CV
Susan Marks
Professor of Judaic Studies/ Klingenstein Chair
Division of Humanities Tel.: (941) 487-4271
New College of Florida Fax: (941) 487-4479
5800 Bay Shore Road Email: smarks@ncf.edu
Sarasota, FL 34243-2109 http://faculty.ncf.edu/smarks/
She/Her/Herself
Employment
2015-present Professor of Judaic Studies, New College of Florida
2009-2015 Associate Professor of Judaic Studies, New College of Florida
2003-2009 Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies, New College of Florida
2002-2003 Chimicles Critical Writing Teaching Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
2001 Visiting Instructor in Religion, Haverford College
1999 Adjunct Instructor, "Rabbinic Aramaic," Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
1998 Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania
Education
2003 PhD, the Graduate Group in Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
1988 Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
New York
1986 MA in Hebrew Letters, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles
1983 BA in English Literature, Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Publications
Monograph
First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013.
Reviews: Joshua Schwartz in Review of Biblical Literature 2/2015;
Michael Tilly, International Academy for Marital Spirituality Review 20.1 (2014) 151-2 (German);
Jane Kanarek, H-Net Reviews: Humanities and Social Sciences On-line July, 2014.
Edited Work
Meals in the Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table, co-edited with Hal Taussig. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.
Reviews: Joshua Schwartz Review of Biblical Literature 11/2016;
Raphael Magarik, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.09.12
Articles and Chapters
“Who Studied at the Beit Midrash?: Funding Palestinian Amoraic Education.” Journal of Ancient Judaism 12 (2021) 281–312.
“Constructing Gender Bride by Bride: Rabbinic Ideas of Citizenship in Light of Gender,” in Jews and Gender, ed. Leonard Greenspoon (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2021) 29-40.
“How Ancient Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians Drank Their Wine,” in Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food, ed. Aaron Gross, Jody Myers and Jordan Rosenblum (New York University Press, 2019) 170-188.
“Reconsidering Reclining at Qumran,” Journal of Ancient Judaism 7 (2016) 86-101.
“Uncovering the Ongoing Parental Role in Education in the Early Rabbinic Period,” in Mishpachah: The Jewish Family in Tradition and in Transition, ed.Leonard Greenspoon (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2016) 3-13.
“Bayit versus Beit Midrash: Jewish Mother as Teacher,” in Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer, ed. Susan Harvey et. al.(Providence: Brown University Press, 2015) 195-204.
“In the Place of Libation: Birkat Hamazon Navigates New Ground,” in Meals in the Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table, ed. Susan Marks and Hal Taussig. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) 71-97.
“Introduction,” in Meals in the Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table, ed. Susan Marks and Hal Taussig. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) 1-12.
“Ten Theses Concerning Meals and Early Judaism,” co-written with Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus and Jordan Rosenblum, in Meals in the Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table, ed. Susan Marks and Hal Taussig. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) 13-39.
“Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding Meals,” in Meals in the Early Christian World: Social Formation, Experimentation, and Conflict at the Table, ed.Dennis E. Smith and Hal Taussig (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012) 123-148.
“History vs. Ritual in Time and End-time: The Case of Early Rabbinic Weddings in Light of Catherine Bell,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79.3 (2011) 587-613. Link to article.
“Follow that Crown: Rhetoric, Rabbis, and Women Patrons,” The Journal for Feminist Studies in Religion 24.2 (2008) 77-96.
"Women in Early Judaism: Twenty-five Years of Research and Reenvisioning," Currents in Biblical Research 6.2 (2008) 290-320.
Contributions to Encyclopedias and Commentaries
“Lifecycle Events, Hellenistic and Roman Period: Marriage,” The OxfordEncyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology, ed. Daniel M. Master et. al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) 101-106.
“Intermarriage (Jewish),” “Marriage, Jewish,” The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, ed. Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine and Sabine R. Huebner (Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2013) 3473-3474, 4321-4322.
Post-biblical Commentary on “Mishpatim,” “Shoftim,” in The Torah: A Women's Commentary, ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi (New York: Union of Reform Judaism Press, 2008) 445-6, 1158-60.
