As a PhD candidate in Religion with a primary focus on the ancient Mediterranean world, I specialize in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. My current work engages contemporary scholarship that understands Paul as a Jewish religious expert whose particular expression of Jewishness was one among many within the interconnected cultural and religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean world.
I am writing a dissertation provisionally entitled 2 Corinthians 3 within Judaism under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Thiessen. This research explores 2 Corinthians 3–4 on two levels. On a metacritical level, I evaluate the assumptions underlying the “Paul within Judaism” paradigm against the evidence of this passage, which has received limited attention within this interpretative framework. On a historical-critical level, I examine a range of themes that illuminate the passage within its ancient Mediterranean context, including conceptions of human transformation, ancient theories of sight and perception, heavenly ascent traditions, Jewish angelology, law (including halakhic and hierarchical reasoning), divinity and deification, and embodiment and identity construction (with particular attention to ethnic reasoning).
Previously, my work focused on the Hebrew Bible (M.Th.), more specifically, the Torah/Pentateuch and the characterization of women in the Book of Genesis from a narrative criticism approach. I also completed graduate studies in the sociology of religion (M.Phil.). Throughout my education, especially during my bachelor’s degree, I received a strong foundation in ancient languages, particularly Classical Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, and Koine Greek. Consequently, I also work as an online instructor of these languages and now have more than 10 years of experience teaching them, most of which has taken place in online settings. In connection with my interest and experience in teaching and pedagogy, I was honoured to receive the 2025 Graduate Pedagogy Fellowship from the Life Worth Living Program at Yale University. As part of this fellowship, I designed a course syllabus on what it means to live a meaningful life from a variety of religious and non-religious perspectives. This also reflects my growing interest in how the humanities and social sciences contribute to human and nonhuman flourishing, especially in the face of challenging circumstances such as death, grief, suffering, and ecological crisis.
Education
- McMaster University, Ph.D. in Religious Studies (ABD)
- MF Vitenskapelig Høyskole, M.Phil. in Religious Studies (Sociology of Religion) (2017)
- MF Vitenskapelig Høyskole, M.Th. in Hebrew Bible Studies (2015)
- UNASP, B.A. in Theology and Biblical Studies (2012)
Presentations
- “Blinded by ‘The God of This Age’: Divine Agency and Ethnic Hierarchy in 2 Cor 3–4.” Presented in the sessionNonhuman Beings in the Ancient World at the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS), 2026 Annual Meeting, Sackville, NB, Canada, May 28–30, 2026.
Book Reviews
- Lyon, Jeremy D., The Genesis Creation Account in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2019. Review published by Reading Religion, February 24, 2022.
Awards/Grants
- Graduate Pedagogy Fellowship, Life Worth Living Program, Yale University (2025)
- The Abby Goldblatt Memorial Scholarship, McMaster University (2023)
- Lilojean Mae Frid Graduate Scholarship, McMaster University (2022–2026)
- ‘Prøve i Dansk 3’ (PD3), Official Danish Language Certification (2018)
- Teaching Assistantship Award (Classical Hebrew), UNASP (2008–2009)