session dealing with any aspect of migration in the Eastern Mediterranean from the late Second Temple period to late Antiquity. This session will be co-sponsored with the SBL Consultation "Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman Travel in in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine Periods (300 BCE–600 CE).”

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