Book Reviews
Review of Gender and Second-Temple Judaism, Kathy Ehrensperger and Shayna Sheinfeld, eds.) Reviews of the Enoch Seminar, 2021.12.08 http://enochseminar.org/review/23670
Review of Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem by Julia Watts Belser, Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, August 2018.
Review of Saints and Symposiasts: The Literature of Food and the Symposium in Greco-Roman and Early Christian Culture by Jason König, Church History 83.2 (2014) 458-60.
"Tannaitic Chef," a review of Jordan D. Rosenblum, Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism, H-Net Reviews, May 2011. 4
Review of Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures, by Beth A. Berkowitz, Journal of Jewish Studies 60 (2009), 153-4.
Review of Jewish Babylonia between Persia and Roman Palestine, by Richard Kalmin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.05.33.
Review of Jews in a Graeco-Roman World by Martin Goodman, reviewed with Robert A Kraft, Debra Bucher, Sigrid Peterson, Beth Pollard and Todd Krulak, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.08.10.
Academic Grants, Fellowships, Workshops and Honors
2013 Doctor of Divinity, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York
2008 Summer Workshop Fellowship from Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in
Theology of Religion, funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc.
2007-8 Wabash Center Teaching and Learning Workshop for Pre-Tenure Faculty at Colleges and
Universities.
2003-21 New College Faculty Development Fund Summer Research Grants
2002 Chimicles Critical Writing Teaching Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2001 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation Scholarship.
2000 The Brenner Fellowship, awarded by The Jewish Studies Program of the University of
Pennsylvania for travel to Turkey for dissertation research.
Invitations, & Conference Presentations
2021 “The Nuts and Bolts: Textual Formation and Education in Late Antiquity,” with Monika Amsler and
Lillian Larsen, at the Models of Piety in Late Antiquity, Virtual.
2020 “Funding the Beit Midrash: Fees for the Palestinian House of Study and its Students,” in the panel,
“New Glances at the Study of the Beit Midrash (the House of Study) Institution during the
Mishnah and the Talmud Period,” at the Association for Jewish Studies, Virtual.
2020 Respondent to presentations by Henrike Dilling, Paul Olatubosun Adaja, and Nils Neumann in
the panel, “Meals and Water Rites/Meals, Affect, and Religious Experience,” in the Meals in the
Greco-Roman World Group at the Society of Biblical Literature, Virtual.
2019 Chaired panel on “Reading and Interpretive Activity during Ancient Meals” in the Meals in the
Greco-Roman World Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego.
2019 "Constructing Gender Bride by Bride” at the 32nd Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization,
“Jews and Gender: Tradition and Change,” Omaha.
2018 "Situation Comedy—Humor and Rabbinic Mealtime Ritual” at the conference, “What’s So
Funny: Discovering and Interpreting Humor in the Ancient World,” The Ohio State University,"
Columbus.
2018 Chaired panel on “Antiquity II” as part of “Jewish History and Culture: New Insights from
Florida Scholars,” the Gimelstob Symposium on Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic
University, Boca Raton.
2017 Chaired panel on “Meals and Violence” in the Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar at
the Society of Biblical Literature, Boston.
2014 Respondent to presentations by Robin M. Jensen and Steven Fine in panel on “Meals and
Material Culture in Late Antiquity” in the Meals in the Greco-Roman World Group at the
Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego.
2014 “Uncovering the Ongoing Parental Role in Education in the Early Rabbinic Period” at the
27th Annual Klutznick-Harris-Schwalb Symposium, “Mishpachah: The Jewish Family in
Tradition and in Transition,” Omaha.
2014 Chaired panel on “Diversity and Divergence” as part of “Jewish Origins: New Insights and
Scholarship," the Gimelstob Symposium on Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University,
Boca Raton.
2013 “Could the Younger Generation Know More than the Older?: Transmitting Rabbinic Ritual
Knowledge” in Religious World of Late Antiquity Group at the Society of Biblical Literature,
Baltimore.
2012 Respondent to John S. Kloppenborg, “Associations and their Meals” in the Meals in the
Greco-Roman World Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago.
2010 with Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus and Jordan Rosenblum, "The Table as a Generative
for Social Formation in Early Judaism" in the Meals in the Greco-Roman
World Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta.
