Shepardson Publishing New Research
After completing five years as head of the Department of Religious Studies, Professor Tina Shepardson spent her 2023-24 research leave completing several projects. Among the most exciting was her third monograph, A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity, which should appear by late summer 2025.
Shepardson also submitted several shorter research projects and saw the publication of others, including “Teach Your Children Well: Martyrs, Monks and Mothers in Severus of Antioch,” in New Trajectories in Syriac Studies; “Jews and Christians in Pagan Antiquity from the First through the Third Centuries,” co-authored with Paula Fredriksen in the Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity; “Christianity Emerges in the Era of Late Antiquity,” in Entangling Web: The Fractious Story of Christianity in Europe; “Embodied Readers: Teaching the New Testament in Rural Protestant America,” in Activism, Bible, and Research-Based Teaching: Practical Approaches for the Global Biblical Studies Classroom; and “Speaking of Jews: Late Antique Antioch’s Shifting Anti-Jewish Rhetoric,” in Antioch on the Orontes: History, Society, Ecology, and Visual Culture.
She also published an earlier book discussion and a public-facing essay on early Christians in Gaza. In addition, Shepardson presented new work at UT’s Late Antiquity Faculty Research Seminar and conferences in Santa Barbara, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Chicago.
In spring 2024, she was honored to receive a Best Historical Materials Award from an affiliate of the American Library Association for her 2022 co-edited volume Invitation to Syriac Christianity: An Anthology, and UT’s Dr. Gilya Schmidt Endowed Faculty Award in Judaic Studies. Despite being on leave she enjoyed facilitating discussions on religious diversity and inclusion at resident assistant training sessions, giving a public talk on the history of Gaza, and discussing her research with Princeton and Yale University graduate students.
She accepted invitations to be on the advisory boards of the Journal of Early Christian Studies and UT’s Department of Africana Studies.