Judith Perkins (b. 13 June 1944) is

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Emerita of

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

at Saint Joseph College,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. She is an expert on early

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, Latin poetry, and the ancient novel.

Education

Perkins is a trained Classicist. She received her BA in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

. ¹ She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1972. Her doctoral thesis was entitled ''Valerius Flaccius; Synonyms and Style''.

Career

In 1976, Perkins was hired to teach Classics at Saint Joseph College, Connecticut (now St Joseph University). where she is now Emerita. In 1979, she attended a National Endowment of the Humanities summer seminar led by Wayne Meeks on the social world of early Christianity at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. The timing of the seminar enabled Perkins to manage childcare responsibilities, and subsequently she combined her research on Classics with early Christianity. Her insistence on bringing the two fields together has been described as 'one of her most significant contributions'. ² Perkins was a long-standing contributor to the International Conference on the Ancient Novel (ICAN), and contributed to the field by mentoring younger scholars ² Perkins authored two important monographs, ''The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era'', and ''Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era''.''The Suffering Self'' had an 'enormous impact on how scholars of early Christianity understand depictions of the body in pain'. ² ''Roman Imperial Identities'' examines how two cosmopolitan social entities constructed specific identities during the consolidation of the

Roman empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

.The book gave the reader a better understanding of Christianity as a distinct phenomenon and the broader world it inhabited. ² In 2019, Perkins was honoured with a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

, The Narrative Self in Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Judith Perkins'', published by the

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

, and featuring contributions from Virginia Burrus,

Kate Cooper Kate Cooper (born 1960) is a Professor of History and former head of the History Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, a role to which she was appointed in September 2017 and she stood down in 2019. She was previously Professor of A ...

, and

Ilaria Ramelli Ilaria L. E. Ramelli (born 1973) is an Italian-born historian, academic author, and university professor who specializes in ancient, late antique, and early mediaeval philosophy and theology. Academic appointments After being Professor of Roman ...

Select bibliography

* ''Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: The Role of Religion in Shaping Narrative Forms'', edited by

and Judith Perkins, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015. *''The Ancient Novel and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: Fictional Intersections'' (Barkhuis, 2013) * (ed. by

Donald Lateiner Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Goidelic languages, Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic language, Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is part ...

, Barbara K. Gold, and Judith Perkins) ''Roman Literature, Gender and Reception'' (Routledge, 2013) * ''Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era'' (Routledge, 2008) * ''Ancient Fiction and Early Christian Narrative'' (Society of Biblical Literature, 1998) * ''The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era'' (Routledge 1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Judith Living people Women classical scholars American Latinists Mount Holyoke College alumni Members of the Jesus Seminar 1944 births