2009 "Ritualizing Jewish Meals" for the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, Philadelphia.
2008 A short summary of Seminar Paper: "Rabbinic Grace after Meals and Social Formation" in
the Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature, Boston.
2007 "Bourdieu's Response to Van Gennep: Implications for Roman Period Jewish Betrothal" at
The Rites of Passage of the Life Cycle in Antiquity Symposium, Getty Villa, Malibu.
http://www.getty.edu/visit/events/rites_symposium.html
2006 A short summary of Seminar Paper: "Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman
Wedding Meals" in the Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar at the Society of Biblical
Literature, Washington D.C.
2005 "The Grooms' Blessing as an Extreme Makeover of Jewish Wedding Feasts" at the Society
of Biblical Literature, Philadelphia.
2004 "Weddings at the End of Days" at the Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago.
2003 "A City of Gold Crown: Rabbinic Texts in Dialogue with History" at the Association for
Jewish Studies, Boston.
2002 "Rites of Passage, Weddings, Point of View and the Historian" in the Ritual Studies
Group at the American Academy of Religion, Toronto.
2001 "Households and the Making of Jewish Wedding Feasts" in the Social History of Formative
Christianity and Judaism Section at the Society of Biblical Literature, Denver.
2000 "The Marriage of Jewish Slaves," in the Social History of Formative Christianity and
Judaism Section at the Society of Biblical Literature, Nashville.
2000 "Buried in her Bridal Gown: Death Imagery and Jewish Brides in the Greco-Roman World"
for the Jewish Feminist Research Group of Ma'yan, New York.
1997 "Non-Christian Celibacy as Autonomy," as part of "Gender and Sexuality in the Apocryphal
Acts: A Panel Discussion," for the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins.
Dissertation
"Jewish Weddings in the Greco-Roman Period: A Reconsideration of Received Ritual." (Directors: Robert A. Kraft and Ross S. Kraemer).
Courses Taught at New College of Florida
Christian Scriptures
Jewish Mysticism
Jewish Scriptures
Judaism and Ecology
Meals in Jewish Tradition (half-term course)
Passover (half-term course)
Passover and Synagogue: The Invention of Early Jewish and Rabbinic Practice
Religion and Gender
Ritual Theory
Seminar: Topics in the Study of Religion: Mary Douglas (half-term course)
The Ancient Novel: Pagan, Jewish, Christian (co-taught with David Rohrbacher)
Varieties of Judaism in the Modern World
Woman and Religion
Group Tutorials Taught and January Group Independent Study Projects Sponsored (involving an
average of 3-6 students)
A Queer Jewish Story, and Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism
Ancient Associations and Synagogues Tutorial
Beyond Pagan Survivals: Christianization and Syncretism in the Late Antique World
Eroticism, Sexuality and Gaze in Ancient Rabbinic Judaism
Exploring Talmud
Greco-Roman Meals Tutorial
History, Theory, Text Tutorial
Iron Age to Iron Chef: Food, Religion and History
Jewish Literature: Explorations of Religious and Cultural Identity
Kabbalah and Ecology: Reading David Seidenberg
Life After Death in Ancient Judaism
Midrash, Parables and Rabbinic Thought
Monastic Jewish Women and Men? Revisiting Historical Assumptions and Sources
Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism
Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Reading for Gender in the Dead Sea Library
Readings in Biblical Hebrew
Religion and Taboo
Ritual Studies: Museum and Art Praxis
Sex, Gender, and Jewish Identity
Slavery in Early Christianity
The End of the Time: As Seen through Early Jewish Eyes
When Jews were Women
Women Mediating Holiness in the Christian Catacombs
Theses Sponsored
2022 “Reclaiming Her Body: An Analysis of Hasidic Education on Modesty Regulations
and a Woman’s Ability to Conform Autonomously,” Megan Ballard (co-sponsored
with Aron Edidin).
2022 “Lillith: Mother of Demons or Feminist Ideal?,” Sarah Cooper.
2021 “Is the Gospel of Mark Apocalyptic?: An Exploration of Mark’s End-Time Rhetoric,”
Lucas Goeders.
2020 “It's the Same Way You Showed Me: How Frank Ocean Deals With the
Industry,” Andre Ayers (co-sponsored with Queen Zabriskie).
