We are excited to announce that Dr. Rodney Caruthers Jr., current Visiting Assistant Professor and Bruce Gray Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Religion, will be returning to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as a 2021-22 Fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies. The theme for the upcoming year will focus on “Second Temple Judaism: The Challenge of Diversity.” Under the leadership of head fellow and U. of Michigan Professor of Middle East Studies and Judaic Studies, Gabriele Boccaccini, thirteen scholars from four countries will explore various aspects of religious, cultural, and political life during the period dating from the age of the Persian King Cyrus in the sixth-century BCE up to the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the second century of the Common Era.
Dr. Caruthers’ project for this Fellowship year is entitled “Judaism and its Practice Beyond Ethiopian Rivers.”
In other recent news, Dr. Caruthers co-chaired the Graduate Enoch Seminar (founded by Dr. Boccaccini), one of the premier scholarly forums for research in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Though we’ll miss him greatly, we are so grateful to have had Dr. Caruthers in the Department this past year. We look forward to following his research and to hosting him again at the College.