Judith Perkins

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Judith Perkins (b. 13 June 1944) is Professor Emerita of Classics and Humanities at Saint Joseph College, Connecticut. [1] She is an expert on early Christianity, Latin poetry, and the ancient novel.

Contents

Education

Perkins is a trained Classicist. She received her BA in Latin from Mount Holyoke College. [2] 1 She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1972. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Valerius Flaccius; Synonyms and Style. [3]

Career

In 1976, Perkins was hired to teach Classics at Saint Joseph College, Connecticut (now St Joseph University). where she is now Emerita. In 1979, she attended a National Endowment of the Humanities summer seminar led by Wayne Meeks on the social world of early Christianity at Yale University. The timing of the seminar enabled Perkins to manage childcare responsibilities, and subsequently she combined her research on Classics with early Christianity. Her insistence on bringing the two fields together has been described as 'one of her most significant contributions'. [2] 2 Perkins was a long-standing contributor to the International Conference on the Ancient Novel (ICAN), and contributed to the field by mentoring younger scholars [2] 2 [4]

Perkins authored two important monographs, The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era, and Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era.The Suffering Self had an 'enormous impact on how scholars of early Christianity understand depictions of the body in pain'. [2] 2Roman Imperial Identities examines how two cosmopolitan social entities constructed specific identities during the consolidation of the Roman empire.The book gave the reader a better understanding of Christianity as a distinct phenomenon and the broader world it inhabited. [2] 2

In 2019, Perkins was honoured with a Festschrift, The Narrative Self in Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Judith Perkins, published by the Society of Biblical Literature, and featuring contributions from Virginia Burrus, Kate Cooper, and Ilaria Ramelli. [5]

Select bibliography

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References

  1. "Judith Perkins, Ph.D." University of Saint Joseph. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 The narrative self in early Christianity : essays in honor of Judith Perkins. Judith Perkins, Janet E. Spittler. Atlanta. 2019. ISBN   978-1-62837-251-9. OCLC   1102325424.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. Perkins, Judith (1972). Valerius Flaccius; Synonyms and style, by Judith Bailey Perkins (Thesis). Toronto. OCLC   224093256.
  4. "The narrative self in early Christianity: essays in honor of Judith Perkins – Bryn Mawr Classical Review". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  5. "Society of Biblical Literature". secure.aidcvt.com. Retrieved 2021-03-13.