teaching material . . . strategies

One of my motivations for putting together a digital archive of images from "Roman Judea" is to find new ways of incorporating material culture into my teaching. Currently, I use images of material objects (e.g. monuments, votives, statues, coins) to illustrate the points I make in class lecture and discussions. I show these using power point, because it is easy to use, although I only use minimal text. (I've noticed a number of my teaching colleagues proudly proclaim their dislike of PP or happily point to the fact that students praise them for not using it. I find it helpful for showing images, but like other tools it takes time to use it in effective manner.) I think using images as illustrations is important and my students often comment that it makes things "more real." Seeing, for many of them, is believing and if I can help them that Rome celebrated the destruction of the Temple by showing images of the Arch of Titus, than I've done something pedagogically important. Or, to reference one of my favorite images, if I can show my students that ancient Romans looked to the gods for healing, which can help understand Jesus' healing ministry, by showing pictures of votive uterii (see above), I've had a good day!

While material culture can be used for illustration, I'm interested in other ways it might be used pedagogically. This interest is related to how I use visual art images to prompt student to think about biblical texts. Dan Clanton and I actually cowrote an essay on using art to teach the Bible an edited volume entitled The Bible and Popular Culture and the Arts: Resources for Instructors (Roncase and Gray, eds., SBL) which outlines different models for using images to teach texts. An excerpted version of the essay can be found at the SBL forum. One of the models we propose is using art as illumination. By this we mean that images can be used to prompt students to engage complex ideas. Images can be used as entry ways into abstract thinking about texts and interpretative issues. I offer some examples of this in the Roncase and Gray volume.

Now that I'm thinking about material culture, I want to find ways of using material culture in a similar way . . . as more than illustration. I'm interested in thinking about ways that the things I see and experience in Roman Judea might be used to develop case studies for students to use in conjunction with class readings or a type of problem based learning that focuses on the past. I can imagine using material culture images to get students to discover for themselves that the boundary between "Judaism" and "Hellenism" was blurry to non-existent. Or, perhaps, I can put together a set of images and readings that allow students to see the complex ways that space and gender interact, complicating the simple notion that female space was private and male space was public. I guess one of the things that I need to think about now is how to collect images (i.e. take pictures) in a thoughtful enough manner to facilitate this. I'm sure I'll be talking about this more as I actually begin my archive.

Also, a topic for the future . . . teaching students to read material culture objects. I've worked on guides for teaching students to read images in a way that is analogous to texts, but now I need to think more carefully about reading stones and bones!

looking for acanthus and meander

As I mentioned before, one set of questions I'm taking with me as I experience Roman Judea is how first-century (BCE and CE) Judean architecture may have signaled Roman patronage. Herod the Great had an interesting relationship to Roman power, as I'm learning in Martin Goodman's Rome and Jerusalem (2008). Although this book is over 600 pages, pointing to Goodman's detail, it really is interesting. In fact, I'm finding it very hard to put down. Goodman's style is clear and interesting as he explores the political realities of Rome and Jerusalem and their complex inter-relations in the first centuries BCE and CE. His driving question is what led to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70. You can find a review of the book here. But back to Herod, he was a supporter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, yet after Actium he was able to develop a relationship with Octavian. Octavian even expanded the territory under Herod's control and Herod honored him by dedicating the new port Caesarea to the Emperor--a prime example of the patron-client relationship if ever there was one. Of course, the relationship between Rome and Jerusalem didn't end with Herod (d. 4BCE) . . .

Given this, I'm interested in looking for decorative patterns that might signal this patronage. In particular, I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for the acanthus plant and the meander pattern, two motifs that have a prominent place on the Ara Pacis, which was dedicated in 9BCE in Rome. These decorative patterns suggest the abundance and life that comes along with the peace of the Empire, as our Italy study abroad students know oh so well. (My co-teacher and I have students sit and "read" the Ara Pacis, encouraging them to attend as closely to the lower panels as the figurative panels of the upper half of the monument.)



That these patterns signaled patronage is evident in Pompeii, where the Fuller's Building, which sits right on the Forum, is decorated with a boarder of acanthus and little animals (e.g. frogs, birds) like the Ara Pacis. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a picture of this . . . clearly, I need to go back to Italy to take one!

