Carmen Palmer

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Carmen Palmer's research and teaching span the areas of Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and the literature of ancient Judaism, with a focus on converts, identity, and women in the sectarian movement affiliated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. She has taught at Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto, Martin Luther University College (federated with Wilfred Laurier University), and other institutions prior to arriving at Stetson in 2021. Palmer is an inaugural recipient of Stetson's Breakiron-Evans/Brockway Pre-Tenure Award.

  • PhD, University of St. Michael's College
  • MDiv Emmanuel College, University of Toronto
  • BA, University of British Columbia

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Carmen Palmer

Biography

Carmen Palmer, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stetson University. She received a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of St. Michael's College, in the University of Toronto. Palmer's areas of teaching and research are the Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and texts relating to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and the ancient Mediterranean. Her research narrative follows the contours of identity and conversion in ancient Judaism, drawing on concepts of ethnicity theory and looking comparatively across a wide body of cultures and textual sources. Her first book, Converts in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Ger and Mutable Ethnicity (Brill, 2018), assesses the male gentile convert to Judaism, expressed in the figure of the ger, while her second project assesses the realm and agency of the female convert in the sectarian movement affiliated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Palmer has also co-published a volume addressing new methods in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship (Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat: New Methods and Perspectives, SBL Press, 2020). She is past-Chair of the International Cooperation Initiative Committee of the Society of Biblical Literature. 

More About Carmen Palmer

Areas of Expertise

  • Hebrew Bible
  • Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran
  • Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
  • Ancient Judaism
  • Conversion and Ethnicity Theory

Course Sampling

  • Introduction to Biblical Literature
  • Envisioning the Psalms
  • Gender and Difference in Biblical Texts and Traditions
  • Immigrants, Outsiders, and the Biblical Tradition
  • Prophets of Social Justice
  • Elementary Biblical Hebrew
  • The Search for Wisdom
  • Monsters and Beasts in the Bible
  • Apocalyptic Visions and American Culture

Books

  • Converts in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Ger and Mutable Ethnicity. STDJ (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah) 126. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018.

Edited Volumes

  • Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat: New Methods and Perspectives. Edited by Carmen Palmer, Andrew R. Krause, Eileen Schuller, and John Screnock. EJL (Early Judaism and Its Literature) 52. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020.

Translated Books

  • Translator (French to English) for Macchi, Jean-Daniel. Esther. IECOT (International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament). Edited by Adele Berlin. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2018.

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

  • "Women and Conversion in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Finding a Viable Marker of Intent Where There is No Circumcision." Journal of the Jesus Movement in Its Jewish Setting 10 (2023): 22-37.
  • "Naomi the Nurse: Obed's Ambiguous Identity Transmission." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 47 (2023): 277-288.
  • “Searching for an Inclusive Approach to Biblical Laws Relating to Women: Observing Innertextual Developments in the Dead Sea Scrolls as an Instructive Tool.” Feminist Theology 31 (2022): 65-75.
  • “Philo’s Hellenistic-Jewish Approach in On the Decalogue and On the Contemplative Life: Blending Wisdom of Solomon’s Critique against Idols with a Hellenistic Notion of Moderation.” Journal of Ancient Judaism 13 (2022):186-201.
  • "'A Few Good (Adopted) Men': A Renewed Assessment of the Influences for Paul's Adoption Metaphor through an Analysis of Women's Marginal Place in Jewish, Greek, and Roman Adoption Traditions." Journal of the Jesus Movement in Its Jewish Setting 7 (2020): 1-25.http://www.jjmjs.org
  • "Investigating the Female Slave of the Damascus Document and Hypothetical Mechanisms of Her Conversion." Jewish Law Association Studies 28 (2020): 161-173.
  • "Circumcision of the Heart in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Second Temple Period: Spiritual; Moral; and Ethnic." Pages 327-351 in Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat. Edited by Carmen Palmer, Andrew Krause, Eileen Schuller, and John Screnock. EJL 52. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020.
  • "Mirroring the Object of the Lesson: The Creative Process of Scriptural Rewriting as an Effective Practice for Teaching Sacred Texts." Teaching Theology and Religion 21 (2018): 47-56.