2019 “‘Lessons from Liberation Theology’: A letter to El Buen Vivir,” Paola Baez-Perez.
2019 “Stripped of Meaning: Revisiting Susanna’s Eroticization,” Chloe Baron.
2019 “‘All the Jews of the World’: An Examination of the Relationship between Passover Liturgy
and Disability Theology,” Ezra Katz.
2019 “‘This is Who We Are, This is Who I am’: Exploring Queerness in Cartoons through
Steven Universe,” Roxie Kennedy.
2019 “Beyond ‘Vessels to be Filled’: Improving Children’s Inclusion in Worship Spaces,” Katie Thurson.
2018 “The Blade of Witchcraft: The Construction of Evil as the Flawed Occam’s Razor of
Feminine Spirituality in the Middle Ages,” Conner Cherniak.
2018 “Authority, Gender, and Sacred Space: The Musical Reform-ation brought about by Women
Cantors,” Sophia Doescher.
2017 “The Touch of Translation: An Application of Digital Tools to the Study of Biblical Translation
from 1511 to the Present,” Kat Malone.
2017 “The Remaining Hours: A Contemporary Midrash, and its Analysis,” Logan Schulman (co-
sponsored with Nova Myhill).
2017 “Housing an Unspeakable Memory: Abstracted Manifestations of the Void of Jewish Life
within the Jewish Museum of Berlin,” Allya Yourish.
2016 “Rave, Symbol, Ritual and Cyborg: The Nature of Post-Technological Spiritual Experience,”
Shelby Felder.
2016 “Mysticism in Medici Florence: A Close Look at the Relationship of a Jew a Catholic Medici,”
Jessica Zimmerman (co-sponsored with Carrie Beneš).
2015 “The Eyes that Burn but do not See: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Hekhalot Rabbati Using
Dream Analysis,” Joshua Finkelstein.
2015 “Dancing Out of Bounds: The Disruptive Image of the Tavern Dancer in the Babylonian Talmud,”
Katherine Mullin.
2015 “From Religious Life to the Death of Politics: The Biopolitical Theology of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,”
Connor Wells.
2014 “Violent Conversions on Minorca: Examining Severus’ Epistula,” Sophia Blair.
2013 “Feminist Methodologies and Qumran Ideologies: Rhetorical Criticism of 1QS, The Community
Rule Scroll,” Lacy Mroz.
2013 “Ascending the Heavens on Conjured Dragons: Differentiating Between Magic and Religion
in Chinese Daoist Practice,” Estefan Rodriguez.
2012 “What about the Agape?: Understanding the Communal Love-Feast of Early Christianity,”
Delaney Anderson.
2012 “Learning to Live and to Lead: How Post-Secondary Religious Education Helps Women to
Shape Modern Orthodox Judaism in Israel,” Rachel Atwood.
2012 “El-Oh-El: Laughing Out Loud in the Book of Job,” Brian Johnson.
2011 "Pachomius and the Nag Hammadi Codices," Charles Carter.
2011 "A Re-Evaluation of Early Christian Pilgrimage: The Letters of Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome,
and Egeria," Emma Cawlfield.
2011 "Luke: The Canonical Remnant of a Marcionite Orthodoxy," Troy Konicki.
2011 "In Defense of Jewish Manhood: Monotheism, Circumcision, and Gender in Freud's
Construction of Jewish Identity," Jeremy Zorn.
2010 "Journeys to the Promised Land: An Analysis of Three Feminist Haggadahs," Jaclyn
Schwanemann.
2010 "'To the Synagogue': Constructions of Place in Ancient Judaism," Austin Taylor.
2010 "No (Wo)man is an Island: Protecting Children, a Cause For Concern," Jessica Yocum.
2009 "'Lie with me!': Unbounded Female Sexuality in Early Biblical Interpretation," Samantha
Samson.
2008 "Love in the Time of GMOs: Feminist Theologies and the Ethics of Transgenic Organisms,"
Brooke Denmark.
2008 "New Prophecy, New Orthodoxy: The Evolution of Early Christian Authority in Second
Century Asia Minor," Samyntha Kay Francis.
