On Monday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m., Biblical scholar and field archeologist Carol L. Meyers, PhD, the Mary Grace Wilson Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Duke University, will deliver the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies. This virtual lecture is free and open to the public, and will be delivered as a Zoom webinar. Register to attend at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. 

Dr. Meyers' lecture, "The Ancient 'Gender Gap': The Bible, Archeology, and Israelite Women", will use archeological evidence from her 1991 book, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, to reconstruct the lives of everyday Israelites who lived more than 2,000 years ago. In her lecture, she will present a glimpse into women’s roles in both household economy and in household religion, offering some intriguing conclusions about women’s power.

Dr. Meyers has written hundreds of articles, reviews, and books. Her 2012 book, Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, is a landmark study of women in ancient Israelite society. Her other books include a commentary on the book of Exodus, and several excavation reports (with Eric Meyers). Among her co-edited volumes are Archaeology, Bible, Politics, and the Media (2012), The Bible in the Public Square (2014), The Architecture, Stratigraphy, and Artifacts of the Western Summit of Sepphoris (2018), and The T&T Clark Handbook of Food in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (2022).

As a field archaeologist, Dr. Meyers has been a staff member or co-director of numerous archaeological projects in Israel. She has frequently consulted for media productions relating to archaeology and the Bible, including A&E’s Mysteries of the Bible series, the DreamWorks film The Prince of Egypt, and Nova’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets.” She has also served on the editorial boards of many reference works and journals, and was a senior editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. She is currently a trustee of the American Society of Overseas Research, the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. She also served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Reservations are requested for this lecture. Please contact the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or call 203-254-4000, ext. 2066. For more information about other Bennett Center events, visit fairfield.edu/bennett.