Anti-Judaism and Biblical Scholarship

Discussion with Hindy Naiman, Arjen Bakker andThomas Wagner

The complex problem of antisemitism in research on the Bible will be discussed at this event. Through our critical evaluation of the history of the discipline, we will suggest new ways of thinking and reading. We will offer alternatives and correctives to research that has been formulated within a biased framework and which continues to echo in current day scholarship. We could not have anticipated the renewed and tragic relevance of this topic. And we will invite our audience to reflect on the persistence of antisemitism in both the academic world and in society.

Hindy Najman is the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture and a fellow at Oriel College. She is the director and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Bible in Oriel College. In the University of Oxford, she is a member of the faculty of Theology and Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and member of the Sub-faculty Classics, and a member of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

Arjen Bakker is Assistant Professor in Second Temple Judaism at the University of Cambridge and a fellow at Gonville & Caius College. He is editor of the Brill monograph series Themes in Biblical Narrative and is a board member of the International Organization of Qumran Studies. He is also a fellow at the Einstein Center Chronoi in Berlin.

Thomas Wagner is Senior Academic Advisor at the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Wuppertal. He is a member of the Committee of the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS). As Ombudsperson of the University of Wuppertal he focusses on monitoring research processes especially in terms of equality and anti-harassment.