Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
SBL e-Newsletter
A bi-monthly newsletter for members of the Society of Biblical Literature


April 16 , 2010

News from the International Cooperation Initiative:

Membership in SBL among those in ICI qualifying countries has increased almost 100% since November 2009.

SBL memberships are offered at reduced rates to those in ICI countries, but often technical barriers to paying these fees (e.g., absence of credit cards especially among students, currency transfer fees and exchange rates, etc.) deter potential new members. To avoid these problems, recently a group of thirteen scholars and students at the Fulton College in Fiji pooled their funds and sent one Western Union wire transfer to SBL to pay for all thirteen memberships at the same time. Through a creative response to the challenges, a new model has been introduced that should be helpful to groups in other ICI countries.

If you have other creative ideas for helping expand SBL membership in underresourced areas, please share them with us. We are hoping that 2010 will be a banner year for ICI memberships in SBL, and for ICI as a whole. Your donations to the Society Fund can be designated for ICI to support initiatives in publications, teaching and mentoring, and local congresses in underresourced regions of the globe.

More information on ICI Program.

International Meeting

The program for the International Meeting in Tartu, Estonia is now available online! Be sure to register now and make your travel plans. The meeting, happening 25-29 July 2010 at the University of Tartu, is being held in conjunction with the European Association of Biblical Studies.

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting will be held November 19-23 in Atlanta, Georgia this year. Registration is available online. Be sure to catch Early Bird Registration rates by the end of the day on May 31 before rates increase! Tour and schedule information will become available online in the next few weeks.

SBL Publications Spring Sale

Almost all new, recent, and backlisted SBL and BJS titles are available to SBL members at a thirty percent discount during the spring sale.

Download the order form, then mail, fax, or phone your order by May 15.

If you prefer to order at the SBL Store, make sure to use the promo code XXXXXX at checkout to receive your discount.
Reports from 2010 Regional Meetings

Most of the Regional Meetings have concluded by now, though two remain (see below). In general, participation levels are down slightly from last year, but strong contributions from graduate students, faculty, and others elevated the meetings. Thanks to all participants and to those who put so much time and effort into making the meetings successful!
New England Region April 16Newton Centre, MA
Pacific Northwest Region May 7-9Victoria, BC

Regions Task Force

Building on the information-gathering work that it has been doing for the past several months, the SBL Regions Task Force is assembling a set of recommendations for the Council meeting later this month, per its mandate and on schedule. The Task Force has made steady progress with a very complex issue and has worked closely with Regional Coordinators, the wider membership, and the American Academy of Religion's regional leadership in order to bring careful and circumspect considerations to Council. Over the next few months, more information will be forthcoming regarding these issues.


NIDA Translation School 2010

Applications Open for Nida Translation Institute, Murcia, Spain.

2010 Society Fund

Every dollar matters. Every person matters. Please make your gift to the SBL Annual Fund this year and every year! Click here to donate now.

Calendar

Submit your events to Sharon Johnson.

April 2010
4/15-4/17 Art+Religion
The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, in collaboration with Concordia University, is pleased to present the fourth Max and Iris Stern International Symposium, a three-day conference on ART+RELIGION
More information
4/16 SBL New England States Regional Meeting
Andover-Newton Theological School
More information
4/16-4/18

Functions of Roman Memory, providing graduate students and junior faculty with an opportunity to examine the role of memory in diverse areas of Roman civilization and to test current methodologies
University of Texas at Austin.
Call for Papers Deadline January 20, 2010 More information or see the project homepage

May 2010
5/6 “And They Went Up and Toured the Land” – in honor of Professor Anson F. Rainey on the occasion of his 80th birthday
Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University invite the public to the 30th annual conference of the Marin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology.
Mintz Auditorium, Building 403, Bar-Ilan University.
Open admission. For information call 03-5318350 or email Israel-Studies.Dept@mail.biu.ac.il
5/7- 5/9 SBL Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting
University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
More information
5/31-6/4

Invention, Rewriting, Usurpation: Discursive Fights over Religious Traditions in Antiquity
An international conference held by the research project "The Discursive Fight over Religious Texts in Antiquity," University of Aarhus, Denmark

