Ashleigh Elser, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Theological Studies

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Courses Taught

Women in the Bible; God-Talk: Ultimate Questions in Theology

Education

Ph.D. in Religion, University of Virginia, 2017  
M.A. in Religion, Yale Divinity School, 2011 

Research Interests

• Hebrew Bible  

• History of Biblical Interpretation 

• Biblical Hermeneutics and Textual Difficulty 

• Gender and Biblical Interpretation 

• Animals in the Hebrew Bible 

Publications and Media Placements

Select Publications

“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Elijah’s Blackbirds,” Biblical Interpretation 32.2, pp. 144-162 (2024)

“Luther’s Tears: Hagar and the Limits of Empathy,” Studies in Christian Ethics 35.3, pp. 471-485 (2022)

“Reformations in Reading: Short Bibles and the Aesthetics of Abridgment,” The Journal of Religion and Society. Supplement 21, pp. 119-134 (2019)

“‘Remembering with Advantages’: Chronicles and the Hermeneutics of Revision and Redaction,” The Journal for Textual Reasoning 9.1, pp. 67-77 (2016)

Honors and Awards

• National Cohort of Early-Career Religion Faculty Teaching Undergraduates, Wabash Center, Lilly Endowment (2022) 

• New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship (2021) 

• Lilly Postdoctoral Fellowship in Humanities and the Arts (2017-2019) 

• Award of Merit—“Best of the Church Press” Award in Biblical Interpretation (2019)  

• Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship (2016-2017) 

• Jefferson Graduate Fellowship—Marc and Nancy Shrier Scholar (2011-2016) 

• Raven Society—University of Virginia (in. 2016) 

• All-University Graduate Teaching Award—University of Virginia (2016) 

• Rare Books School Summer Fellowship—University of Virginia (2016) 

• Z Society Graduate Teaching Award—University of Virginia (2015)  

• Summer Graduate Fellowship—Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2013) 

• Rachel Winer-Manin Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow in Jewish Studies (2011-2015) 

• Dale E. Turner Academic Scholarship—Yale Divinity School (2009-2011) 

• Two Brothers Fellowship—Yale Divinity School (2011) 

Professional Organizations and Associations

• Society of Biblical Literature 

• American Academy of Religion 

• Chicago Society for Biblical Research