Space, Memory, and Conversation: From the Biblical World to the Classrooms of Today
As part of the University of Tennessee Department of Religious Studies’ 50th Anniversary, Professor Victor H. Matthews, Dean of Missouri State University’s College of Humanities and Public Affairs, and Professor of Religious Studies, will present a lecture, “Space, Memory, and Conversation: From the Biblical World to the Classrooms of Today,” Tuesday, 27 September, at 5:30 p.m. at McClung Museum Auditorium, University of Tennessee.
In this lecture, Victor Matthews will explore space, memory, and conversation from the Hebrew Bible and the world of the ancient Near East until today. Drawing on his extensive body of literature, which encompasses both scholarly analysis and several textbooks, Dr. Matthews will highlight the role these important themes play in the biblical text and how they remain significant for instructing students in the contemporary Religious Studies classroom.
Victor H. Matthews received his Ph.D. degree from the Dept. of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in 1977. He joined the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at Missouri State University in 1984 after teaching at Clemson University and Anderson College in South Carolina. Since that time he has served as Acting Department Head in Religious Studies and in Economics. After serving as Associate Dean for seven years, he became the Dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs at Missouri State University in 2009. His academic interests center on the social world of ancient Israel and in particular the use of social science methods in the interpretation of ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. He has published 17 books and over 75 articles, and is currently at work on a History of Ancient Israel.