Eric Jarrard
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Scholar of Biblical Studies with a focus on the Hebrew Bible, its ancient Near Eastern context, and the history of its interpretation.
Eric Jarrard is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Wellesley College. He received his doctorate in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University, an MTS from Emory University, and his BA in Religious Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.
His research employs social-scientific approaches to investigate how communities assign and negotiate meanings to the textual life cycles of the Hebrew Bible beginning with its ancient Near Eastern context and focusing specifically on late antiquity (c. 500 BCE – 200 CE) and contemporary American culture. His current book, The Exodus and Law in Monuments and Memory, enlists postcolonial theory to think about how ancient Middle Eastern monuments have shaped the way the Bible talks about history and law.
His research and courses also address the resonances of biblical themes within contemporary popular culture. Examples include: the use of horror theory to discuss the externalization of social anxieties as monsters in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and the book of Daniel, Jewish identity and biblical exposition in the films of Darren Aronofsky, the figure of Black Moses in Zora Neale Hurston and Alain Mabanckou's Petit Piment, and an investigation of the biblical deed-consequence nexus and Game of Thrones.
His research has been published in Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Biblical Interpretation, Vetus Testamentum, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and is forthcoming in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. On the topic of the Bible and popular culture, Eric has a monograph, The Bible and Hip Hop, under contract with Lexington/Fortress Press, and chapter contributions to Theology and Game of Thrones (Lexington) and The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters.
His classes at Wellesley include:
| Class Number | Title |
|---|---|
| CPLT/REL 112Y | Monsters |
| JWST/REL 104 | Study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament |
| JWST/REL 106 | Queer Bible |
| JWST/REL 201 | Bible and Pop Culture [Topics] |
| JWST/REL 209 | Bible & Film |
| JWST/REL 344 | Gods of Stone: Monuments and the Sacred |
| JWST/REL 346 | Bible & Politics [Topics] |
| REL 101 | Intro to Religion |
| REL 111Y | FYS: Jesus of Nazareth |
| REL 345 | Seminar: Enslavement and the Bible |
Current and upcoming courses
Critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, studying its role in the history and culture of ancient Israel and its relationship to ancient Near Eastern cultures. Special focus on the fundamental techniques of literary, historical, and source criticism in modern scholarship, with emphasis on the Bible's literary structure and compositional evolution.
(JWST 104 and REL 104 are cross-listed courses.)-
First-Year Seminar: Monsters
REL112Y
An introduction to the history and concepts of monsters and monstrosity. We will apply readings in literary and cultural theory to case studies drawn from biblical literature and iconography from the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean myths and cosmologies, Victorian-era gothic novels, and contemporary popular culture to study monstrous beings from the earliest examples until the present. We will center questions concerning the human creation (and fear) of monstrous beings, the cultural specificity of terror, the social significance of monsters, and how the history of monsters informs, and has been informed by, the ancient world. No previous knowledge of the Bible, literature, or monsters is required or presumed. (CPLT 112Y and REL 112Y are cross-listed courses.) -
First-Year Seminar: Monsters
REL112Y
An introduction to the history and concepts of monsters and monstrosity. We will apply readings in literary and cultural theory to case studies drawn from biblical literature and iconography from the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean myths and cosmologies, Victorian-era gothic novels, and contemporary popular culture to study monstrous beings from the earliest examples until the present. We will center questions concerning the human creation (and fear) of monstrous beings, the cultural specificity of terror, the social significance of monsters, and how the history of monsters informs, and has been informed by, the ancient world. No previous knowledge of the Bible, literature, or monsters is required or presumed. (CPLT 112Y and REL 112Y are cross-listed courses.) -
Critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, studying its role in the history and culture of ancient Israel and its relationship to ancient Near Eastern cultures. Special focus on the fundamental techniques of literary, historical, and source criticism in modern scholarship, with emphasis on the Bible's literary structure and compositional evolution. (JWST 104 and REL 104 are cross-listed courses.)