Erin Galgay Walsh

Faculty Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature; Associate Faculty, Center for Middle Eastern Studies; also in the College

PhD, Duke University

Erin G. Walsh is a scholar of ancient and late antique Christianity. Her research and teaching encompass authors writing in Latin, Greek, and Syriac, with a focus on biblical interpretation, asceticism, and gender. Her current book project examines the reception of biblical women within Syriac and Greek liturgical poetry, highlighting the writings of Narsai of Nisibis, Jacob of Serugh, and Romanos Melodos. This research has led to a second book project, an extended comparative study of the poetic artistry and interpretative practices of Narsai and Jacob of Serugh. Her courses cover a variety of topics in biblical and apocryphal literature, the history of biblical interpretation, Syriac language and literature, embodied practices, Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity, religious poetry, and multilingualism in the late antique and early Byzantine east. She is an affiliated faculty member with the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. During the 2018-2019 academic year, she was a Junior Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection of Harvard University. Professor Walsh also serves as Editor in Chief at Ancient Jew Review, a non-profit web journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of ancient Judaism.