2008 "Ritualization in the Sevillian Holy Week: Theory on its Practice and the Practice of Theory,"
Mikhail Petersen.
2006 "Archibald MacLeish's J.B.: The Experimental Theistic Thesis," Patrick Young.
2005 "Female Authority in Paul's Letter to Rome: Placing Junia and Phoebe in Context," Peter
Fernandez.
2005 "Basic Ecclesial Communities in Mexico: Beyond Liberation Theology," Josef Mitkevicius.
2005 "Gender Perspectives in a Female Authored Buddhist Autohagiography," Meghan Jo
Rimelspach.
2004 "Eve-olution: Reimagining the Mother of Knowledge," Jaclyn Bergamino, (co-sponsor Miriam
Wallace).
Committee Service and University Governance
2020-2022 Provost's Advisory Committee (Co-chair A/Y 2021-22)
2020-2022 Co-Treasurer of NCUFF, New College affiliate of United Faculty of Florida
2018- 2019 Educational Policy Committee (Chair A/Y 2018-19)
2014-2019 Treasurer of NCUFF, New College affiliate of United Faculty of Florida
2017-2018 Environmental Studies Steering Committee
2016-2016 Secretary of the Faculty
2014-2016 Educational Policy Committee (Chair A/Y 2014-15)
2012-2013 President of NCUFF, New College affiliate of United Faculty of Florida
2010-2012 Provost's Advisory Committee (Chair A/Y 2011-12)
2007-2009 Educational Policy Committee
2005-2007 Secretary of the Faculty
2004-2005 Environmental Studies Steering Committee
Professional Activities
2016-present Co-Chair of Steering Committee: Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar
of the Society of Biblical Literature Seminar.
2003-present Coordinator: Annual Judaic Studies Public Lecture at New College of Florida,
sponsored by the Klingenstein Chair of Judaic Studies and the Jay Rudolph
Endowment. Lecturers have included: John Marshall 2004; Ross Kraemer 2005;
David Stern 2007; Jodi Magness 2008, Nora Rubel 2009; David Frankfurter 2010;
Maxine Grossman 2011; Jordan Rosenblum 2012; Cynthia Baker 2013; Jonathan
Klawans 2015; Tayla Fishman 2016; Rachel Neis 2017; Nicola Denzey Lewis 2018.
Gregg Gardner 2019; Sarah Imhoff 2022. Upcoming: Mira Beth Wasserman.
2006-2014 Editorial Committee: Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar of the Society of
Biblical Literature Seminar.
2008-2010 Steering Committee: Meals in the Greco-Roman World Seminar of the Society of
Biblical Literature Seminar.
Selected Adult Education Presentations
"Significant Financial Contributions of Ancient Jewish Women,” Temple Emanu-El, Sarasota-virtual (2021).
"Frankenstein and Genesis: Birth and Faith,” Campus Conversations at New College of Florida (February 2018).
"Why on this Night Do we Recline? Exploring Passover in the time of the Talmud,” Campus Conversations at New College of Florida (March 2017).
"Do Parents have a Role in Education of Older Students?: A Look into Talmudic Texts,"for Hillel’s Lunch and Learn, New College of Florida (2014).
"First Came Marriage–Early Jewish Weddings," for the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Sarasota (2014).
"Brides, Wedding and Politics: Tracing the Development of Wedding Blessings," for the Florida Region of the Women's League of Conservative Judaism, Sarasota (2011).
"Ancient Jewish Women Patrons" at Temple Sinai, Sarasota (2010).
"New Scholarship on the Lives of Jewish Women in Antiquity" at Temple Emanu-El, Sarasota (2008).
"Decoding Synagogues" at Temple Beth Sholom, Sarasota (2007).
"Betrothal Ritual: From Abduction to Caring Community" at Jewish Family and Children's Services, Sarasota (2007).
"A Question of Inclusion: Did Jewish Women Participate in Ancient Wedding Feasts? Finding and Interpreting Evidence" at Kobernick House, Sarasota (2006).
"Jews and Slavery during the Greco-Roman Period" at Kobernick House, Sarasota (2005).
"Judaisms and Christianities: The Early Years" at the Penn Club, Sarasota (2005).