Matthew Chalmers

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, Washington and Lee UniversityPhD, 2019

Website

Matthew Chalmers defended his dissertation, “Representations of Samaritans in Late Antique Jewish and Christian Texts,” in May 2019, and took up a visiting position in the Department of Religion at Washington and Lee University, teaching courses in Bible, Jewish Studies, and Ancient Christianities. His work focuses on questions of identity and difference, at present exploring how attention to the Samaritans, an important ethnoreligious minority who also trace their identity to ancient Israel, can arrest and adjust scholarly accounts of the history of Judaism and Christianity. He brings the tools of the critical scholar of religion, particularly postcolonial and literary critical approaches, together with ancient sources, from Josephus and the New Testament to late antique Christian literature, Palestinian midrashim (including the Samaritan Tibåt Mårqe), and classical rabbinic texts.

Education

PhD, University of Pennsylvania;

MPhil, University of Oxford;

BA, University of Oxford

Research Areas
Jewish Studies, New Testament and Christian Origins, Samaritans