Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma

Call For Papers: The Biblical Literature and Hermeneutics of Trauma section has created a call for papers for three sessions: the first is a collaboration between the two Program Units “Book of Isaiah” and “Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma” and aims to open up new understandings of the Book of Isaiah by combining exegesis and trauma theories. Papers will focus on the Assyrian threat in the 8th century BCE that put the existence of Judah in peril with the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 BCE) and the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib (701 BCE). Proto-Isaiah presents these historical events as traumatic and deeply disturbing. Papers will explore how trauma theory can illumine Proto-Isaiah’s testimony to these events. The second session, entitled “Traps and Triggers: A Trauma-Informed Biblical Studies Classroom,” seeks the presentation and analysis of classroom experiences involving the use of trauma theory to interpret biblical literature. The session will include short presentations or vignettes of case-studies from the classroom followed by a discussion of best practices and approaches to the intersection of trauma and biblical interpretation. The third session will be an open session to which we invite proposals of all types that seek to interpret biblical text through the lens of trauma theory(s). Successful proposals for all sessions should include analysis of biblical texts employing a theoretical framework that involves insights from trauma studies.

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