About
I am currently the Assistant Professor of Early Judaism in the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department at the University of California-Los Angeles. My primary research interests are in the Early Judaism, rabbinic literature, the Roman Near East. Specifically, I am interested in the ways ancient Jews navigated living under imperial domination through the development of legislation and rhetoric about the Other. I am currently working on my first monograph, The Festivals of the Gentiles in Early Judaism. My research also concentrates on the Roman Near East and Semitic languages, especially Aramaic, and their use in imperial contexts. In particular, I investigate the material presentation of Aramaic inscriptions found throughout the Roman Empire. I have authored translation and paleographic articles on Palmyrene Aramaic inscriptions as one of the founding members of the Wisconsin Palmyrene Aramaic Inscription Project in journals including Maarav and KUSATU. I am currently a fellow at the Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, working on my second book project on gentile rulers in the ancient Jewish imagination. I spent the 2017-2018 academic year in Rome as a Rome Prize Fellow in Ancient Studies at the American Academy in Rome (FAAR ‘18). I earned my PhD in Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (2018) and my MA in Hebrew and Semitic Studies (2014) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Education
PhD, Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin, 2018
MA, Hebrew and Semitic Studies, University of Wisconsin, 2014
BA, Classical Languages and Biology, Macalester College, 2009 Publications
Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
“R. Cleopatra? Constructions of an Egyptian Queen in the Babylonian Talmud,”
Journal of Ancient Judaism, forthcoming
“The Terror of Time: The Festival of Dionysus and Saturnalia in Jewish Responses to Foreign Rule,”
Journal for the Study of Judaism 51.2 (2020): 1-28.
“Aesthetic of Empire: Material Presentation of Palmyrene Aramaic and Latin Bilingual Inscriptions,”
Maarav 23.1–2 (2019): 207–28.
Eleonora Cussini, Maura K. Heyn, Jeremy M. Hutton, Nathaniel E. Greene, and Catherine E. Bonesho, “The Harvard Semitic Museum Palmyrene Collection,”
BASOR 380 (2018): 231–46.
Jeremy M. Hutton, Preston L. Atwood, Catherine E. Bonesho, and Nathaniel E. Greene, “Divergent Script-Styles on a Single Palmyrene Monument: The Case of Berkshire 1903.7.3 (
PAT 0670 and 0672),”
KUSATU 23 (2018): 33–70.
Preston L. Atwood, Jeremy M. Hutton, Nathaniel E. Greene, and Catherine E. Bonesho, “A New Reading of
PAT 0670 ( =
CIS 4313),”
KUSATU 23 (2018): 9–31.
Jeremy M. Hutton, Preston L. Atwood, Maura K. Heyn, Nathaniel E. Greene, and Catherine E. Bonesho, “Two Palmyrene Inscriptions in the Collection of the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA:
PAT 0960 and 1773,”
Maarav 20 (2013 [appeared 2016]): 135–161, 257–259.
Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
“Language as Power: Aramaic at (and East of) Palmyra” in edited volume from Getty Symposium on Palmyra and the East, forthcoming.
Jeremy M. Hutton and Catherine E. Bonesho, “Interpreting Translation Techniques and Material Presentation in Bilingual Texts: Initial Methodological Reflections.” Pages 253-92 in
Epigraphy, Philology, and the Hebrew Bible, ed. Jeremy M. Hutton and Aaron Rubin; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Invited Essays
“Maintaining Cultural Balance: Palmyrene Bilingual Inscriptions and Roman Imperialism,” Biblical Archaeology Review 46.3 (Summer 2020): 18-21.
“Holidays and Festivals as Representative of Identity in Rabbinic Literature,” Ancient Jew Review, November 2019.
Book Reviews
Time in the Babylonian Talmud: Natural and Imagined Times in Jewish Law and Narrative, by Lynn Kaye (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Ancient Jew Review, October 2020.
Religious Deviance in the Roman World: Superstition or Individuality?, by Jörg Rüpke (Translated by David M.B. Richardson; Cambridge University Press, 2016), Ancient Jew Review, 2017.
Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity: Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster, by Julia Watts Belser (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Ancient Jew Review, 2016.
Pedagogy Articles
“Dead Sea Scroll Brochure-Travel Pamphlet Assignment,” Ancient Jew Review, August 2021.
Encyclopedia and Dictionary Entries
Sabbath, Bible Odyssey
“Levi”
and “Potiphar,”
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (Eric Orlin, Lisbeth Fried, Jennifer Wright Knust, Michael Pregill, and Michael Satlow, eds.; Routledge, 2015).
Public Outreach Publications:
“The Jewish Holiday of Purim in the Late Roman Empire.”
“An Interview with John Ochsendorf, New Director of the American Academy in Rome.”
“Preserving the Words of Ancient Palmyra Through Digital Humanities.”
“Roma, Amor: Inside the Column of Trajan and Under the Pantheon Oculus.”
“Sites of Memory and Memories of Conflict: Imperial Rome, Jerusalem, and Nero.”
“Roman Festivals in Rabbinic Literature and the Intersection of Judaism and Rome.”
“Inside the Roman Vault: An Interview with Lynne Lancaster of the American Academy in Rome”
“Addressing the Divide Between Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Classics,” co-authored with Rachel M. Hart
Memberships
Society of Biblical Literature
Association for Jewish Studies
Society of Fellows at the American Academy in Rome (FAAR ’18)
American Schools of Oriental Research
Society for Classical Studies
Eta Sigma Phi
