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   ![Headshot of Julia Rhyder](/sites/g/files/omnuum4711/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-05/Headshot%202025_0.jpg?itok=yGcFSUcd) 

 

Originally from Melbourne Australia, I joined Harvard in 2021, where I presently serve as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. I am a scholar of the Hebrew Bible who specializes in ritual texts and the history of Israelite religion. My research is philologically robust and historically grounded, with a strong emphasis on the comparative study of the Hebrew Bible in light of wider Near Eastern sources. I received my Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), a Bachelor of Theology (Honors) from Whitley College, University of Divinity (Australia), and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne (Australia).

My first book [*Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26* ](https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/centralizing-the-cult-9783161576850?no_cache=1)(Mohr Siebeck, 2019) was awarded the [2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise](https://fiit-heidelberg.de/en/lautenschlaeger-award-en/2021/). For my second book project, provisionally entitled *Calendar and Commemoration: Memorializing War in the Hebrew Bible,* I was awarded a [Beaufort Visiting fellowship ](https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/visiting-fellows)at St John's College, University of Cambridge in 2023. Beyond these two book projects, I have published widely in edited collections and journals, including the *Journal of Biblical Literature, Dead Sea Discoveries,* *Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures,* and *Catholic Biblical Quarterly*. My [article on the pig prohibition](https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/jbl/article-abstract/142/2/221/379272/The-Jewish-Pig-Prohibition-from-Leviticus-to-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext) (*JBL* 142: 221–41) was awarded the 2021 [David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship](https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/2021FreedmanAwardAnnouncement.pdf) and featured in the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/health/pig-transplants-jews-muslims.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU8.aGY4.DgrrUze0EM1Y&smid=url-share).

I have co-edited four books, [*Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch: A Systematic and Comparative Approach*](https://www.academia.edu/56786246/Christophe_Nihan_and_Julia_Rhyder_eds_Text_and_Ritual_in_the_Pentateuch_A_Systematic_and_Comparative_Approach_University_Park_PA_Eisenbrauns_Penn_State_University_Press_2021) (with Christophe Nihan; Eisenbrauns 2021),[ *Authorship and the Hebrew Bible* ](https://www.academia.edu/87929483/Sonja_Ammann_Katharina_Pyschny_and_Julia_Rhyder_eds_Authorship_and_the_Hebrew_Bible_FAT_158_T%C3%BCbingen_Mohr_Siebeck_2022)(with Sonja Ammann and Katharina Pyschny; Mohr Siebeck, 2022), [*Collective Violence and Memory in the Ancient Mediterranean* ](https://www.academia.edu/107256744/Sonja_Ammann_Helge_Bezold_Stephen_Germany_and_Julia_Rhyder_eds_Collective_Violence_and_Memory_in_the_Ancient_Mediterranean_CHANE_135_Leuven_Brill_2024)(with Sonja Ammann et al.; Brill 2024), and *The Scrolls of the Torah: Material, Compositional, and Interpretive Perspectives* (with Jan C. Gertz, Thomas Römer, and Konrad Schmid; Mohr Siebeck, 2026). I have served as guest editor for the journals [*Semitica*](http://semitica.fr/semitica-62/)*,* [*Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel*,](https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/issue/hebrew-bible-and-ancient-israel-1-2021-2192-2276/) and [*Journal of Ancient Judaism*](https://brill.com/view/journals/jaj/15/2/jaj.15.issue-2.xml). I am also the co-chair of the Pentateuch Program Unit of the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the book reviews editor of the journal *Vetus Testamentum.*

This website contains information about my [research](https://juliarhyder.scholars.harvard.edu/research-profile), [teaching](https://juliarhyder.scholars.harvard.edu/classes), and [service](https://juliarhyder.scholars.harvard.edu/news-events) at Harvard University and within the broader field of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies ([my full CV is also available](https://juliarhyder.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4711/files/2026-07/CV%20Rhyder%20July%202026%20Online.pdf)). I am presently accepting graduate students and would be delighted to hear from potential advisees.