Faculty Colloquium – “The Ark, Gone But Not Forgotten: Cultural Memory and Material Culture in the Hebrew Bible” presented by Daniel Fisher of U.California-Berkeley

Daniel Fisher

Daniel Fisher
Department of Near Eastern Studies
University of California, Berkeley

Daniel Fisher is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His research explores social, historical, and literary questions in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish biblical interpretation. He is currently completing a dissertation entitled, “Memories of the Ark: Cultural Memory, Material Culture, and the Construction of the Past in Biblical Societies.” This project develops a cultural biography of the Ark of the Covenant, exploring its use and reuse as a site of memory, both before and after its loss.  It examines the central role that objects play in the Hebrew Bible, considering the ways that biblical writers and early biblical interpreters engaged with objects—at times claiming, reimagining, and contesting them, but almost always remembering with them.

Daniel has held a number of fellowships, including fellowships at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, and he most recently served as a curatorial fellow at the Bancroft Library’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. He holds a C.Phil. from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in Hebrew Bible and Jewish studies from Vanderbilt University, and a B.A. (Honors) in religious studies from McGill University.

Please RSVP to judaicstudies@uconn.edu.

Ark Narrative from Dura Europos