So today, I am thrilled to announce that my family and I are moving to Melbourne in a few months, where I will be taking up a position at Australian Catholic University. If there’s a message in all this: trust your guts, work hard, and hold on tight to the people who really have your back.

As some of you know, a few years ago, after quite a long pause in my professional life, the desire to return to research started to tickle me so badly that I decided to give it a try.

Excited to share that I've accepted a continuing position as a Research Fellow at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. We're moving to Melbourne!

ACU Statement on the Bondi Beach tragedy

JOB OPENING: Associate Dean (Research), Theology and Philosophy Seeking an academic for high-level academic leadership across the faculty, operating within a University-wide research strategy focused on high quality, high impact and innovative research. candidate.aurion.cloud/acu/producti...

TWO NEW POSITIONS IN HISTORICAL & SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Two new positions in historical and systematic theology are now advertised for the Religion and Theology research program within the IRCI and FTP: PD attached. The application deadline is 23:59 AEST on 5 November. www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/ca...

ICRI's Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Zecher on Charlie Kirk and martyrdom from a historical perspective. theconversation.com/can-charlie-...

ACU is a spectacular place to study, and I was able to move to Australia and do my research there debt-free thanks to generous funding! If you're interested in doing a PhD, especially in biblical studies or church history, you should apply!

Please join us for the next meeting in our 2025 BECS Global online seminar series here at ACU/IRCI, with Dr Amelia Brown (MQ/American Academy at Athens) on “When Early Christianity met Imperial Power: New Attributes of Roman Emperors from Constantine I to Theodosius.”

If you’re thinking about applying to a PhD, DMin, or MPhil at ACU, September is the time! The Faculty of Theology and Philosophy is an exciting research community with a broad range of expertise, and funding is available for research students.

The 2025 Semester 2 schedule for the BECS Global Seminar is set, with presentations by Bernadette Brooten (Brandeis), Amelia Brown (MQ and AAA), Paul Trebilco (Otago), Ben Edsall (ACU), and Paul Roche (Sydney).

I am delighted to announce the IRCI has 2 job openings in early Christianity (specialisation open, research-focus, early career). Closing date 15 Aug. Contact me with any questions. We hope you'll consider joining our excellent group of scholars! candidate.aurion.cloud/acu/producti...

Registration is still open for our Makarios conference on Love of Neighbor and Human Flourishing (deadline 15 May) which will take place at ACU’s Rome campus in partnership with Baylor, Harvard, and Boston College! >

Join for a hybrid BECS Seminar with Prof. Bronwen Neil on “Sarcophagi on the Street: Burial in the Necropoleis at Roman Ostia” to be held at 11:00 am AEDT on Thursday, 3 April 2025.

Come do a PhD with me (and other excellent colleagues) as part of an ARC-funded project—Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean! Funded places (fees and stipend) available! More info here, and reach out with any questions. Applications due Monday 21 April. www.acu.edu.au/research-and...

Come study with us. ACU has just been rated #22 in the world in Theology, Divinity, and Religious Studies in the QS World University Rankings for 2025. #1 in Australia.

Coming this July. www.cambridge.org/au/universit...

IRCI's Jonathan L. Zecher has published an article in HTR: The Fate of the Dead between Origen(ism) and Orthodoxy in Gaza | Harvard Theological Review | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The 2025 Seminar 1 schedule for the BECS Global Seminar Series is now available with contributions from Sarah Corrigan, Stephen Carlson, Bronwen Neil, Sabrina Inowlocki, and David Woods.

So excited to be working on this Discovery Project grant exploring translation and transformation in Late Antiquity!

#CFP online - Southern Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls - Sept 1-2 & Sept 8-9, 2025 - live discussion on prerecorded papers on scholarly perspectives from the Global South, Asia, Australia and New Zealand - Abstracts due May 31, 2025 [email protected] @irci.bsky.social

We began in Rome for a higher-degree research workshop, with attendees from @irci.bsky.social, @humboldtuni.bsky.social, @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social, and @uio.no. I presented the latest results of my PhD research and interacted with others' research. We got to see the local sights, too!

IRCI's Dr Jonathan Zecher led a public-facing lecture on the Melbourne Gospels at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the "Being Human" exhibition organised by UniMelb.

