Susan Ackerman (biblical scholar)
American Hebrew Bible scholar
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Susan Ackerman (born September 24, 1958)[1] is an American Hebrew Bible scholar known for writing about biblical women.[2][3]
Ackerman majored in religion at Dartmouth College (A.B., 1980) and Harvard University (M.T.S., 1980; Ph.D. 1987).[4] Her dissertation was entitled Syncretism in Israel as Reflected in Sixth-Century Prophetic Texts.[5] She later taught at University of Arizona and Winthrop College in South Carolina.[6]
In 1990, Ackerman joined Dartmouth's faculty.[2] There, she was a Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, a Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and a Professor of Jewish Studies.[2] There, she specialized in the religion of ancient Israel and the religions of Israel's neighbors (Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan), especially women's religious history.[2]
In 2024, Ackerman retired from teaching and remained in Hanover, New Hampshire to complete Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality, a book on women's rituals in Ancient Israel.[2] Her parents George and Peggy Ackerman passed during her work on the book.[7] She published the book in 2025 and dedicated it to her sister Laura.[7]
She has been president of the American Schools of Oriental Research since 2014.[8]
Awards
- Dean of Faculty Award for Exceptional Service (2023)[2]
Bibliography
Books:
- Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Scholars Press, 1992)[9]
- Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel (Doubleday, 1998)[10]
- When Heroes Love: The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David (Columbia University Press, 2005)[11]
- Celebrate Her for the Fruit of Her Hands: Essays in Honor of Carol L. Meyers (Eisenbrauns, 2015), with academics Charles E. Carter and Beth Alpert Nakhai[12]
- Gods, Goddesses, and the Woman Who Serve Them (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022)[13]
- Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel (2022, Yale University Press, prior versions published in other books edited by Ackerman, like Levites and Priests in Biblical History and Tradition)[14]
- Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality: Women's Life-Cycle Ritual in Ancient Israel (Oxford University Press, 2025)[7]
Chapters:
- "The Blind, the Lame, and the Barren Shall Not Come into the House." Chapter 2, Disability Studies and Biblical Literature (2011)[15]
- "I have hired you with my Son's Mandrakes": Women's reproductive magic in ancient Israel." Chapter 1, Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World (2015)[16]
Articles:
- "What if Judges had been written by a Philistine?" Biblical Interpretation, Vol. 8, No. 1-2 (January 2000)[17]
- "Why Is Miriam Also Among the Prophets? (And Is Zipporah Among The Priests?)" Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 121, No. 1 (Spring 2002)[18]
- "Digging up Deborah: Recent Hebrew Bible Scholarship on Gender and the Contribution of Archaeology." Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 66, No. 4 (December 2003)[19]