Meira Kensky

 

Meira Kensky is a Ph.D. student in Biblical Studies in the Divinity School

Meira Kensky grew up in Ann Arbor and Philadelphia. She received a B.A. in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1999, and an M.A. from the Divinity School in 2001. Meira is a Ph.D. student in Biblical Studies.

I was very nervous about coming to graduate school because I had heard that departments filled with intensely competitive students were the standard. Visits to various graduate schools only heightened my impressions of cutthroat competition and increased my anxiety. However, visiting the Divinity School provided a welcomed exception. Both the faculty and the students that I talked to were eager to hear about my past work as well as my plans for future research. They were friendly, outgoing, and genuinely committed to providing a vigorous but comfortable environment for research, which was my primary concern in selecting a graduate school.

Upon matriculation in the master’s program, I was immediately overwhelmed by the number and variety of classes available to me, the quality of my fellow students, and the sheer amount of required work. Fortunately, my faculty advisor was very supportive and encouraged me to take the time I needed to explore the various avenues available for my research. In addition, I made several close friends among the students, which helped me to find my place at the Div School and to feel less anxious—and, in fact, quite comfortable. Above all, it is this atmosphere of support and mutual encouragement that really defines the Div School for me. Whether in a classroom setting, during a late night phone call about specific research or methodological questions, or while engaged in a lengthy conversation in the student lounge, the interactions I have with my fellow students always provide me with the additional energy and inspiration I need. This sense of camaraderie—rather than competition—fuels my research.

I am a student in the Biblical studies area, concentrating on New Testament literature. It is a very exciting field at the Divinity School, with regard to both faculty and students. The faculty includes three New Testament scholars, each with distinct interests, and all of whom are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. We also have two senior scholars on the Hebrew Bible faculty. With regard to my research, it is particularly fortunate to have Michael Fishbane on the faculty, as he not only studies Hebrew Bible, but is also a specialist in Rabbinic literature. My interests lie with both New Testament and Rabbinics, and I have been grateful to have excellent advising and mentoring in both fields.

As for the students, they are an exceptionally interesting group with remarkably diverse backgrounds. The students include clergy members, agnostics, international students, and many others. Their research interests reflect this variety; indeed, student workshops often feel like miniature meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature. I’ve had classes with aspiring scholars from Classics, the Oriental Institute, Jewish Studies, History, and other departments around the university. Each class is a locus for interdisciplinary activity because we each raise such different questions and bring to the table such a variety of methods. And again, the sense of mutual support is outstanding.

With regard to my personal research project, I am interested in the relationship between emergent Christianity and emergent Rabbinic literature, and especially in how the two respective groups behind these phenomena define themselves in terms of their shared history and culture. More specifically, I analyze the manners in which the two communities envision the end of time and the final judgment, and what the various portrayals of this definitive moment can tell us about the theologies and priorities of the divergent traditions. I also investigate how the motif of the final judgment and in particular the last trial can be used in various types of literature to different rhetorical ends. For example, what might it mean if this motif showed up in a homily? What about in a letter of consolation? An aggadic midrash? How does one motif travel and find different outlets through Christian and Jewish texts and imaginations?

I chose to pursue this project from within the Biblical Studies area because the New Testament texts provide ample opportunities to study the motif of the final judgment in different genres of literature. In addition, the fact that the New Testament texts were likely consolidated and canonized in the middle of the second century adds another layer to the project. What does it mean when different visions of this event appear in the same authoritative body of literature? How does this change the nature of the motif itself, and does this in turn affect how the motif will appear in the future?

The Biblical Studies area is well-suited to my research interests, as it includes studies in both Hebrew Bible and New Testament, in contrast to departments in which I would have to focus more exclusively on one group of texts at the expense of the other. Pursuing work in Biblical Studies has given me the opportunity to study the history of Biblical interpretation in both early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, fostering my understanding of how these texts originally functioned within the Hebrew Bible, and how they have been translated to different communities with different purposes. This has increased my appreciation of the complicated nature of the transmission of texts in the Ancient Mediterranean World, and made me a more proficient scholar with greater attentiveness to subtleties. And because the department is wide-ranging, I have also been able to spend substantial time studying the history of Judaism, something that I might not have been able to do in a department elsewhere.

Of course, my work would never have gotten off the ground without the support of a faculty so well attuned to my research interests. I have spent countless hours in classes with Hans-Yosef Klauck, Michael Fishbane, and Margaret Mitchell, along with many other members of the Divinity School faculty who have shaped my graduate experience. The quality of the faculty and their commitment to students is the reason I chose to pursue my Ph.D. at the Divinity School.