Magnes Graduate Fellow (2014-2015)

Daniel Fisher

Daniel Fisher is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. Daniel’s research explores social, historical, and literary questions in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish biblical interpretation. He is currently writing a dissertation entitled, “Memories of the Ark: Cultural Memory, Material Culture, and the Construction of the Past in Biblical Societies.” The project develops a cultural biography of the Ark of the Covenant, exploring its use and reuse as a site ofmemory before and after its loss. ”Memories of the Ark” examines the central roles that objects play in the Hebrew Bible, considering the ways that biblical writers and early biblical interpreters engaged with objects–at times claiming, reimagining, and contesting them, but almost always remembering with them.

Daniel is the 2014-2015 Magnes Graduate Fellow, researching and curating an exhibition that explores material biblical interpretation across the collection.

Daniel received a B.A. (Honours) in religious studies from McGill University (2006), an M.A. in Hebrew Bible and Jewish studies from Vanderbilt University (2008), and a C.Phil. from the University of California, Berkeley (2012).

Research Interests: Biblical Hebrew language and literature, historiography in the Hebrew Bible, reception history, history of Jewish biblical interpretation, social memory studies, material culture studies, religious and literary traditions of the ancient Near East.

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