More about the meander pattern later . . . perhaps.

thinking about next steps: material culture and the NT

I'm currently in the midst of what I'll call a research/ writing gap. I just finished a draft of chapter for my current project and I need to move on to the next chapter. I'd like to start this chapter now, however, I'm going to be traveling for a couple of weeks. I'll be on a research trip to Israel and Jordan where I'll be working on a project related to my teaching and not a project related to my writing. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure how to navigate this gap. I took a couple days to write a book review, but now that's completed and I am at loose ends again . . .

Maybe this is a good time to sit back and think about what I want out of the research trip. The program requires that each participant have a project that relates to the trip, which focuses on the area ruled by the Herodian dynasty during the Roman and Late Antique periods. It would be nice to have something publishable out of this, in fact.

I have proposed a project related to teaching the NT through material culture. I have articulated two specific foci within this broad topic.

The first set of research questions is related to a course I am currently developing entitled “Messiahs and Martyrs.” This course is intended to replace and improve upon a catalog course on “Jesus and the Gospels,” by offering an examination of first-century Messianic movements, an understanding that situates written texts within their historical and material milieu. The course will naturally address issues related to the Qumran community, as well as the controversies surrounding the events at Massada; however, it will also attend to the presence of the Roman Empire within Galilee and Jerusalem as way of encouraging students to think about Messianic movements as responses to other political/ religious/ social discourses. In particular, I am curious about the ways in which people living within the Herodian period may have imitated and appropriated aspects of Roman and/ or Hellenistic culture.

The second set of questions involves the ways in which gender, masculine and feminine, is regulated and represented in ancient Judea/ Galilee. I am curious to see the ways that space may have reflected gender norms and how images may or may not have been used to communicate particular gender ideals. I would try to think about the ways that this is similar to or different from what we see in Roman Italy. Additionally, I would be looking for visual clues to how people might have embraced and resisted such ideals. These types of questions would be incorporated into both my future research on gender in the ancient world and in my teaching, specifically a course I teach on gender, sex and family in early Christianity.

In addition to using material culture to explore these questions, I plan on working on a digital archive of images for teaching. In order to receive funding from my institution, I needed to put together a proposal related to my work in the classroom. Since I use images to teach, this seemed like a natural project.

My question in a nutshell is how material culture can be used to engage students in critical thinking about apocalyptic movements and gender construction?

exploring the apocalypse one puppy at a time

I enjoy reading blogs. I think they are an interesting way for both author and audience to think about different ideas. I've never kept a personal blog myself, although I've used blogs for teaching. I was afraid a personal blog might make me appear self-absorbed. However, I never think others who have blogs are self-absorbed. It makes me think that my assumption that others would interpret a blog as self-absorbed is actually a self-important assumption. Oh my. So, here I am starting my own blog. And, yes, I am probably self-absorbed. So what?

I hope this will be a place for me to record and possibly share my thoughts on teaching, writing, researching and working within the field of biblical studies. I approach these activities from the perspective of a newly tenured, feminist professor at a mid-size university that values both teaching and scholarship. (Of course, I should include the caveat that nothing I say reflects the opinions of my university: My ideas, in theory, are my own.)

My academic interests are anchored by the Book of Revelation, a book with which I have a long and somewhat ambivalent relationship. (More on that later, I'm sure.) I am especially interested in the ways that Revelation's imagery captures the imaginations of audiences across time and my current research/ writing project examines how certain late-medieval and modern visionary women appropriate the text's bridal imagery. I also have done work on the ways that Revelation participates with Roman social discourse about family, sexuality and gender and I'd love to work this into a book length project. However, I have to remember, "One major project at a time."

My teaching is much more broad than my research. I teach introductory courses on religious studies and the New Testament, both of which I truly enjoy. I love introducing students to the critical study of religion and religious texts. I also have the opportunity to teach a number of more specialized courses, including courses on ancient apocalyptic literature and its interpretations, ancient messianic/ martyr traditions, gender and sexuality in the New Testament and early Christianity, contemporary biblical hermeneutics (e.g. feminist and queer criticism, postcolonial interpretation) and the like. I also regularly co-teach a course in Italy on the ways that Italy's ancient traditions (including religious and artistic traditions) continue to shape the present. I've had the opportunity to write quite a bit about teaching and enjoy thinking about pedagogy. I'm especially interested in using images to engage students in critical thinking about biblical texts and ancient traditions.

I know none of this relates directly to puppies, but I can't imagine not referencing dogs. I'm sure I'll find some way of tying them into the conversation--I'm good at that.