Dr Suzanna Millar

Chancellor's Fellow in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

  • School of Divinity

Contact details

Address

Street

New College
Mound Place

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH1 2LX

Availability

  • Office hour: Tuesdays (except 3 Oct and 21 Nov), 3pm-4pm, room 2.07, New College
    I'm happy to meet with any student (in-person or online) at a mutually convenient time. Please email me to organise a meeting.

Biography

Background

I wrote my PhD at the University of Cambridge, and then moved to Leeds (Jan 2018) as a teaching fellow in biblical studies. In July 2018, I moved to Edinburgh, to work first as a teaching fellow and now as a chancellor's fellow. I examine the Hebrew Bible in its historical context and original language, as well as applying newer interpretive methods to the text. My research has tended to focus in two main areas: wisdom literature and ecological/animal hermeneutics. 

I am fascinated by the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible, and I recently co-edited the "Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature". My PhD thesis analysed the Book of Proverbs, exploring how individual proverbs are open to multiple interpretations and multiple applications (published as "Genre and Openness in Proverbs 10:1–22:16" [SBL Press, 2020]). In my work, I examine the literary and poetic complexity of the wisdom books, their rich imagery and nuanced, often ambiguous language. Recently, I have focussed most on the book of Job, especially the language of the non-human world throughout the book. 

This brings me to my second main interest: ecology and non-human animals. I am excited to bring interdisciplinary insights - especially from animal studies - to bear on biblical texts, and I currently co-chair the 'Animals and the Bible' research group for the European Association of Biblical Studies and the 'Animal Studies and the Bible' group for the Society of Biblical Literature. I am editing the forthcoming "Oxford Handbook of the Bible and Animals" and am working on a monograph provisionally entitles "Animals and Power in the Books of Samuel". This project examines how non-human animals figure in matrix of power relations alongside various groups of marginalised humans (e.g. women, foreigners, the poor) in 1 and 2 Samuel. For this I incorporate insights from other contemporary interpretive methods, such as feminist and postcolonial hermeneutics. More broadly, I am interested in the hermeneutical and ethical questions around the interpretation of the Bible.

My recent engagement in this area has included:

Qualifications

MA(Cantab), MPhil, PhD

Undergraduate teaching

Prophets and their Oracles

Moses and the Torah

Old Testament Texts

The Hebrew Bible and Contemporary Issues

Introducing Biblical Hebrew

Intermediate Biblical Hebrew

Ethics and Society

Ancient Wisdom: Biblical Sages and their Writings

Theology and Religious Studies Foundation Seminar

Postgraduate teaching

Selected Topics in Biblical Studies

The Hebrew Bible and Contemporary Issues (PG)

Introducing Biblical Hebrew (PG)

Intermediate Biblical Hebrew (PG)

Ancient Wisdom: Biblical Sages and their Writings (PG)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

View all 20 publications on Research Explorer

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