Education
- Ph.D., Yale University
- M.A., Columbia University
- B.A., Brandeis University
Courses
- First-Year Seminar: Who Counts?
- Introduction to Theology
- Images of Women in the Hebrew Bible
- Home, Exile, and Diaspora
- Second Temple Judaism
- Good and Evil in Late Antique Babylonia
Biography
Sara Ronis, Ph.D., studies rabbinic literature in the broader cultural context of Late Antiquity, including ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and the religions of Late Antique Iran. Her research focuses on demons and magic, gender and sexuality, and the construction of personhood and identity in ancient Judaism. Her first book, Demons in the Details: Demonic Discourse and Rabbinic Culture in Late Antique Babylonia (University of California Press, 2022), won the 2023 Canadian Jewish Literature Award in Jewish Thought and Culture and was shortlisted for the 2022 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies. Her current project explores ancient Jewish constructions of the fetus in the contexts of the Roman and Sasanian empires.
Ronis teaches courses in the Hebrew Bible and its reception, as well as courses that explore the diverse theologies and religious communities of the ancient world. Ronis was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award in 2022.
Recent Academic Articles
Books and Book Chapters
“Place it Under the Stars Overnight’: Exposing Rabbinic Attitudes to Exposed Water.” In Medicine in Bible and Talmud, edited by Lennart Lehmhaus and Markham J. Geller. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming.
“The Key to the Locks: Good Omens’ Hair and the Nature of Good and Evil.” In Good Omens and the Bible, edited by Shayna Sheinfeld, Meredith J.C. Warren, and Charlotte Naylor Davis. Sheffield Phoenix Press, forthcoming.
“Sons of the Covenant? The Rabbinic Body and the Covenant with God.” In Covenant – Concepts of Berit, Diatheke, and Testamentum, edited by Christian A. Eberhart and Wolfgang Kraus. Mohr Siebeck, 2023, 368–386.
“Gender, Sex, and Witchcraft in Late Antique Judaism.” In A Companion to Jews and Judaism in the Late Antique World, 3rd Century BCE – 7th Century CE, edited by Naomi Koltun-Fromm and Gwynn Kessler. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020, 391–404.
Journal Articles
“The Thigh of Its Mother: The Fetus and the Subordinated Subject in the Babylonian Talmud.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 90, no. 4 (2023): 1–16.
“Imagining the Other: The Magical Arab in the Babylonian Talmud.” Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History 39, no. 1 (2021): 1–28.
“It’s a Roman…It’s a Persian… it’s Rabbi Meir! Secret Identities and the Rabbinic Self in the Babylonian Talmud.” Journal of Jewish Identities 14, no. 1 (2021): 93–110.
With Travis Proctor. “The Past, Present, and Religious Studies Future of Civic Engagement in American Higher Education.” Wabash Center Journal on Teaching (2020).
Recent Presentations
“When Fetuses Attack: The Babylonian Talmud and the Criminal Fetus.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Diego, November 2024.
“Abortion and Jewish Law.” The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, April 2024.
“Fetal Power and Fetal Agency in the Rabbinic Laws of Sacred Foods.” University of Minnesota, March 2024.
“Who Feeds Whom? Mother and Fetus in the Babylonian Talmud.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, San Francisco, December 2023.
“Liminal Legacies: Fetal Inheritance and Fetal Sex in the Babylonian Talmud.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, November 2023.
“Rabbis and Demons in Late Antiquity.” University of Fairfield, February 2023.
With Caryn Tamber-Rosenau. “Reacting to the Past Together: Classroom Symposia and Pedagogical Collaboration in South Texas.” Society for Biblical Literature, Denver, CO, November 2022.
“Gestating Difference: Jewish, Non-Jews, and Abortion in the Babylonian Talmud.” Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, November 2022.
“‘The Thigh of Its Mother?’ Fetal Ontology in the Babylonian Talmud.” Indiana University, April 2022.
“Constructing Corpses: The Babylonian Talmud and the Fetal Dead.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, December 2022.
Discussant. “Jewish Studies at Catholic Universities: Teaching, Research, Service.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA, December 2019.
“Constructing Corpses: The Babylonian Talmud and the Fetal Dead.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, December 2022.
With Caryn Tamber-Rosenau (University of Houston). “Reacting to the Past Together: Classroom Symposia and Pedagogical Collaboration in South Texas.” Annual Meeting of the Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies Unit of the Society for Biblical Literature, Denver, CO, November 2022.
“Everything is Enumerated: A Theology of Counting in the Babylonian Talmud.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago, December 2021.
“Producing Children of the Covenant: Aphrahat’s Sixth Demonstration and the Babylonian Talmud.” Annual Meeting of the Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Unit at the American Academy of Religion, virtual, November 2020 (accepted, delayed due to covid-19).
Discussant. “Jewish Studies at Catholic Universities: Teaching, Research, Service.” Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA December 2019.
“Covenants, Enslaved Individuals, and Jewish Identity in the Babylonian Talmud.” Texas Jewish Studies Research Triangle Biannual Conference, College Station, TX, December 2019.