I am assistant professor of Religion at Augsburg University. I am broadly trained in Biblical Studies and the afterlives of the Bible, with a focus on Second Temple (including New Testament/Early Christianity) and early Rabbinic periods. My work emphasizes the vast diversity of Judaism in the ancient world, including ancient constructions of gender.
Current & Recent Projects:
My current project focuses on the women from the Herodian court in the first centuries BCE and CE. From better-known figures, such as Herodias and her daughter Salome (Matt 14:3–11, Mark 6:17–28, Luke 3:19–20), to the more obscure, such as Pheroras’s unnamed wife (Josephus, Ant. 17.41–43; War 1.571), the women of the Herodian dynasty have been given a bad reputation by ancient historians and scholars alike: they are manipulative and power-hungry; they gain their power through seduction and sex; and their only real power comes when they are submissive. In this project I reexamine these ancient accounts and their history of interpretation, centering these women and their stories over and above the men surrounding them.
Most recently, I published Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (Routledge, 2022), a co-authored textbook with Meredith JC Warren and Sara Parks. This book won the 2023 Frank W. Beare Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. You can listen to our interview with the Ancient Afterlives podcast here, or read an interview with the authors at the Shiloh Project blog.
Much of my research has been focused on constructions of gender in antiquity. Gender & Second-Temple Judaism (Lexington/Fortress 2020), with Kathy Ehrensperger, brings together upcoming and established scholars in gender and Second Temple Judaism. A subsequent volume, Constructions of Gender in Religious Traditions of Late Antiquity (Lexington/Fortress) is due out in spring 2024.
I also work on the afterlives of biblical and apocryphal narratives, such as my recent article on mono- and polytheistic tensions in Battlestar Galactica and ancient Jewish biblical interpretation (JIBS 2021) and Theology and Westworld (Lexington/Fortress 2020), with Juli Gittinger, which explores the various intersections of religion and the first two seasons of the HBO series Westworld. Expected in 2024 is Good Omens and the Bible (Sheffield Phoenix Press) with Meredith JC Warren and Charlotte Naylor Davis, which brings together research on the Prime series Good Omens, based on the book of the same title by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Work Summary:
I am currently assistant professor of Religion at Augsburg University, where I teach courses on sacred texts from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their afterlives, on gender, apocalypse, Judaism, and more. I also serve as the faculty advisor to Augsburg Hillel. I have served as visiting assistant professor of religion at Centre College and as visiting instructor of Jewish Studies/Religion at Colgate University; I have also taught at McGill University, the University of Kentucky, and Butler University. My courses have covered Judaism/Jewish Studies, Bible (both canons and non-canonical literature) and other sacred texts, and Religion in Antiquity, with a broad array of upper-level courses and graduate courses. In my teaching I use high-impact practices based on research, which I also write about, and I have mentored and supervised student research. I have administrative experience in community-based learning and volunteering for college students and served as the liaison between students, college, and larger community for these positions at Earlham College. In addition, as faculty advisor to Jewish student groups, I have brought in speakers on topics such as anti-semitism and organized and led Passover Seders, and Chanukah parties.
I do community work as well, including Jewish learning sessions at detention centers, speaking on Judaism and Jewish practices for Christian colleges and congregations, AMAs on Judaism for college students, interfaith work, and speaking for Jewish communities (text study/shiurim, drasha, community classes, public talks, etc.).
Contact me at sheinfel@augsburg.edu
Last updated 21 Dec 2023