Congratulations to two teams led by IRCI scholars for Discovery Project grant success from the Australian Research Council totalling almost a half a million dollars!

Join Australian colleagues for drinks and nibbles at a reception sponsored by ACU and the University of Divinity at #AAR #SBL on the conference Monday from 6-8 pm, Mission Brewing, 131 14th St, San Diego!

I just got back home from COMPAS 2024! I gave a paper on scribal habits in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework. I got to hear some excellent papers and meet scholars who work at the intersection of phylogenetics and stemmatics. It's exciting to see more people around the world doing this!

CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2025 biennial Makarios conference on the role of love for one's neighbor in the Christian tradition. Paper abstracts of up to 300 words and an up-to-date CV should be uploaded by December 1st, 2024 (details below).

Join us Thursday for a hybrid seminar with Alan Cadwallar giving a paper on 'Romanisation of Colossae'. Contact [email protected] for the Zoom link.

Please join us 6 June for a BECS Global Online seminar with Prof Annette Weissenrieder on “A New Edition of the Codex Vercellensis Luke Based on Multi-Spectral Images”! Contact [email protected] for the Zoom link.

Join us for a hybrid Global BECS Seminar with David Lloyd Dusenbury on 'A Metaphysically Rich Physiology of Consent: Freedom & Sexuality in the First Christian Anthropology' on 4 April AU (3 April US).

Come study with us! For information about our Ph.D. and M.Phil. offerings, please visit us on our "Virtual Open Day." www.acu.edu.au/research-and...

The Academic Program for the 2024 SNTS Meeting has been updated with the schedule, full list of seminar papers, and the presidential address. snts2024.org/academic-pro...

A paper that spun off from my PhD research has just been published in Novum Testamentum 66.2: brill.com/view/journal.... I show how statistical and computational techniques can shed light on what P46 likely read in its lacunae containing Gal 3:1 and 4:17, Heb 11:4, and Phil 1:1.

Registration for SNTS 2024 in Melbourne is now open! snts2024.org/registration/

IRCI’s HDR student, Rebecca Lloyd-Hagemann, on “It’s Not Always About the Lads: Censure of Homosocial Intimacy Between Women in Late-Antique Hippo” at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies

I just had the pleasure of giving an introductory lecture on phylogenetics and the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) to interns at the CSNTM. If you're interested in an illustrated tour of these methodologies, check out the slides at www.academia.edu/114826877/Ph...!

Proofs have arrived! Very excited to see this published soon.

IRCI’s HDR Student Haydn Lea on “A Scandal in Iconium: Theological Belief in the Conversion of Thecla” at the Australasian Society of Classical Studies

IRCI’s Sarah Gador-Whyte on “Justinian’s Vestal Virgins: The Deaconess as Protector of the Empire?” at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies

Melbourne is abuzz with the arrival of Taylor Swift but in other news this morning at ASCS45 I'll be sharing a sample of a new edition of the De Trinitate treatise attributed to Didymus the Blind. I've been using UV light to try and recover the faded text on the first 3 folios.

BECS Global Seminar today with Harmut Leppin of Goethe University on ‘Emperior Maurice: From Failure to Holiness.” This is a hybrid seminar, contact [email protected] for the Zoom link.

Tomorrow is the final BECS seminar for the year featuring Jennifer Glancy on The Enslaved Patriarch in Josephus and Philo, with ACU’s Emeritus James McLaren responding.

Dec 7 online Melbourne (9am AEDT) @irci.bsky.social #BECS seminar: Jennifer Glancy (Le Moyne), Joseph in translation: the enslaved patriarch in Josephus & Philo (response: James McLaren). Zoom - email [email protected] www.acu.edu.au/research-and...

What a great subject for @irci.bsky.social's inaugural post on bluesky! You won't want to miss this BECS Seminar, folks. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to it! 😄

Join us for our next BECS Global Seminar on 2 November (11:00 a.m. Melbourne) with Kai Akagi of Rikkyo University with "Ephesians 3:15 as an Allusion to Genesis 12:3 in the Context of Fatherhood and Household Metaphors in Ephesians." IRCI's Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social is responding.