NMC welcomes Professor Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo to the newly-created position of FEZANA Professor in Zoroastrian Languages and Literatures. Professor Andrés-Toledo has an impressive research profile and extensive teaching experience. He is a scholar of international acclaim who is unparalleled in the broad scope of his knowledge of Indo-Iranian linguistics and Old and Middle Iranian languages and literatures.
He has also made significant contributions to the study of Zoroastrianism. His projects include the Avestan Digital Archive (University of Salamanca) and the Middle Persian Dictionary Project (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). His research interests mainly cover the Avestan and Pahlavi languages and literatures, with a specific focus on the Pahlavi translations and exegesis of Avestan texts and their written transmission.
He has previously held academic positions at the University of Salamanca, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Copenhagen, and Free University of Berlin. Among other publications, he is the author of the monographs El hilo de la vida y el lazo de la muerte en la tradición indoirania [The thread of life and the noose of death in the Indo-Iranian tradition] (Valencia, 2010) and The Zoroastrian Law to Expel the Demons: Wīdēwdād 10-15. Critical Edition, Translation and Glossary of the Avestan and Pahlavi Texts (Wiesbaden, 2016). The 2016 volume in particular had a significant impact on the field of Zoroastrian studies. That work constitutes the first comprehensive and critical edition of the Avestan and Pahlavi texts, and it has been described as ushering in a paradigm shift through its meticulous analysis of primary source manuscripts that exposed shortcomings of the previous scholarly tradition. This commitment to gathering and analyzing primary source materials is consistent with NMC's vision, and we are very excited that Professor Andrés-Toledo will be continuing this important work in his new position.
Professor Andrés-Toledo has been teaching in-person and online courses on Zoroastrian languages and literatures, and other related topics, for almost two decades. His teaching portfolio includes experience in a number of international universities. At the University of Toronto, he will offer NMC courses on Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), and Zoroastrian Literature of Ancient and Late Antique Iran, and will expand the training of students with other specific courses on these languages and literatures.
We welcomes Professor Jeremy Schipper to the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations.
Professor Schipper is cross-appointed in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations and the Department for the Study of Religion; his research focuses on Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity, more specifically the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Professor Schipper received his MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, and has published a number of books including: Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury, 2006), Disability and Isaiah's Suffering Servant (Oxford, 2011), and Ruth: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Yale, 2016); and with Nyasha Junior a co-authored volume entitled: Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon (Oxford, 2020). He received the Guggenheim Fellowship for research related to his latest book, Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial (Princeton, 2022).
He will be teaching courses in NMC that deal with some of his major areas of interest: Disability in the Bible, Race and the Bible, and the uses and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible in social and cultural contexts that extend into modern times. Professor Schipper's commitment to engaging with issues of current significance, and the rigorous philological foundation that he brings to this work, promise to motivate students to extend their linguistic abilities in primary source languages and to greatly enrich their understanding of biblical texts. We look forward to integrating his innovative courses into our curriculum.