Keynote speakers: Harold W. Attridge (Yale), Daniel Boyarin (UC Berkeley), David Brakke (Indiana University, Bloomington), Karla Pollmann (St Andrews), and Tessa Rajak (University of Reading).
For further information, see the conference webpage or contact: rf@teo.au.dk
June 2010
6/1 - 7/26 2010 Online Course for Theological Faculty Teaching Online
The course is facilitated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Distance Education Certificate Program - a nationally recognized leader in instructional design for e-learning environments. By arrangement with the Wabash Center they will offer an 8 week online class for seminary faculty to learn about and experience effective practices for teaching online. For detail see: 2010 Online Course.
Please contact Thomas Pearson with questions: pearsont@wabash.edu
6/4 Symposium on Everett Ferguson
Everett Ferguson’s Baptism in the Early Church offers an exhaustive survey of the literary and material evidence for baptismal practice in the first five centuries of Christian history. This symposium, hosted by the Christian Scholars’ Conference, brings together leading scholars to engage this magisterial work and to honor its author’s contribution to ecumenical theological scholarship.
More information
6/6-6/12 Nida School for Translation Studies (NSTS), University of Murcia Murcia, Spain
More Information
6/14-6/16 The Society of Asian Biblical Studies (SABS) will hold its next meeting at the Divinity School, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. For further information, please see: www.sabs-site.com or contact Monica Melanchthon or Tat -siong Benny Liew . SABS seeks to bring together scholars interested in and committed to Biblical Studies in various contexts of Asia/Oceania, including those in diaspora.
6/14 - 6/15 Re-Writing the Bible: Devotion, Diatribe and Dialogue
University of Glasgow. Keynote panellists include Michael Schmidt, Michael Symmons-Roberts, Kei Miller, Sara Maitland and Michelene Wandor
Please send abstracts (approx. 200 words) to rewritingbible2010@gmail.com, by no later than 19th April 2010. More information
6/29-7/2 The Second Annual Australasian Christian Conference, Brisbane
The organizers of the second Annual Australasian Christian Conference invite the submission of papers for presentation via its website (www.aa-cc.org). The main speakers this year will be Professor Robert P. Gordon (Cambridge) and Professor Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford). Dr Jim Eisenbraun shall address conference participants at a "Getting Published" workshop on the morning of the 29th June. Please see conference website for further details.
July 2010
7/05-7/07 Astrology in the Ancient Near East
ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organizing its Twenty Ninth International Conference on the theme of Astrology in the Ancient Near East, with a special focus on the use of the Zodiac in the Syro-Mesopotamian arts, to held at the University of Oxford.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact our Oxford address:
ARAM, the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE, England. Tel. ++1865-514041. Fax ++1865-516824. Email: aram@aramsociety.org
7/08-7/09 Zoroastrians
ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organizing its Thirtieth Ninth International Conference on the theme of The Zoroastrians, to held at the University of Oxford, 08-10 July 2010.
The conference aims to study Zoroastrian religion and culture, and it will start on Thursday 08 July at 9am, finishing on Saturday 10 July at 1pm. Each speaker's paper is limited to 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.
If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact our Oxford address:
ARAM, the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE, England. Tel. ++1865-514041. Fax ++1865-516824. Email: aram@aramsociety.org
7/08-7/10 Themes in Biblical Narrative: The Day of Atonement – International Conference at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. Organizers: Thomas Hieke (Mainz), Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg).
See web page for more information.
7/25- 7/29 SBL International Meeting Tartu, Estonia
SBL will be meeting in conjunction with the European Association of Biblical Studies
7/25-7/29 Judaism in the Mediterranean Context
Ninth European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) Congress
Ravenna, Italy
More information
7/26-7/28 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense LVIV The book of Joshua and the land of Israel
University of Leuven - Belgium
More information
7/27-7/29

Indonesian Biblical Scholars Meeting in Jakarta
The theme is The Development of the Wisdom's Tradition in the Bible.
For more information e-mail Yonky Karman

7/29-7/31 The 14th Congress of International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) will be held in Helsinki, Finland together with the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT)1-6 August 2010).
More information
August 2010
8/1-8/6 The 20th Congress of IOSOT (International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament) will be held in Helsinki, Finland.
There will be 15 main speakers and two panel sessions. Call for papers
Joint Congresses are International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) 29-31 July, International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS) on 2 August, International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS) 2-4 August and International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) 4-6 August.
More information
8/2 Twenty-Third Congress of the International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS), which will be held in conjunction with the Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) in Helsinki.
More information
8/9 - 8/11 Who Do You Think You Are?
A Conference On Gender And The Transmission Of Identity In The Hebrew Bible And Dead Sea Scrolls
King's College London
For more information see:  http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/trs/events/
September 2010
9/22-9/24

Conflict and Convergence: Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms
An international conference highlighting the diverse ways of studying the Psalms.The conference is associated with the Theology Faculty at the University of Oxford and the Society for Old Testament Study and is convened by Dr Susan Gillingham and Professor John Barton.
The location will be at Worcester College, Oxford, England.
More information

9/30-10/2 Infancy Gospels: Stories and Identities
While the traditions concerning the birth of Jesus have always figured prominently in culture, art and Christian piety, the so-called ‘Infancy Gospels’ have been somewhat neglected in modern research, being viewed as they are as legendary or belonging to folk literature. The aim of this research seminar is to reconsider the canonical and apocryphal traditions on the infancy of Jesus, taking the themes of the identity embodied in the discourses and the multiple ways of reading the texts (historical, narrative, psychanalitic, feministic, artistic, liturgical readings, aso).
This research programm will be hold in three sessions in Switzerland in autumn 2010.

Session 1: University of Lausanne, 09/30/2010 - 10/02/2010, with Loveday Alexander, Philipp Alexander, Ra'anan Boustan, Claire Clivaz, Jörg Frey, Christophe Guignard, Sabrina Inowlocki Meister, Moises Mayordomo, Enrico Norelli, Francesca Pascendi, Anders Runesson, Jens Schröter

Next two sessions are listed below, in November and December.

Information: claire.clivaz@unil.ch
Information Brochure


Our mailing address is:
825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 30329

Our telephone:
404-727-3100

Copyright (C) 2010 / Society of Biblical Literature/ All rights reserved.