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Dr Ann Jeffers

Tutor in Sacrifice, Praise and Wisdom (Level 5)

Dr Ann Jeffers is a Senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was Director of Research and Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at Heythrop College where she lectured from 1990.

Her research interests, while focusing on the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, cover a wide range of subjects, from magic in the ancient world, to gender and ancient religions, with a special interest in the religion practiced by women and in mystery religions.

More recently, her research interests have focused on reception of the Bible in literature and the visual arts. Her recent work includes studies of ancient constructs of space, visual exegesis with a special focus on sixteenth century Bible illustrations, and the role of the imaginary in biblically inspired images. She now teaches a variety of courses on biblical reception, magic, mystery religions and gender in the Classics department at the City Lit, London.

Dr Jeffers is also an active member of The International Exchange on Media and Religion to which she has contributed a number of publications.

Module taught:

  • Sacrifice, Praise and Wisdom (Level 5)

Publications

Magic and Divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996).  Volume VIII in Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East, ed.  By B. Halpern and M.H.E. Weippert.

“Gender und Medien der Religiösen Kommunikation”, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Anna-Katharina Hopflinger, Ann Jeffers (Eds.), in Handbuch Gender und Religion, Göttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, 201-208.

“Sapere Aude: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) und The Woman’s Bible”, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Anna-Katharina Hopflinger, Ann Jeffers (Eds.), in Handbuch Gender und Religion, Göttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, 61-68.

“Kosmologie und geschlechtsspezifische Weltbilder Beispiele aus der jüdischen Antike”,
Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Anna-Katharina Hopflinger, Ann Jeffers (Eds.), in Handbuch Gender und Religion, Göttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, 256-273.

‘“Nor by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by Prophets”: The Story of the Woman at the Pit in 1 Samuel 28’ in Seeing With Different Eyes (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).

“Seeing is Believing. Representations of Women in the Luther Bible of 1534”, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati and Christopher Rowland (Eds.) in Approaches to the Visual in Religion. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, 169-186.

“Wicked Witches of the West: Construction of Space and Gender in Jezreel”, Mark K. George (Ed.) in Constructions of Space IV. Further Developments in Examining Ancient Israel’s Social Space, New York/London/New Delhi/Sydney:Bloomsbury, 2013, 76-91

“The Construction of the ‘Alien’ in the Social Imaginary of 16th Century Germany: The Woman of Endor from Religious Mediator to Witch”, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati (Ed.), in Religion in Cultural Imaginary. Explorations in Visual and Martial Practices, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2015, 39-54.

“The Oldest Trick in the  Book”, Dolores Zoé Bertschinger, Natalie Fritz, Anna-Katherina Höpflinger, Marie-Therese Mäder (Eds.), in Augen Blicke. 29 Perspektiven auf Religion. Festschrift zum 50. Geburtstag von Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati. 2017, 106-111.

“Forget It: The Case of Women’s Rituals in Ancient Israel, or How to Remember the woman of Endor”, Yvonne Sherwood (Ed.) in The Bible and Feminism. Remapping the Field, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 277-295.

“Women, Magic and Myth in Ugaritic Texts and the Hebrew Bible”, Laura Quick, Ekaterina E. Kozlova, Sonja Noll, Philip Y. Yoo, in To Gaul, to Greece and into Noah’s Ark: Essays in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, Journal Of Semitic Studies Supplement 44, Oxford University Press, 1919, 71-80.

“Ökofeminismus. Über die Ausbeutung von Frau und Natur”, Anna-Katherina Höpflinger, Ann Jeffers, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati (Eds.) in Handbuch Gender und Religion. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021, 115-126.

“The Politics of Death. Death and Politics in Victorian England”, in Highgate Cemetery, in Highgate Cemetery. Images Practices in Past and Present, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2020, 79-92.

“Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? Performativity of Living Images”, in Highgate Cemetery, in Highgate Cemetery. Images Practices in Past and Present, Baden-Baden: Nomos (2020), 329-348.

“Ökofeminismus. Über die Ausbeutung von Frau und Natur”, Anna-Katherina Höpflinger, Ann Jeffers, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati (Eds.) in Handbuch Gender und Religion. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021, 115-126.

“Gender und Religion in Tradierungsprozessen: Einleitung”, Anna-Katherina Höpflinger, Ann Jeffers, Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati (Eds.) in Handbuch Gender und Religion. Göttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021, 265-270.

“Miriam in Literature”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR).

“Noah’s Wife in Literature”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR).

“Oaths and Vows in Literature”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR).

“Omens in Literature”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), to be published 2023.

“Ruth in Literature”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) to be published 2024.

“The Road to Nowhere? A Critique and a Re-imagining of Religion in Europe in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia”, Anna-Katherina Höpflinger, Stephanie Knauss, Marie-Therese Mäder (Eds.) in Religion in Representations of Europe. Shared an Contested Practices, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2023, 37-64.

“Biblical (re) imaginings in Margaret’s Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale”, to be published in JRFM (Journal of Religion, Film, Media) in 2024.