Mahri Leonard-Fleckman

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Religious Studies, Classics

Associate Professor
Ph.D., New York University
Fields: Hebrew Bible, Ancient Middle East Studies

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Contact Information

Email: mleonard@holycross.edu
Office: Smith 431

Biography

Mahri Leonard-Fleckman is an associate professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and Classics, and an affiliate of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program. She earned her Ph.D. and M.Phil. from New York University in Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, and her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She received听her听B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in Spanish and English Literature, after which she听served in the Peace Corps Dominican Republic. Before transitioning to 51小黄车, Leonard-Fleckman was an assistant professor at the University of Scranton (2015-2016) and at Providence College (2016-2018).听

Leonard-Fleckman is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Middle East. She specializes in the history and religions of ancient Israel/Palestine, Syria, and Iraq in the first millennium BCE, a time of immense political and cultural transformations. She is particularly interested in scribal practices, methods of history writing, and the dynamics of empire, including responses to empire across different cultural groups. She听is author of听Scribal Representations and Social Landscapes of the Iron Age Shephelah听(Oxford University Press, forthcoming),听The House of David: Between Political Formation and Literary Revision听(Fortress, 2016),听co-author of听The Book of Ruth听in the Wisdom Commentary Series (Liturgical Press, 2017), and co-editor of听"A Community of Peoples" (Brill, 2022). She听is currently working on a book on The Assyrian Royal Annals (under contract, Cambridge University Press).

Leonard-Fleckman is also engaged in public scholarship, and she is the author of the award-winning popular series听Ponder: Contemplative Bible Study听(Liturgical Press, 2022, 2021, and 2020).听She is currently Book Review Editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly,听co-editor of the听Cambridge University Press Elements series The Ancient Near Eastern World and the Bible (ANEWB), and she is active on numerous other editorial boards and professional committees.

Courses

  • HEBR 101 Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
  • RELS 126 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament听
  • CLAS 199 Hellenistic Religious Resistance
  • RELS 241听Scripture & Script: The Bible and Contemporary Art, Media, and Literature
  • RELS 242 Sex, Gender, & the Hebrew Bible听
  • RELS/CLAS 299 God(s) and (Wo)men in Antiquity
  • HONS 299听Resistance, Then and Now
  • RELS 304听Land and Creation听

Select Recent Publications听

  • "Histories of Ancient Israel: Present State and Future Potential. A Review of Recent Works by Christian Frevel and Bernd Schipper." Vetus Testamentum 74 (2024): 303-310.
  • "Irresolution as Historical Practice and the Case of the Unnamed Woman in Timnah."听Journal of Biblical Literature听142/3 (2023): 409-429.
  • 鈥1鈥2 Samuel.鈥 Pages 415鈥500 in Steven L. McKenzie, et al., eds. Introduction and annotation revisions to The SBL Study Bible, Updated Edition. New York: HarperCollins, 2023.
  • "Betwixt and Between: The Elusiveness of Israel's Iron Age Timnah." Pages 65-81 in Sara Mohr and Shane Thompson, eds.听Power and Identity at the Margins of the Ancient Near East. Denver: University of Colorado Press, 2023.
  • With Peter Dubovsky虂 and Shuichi Hasegawa, eds. Special volume on "Israel and Phoenicia."听Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel.听Volume 11/2. T眉bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.
  • "Lamenting Tyre (Ezekiel 27): A Unique Perspective on Judah's Proximate Other."听Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel听11/2 (2022): 134-151.
  • "Tamar, Delilah, and a Nameless Timnite: Women as (De)constructions of Social Landscape." Pages 60-72 in Barbara Reid, ed.听Forget Not God's Benefits (Ps103:2): Festschrift in Honor of Leslie J. Hoppe. CBQI 3. Baltimore: Catholic Biblical Association, 2022.
  • "Judges." Pages 402-21 In John J. Collins, et al., eds.听The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.听London: Bloomsbury, T & T Clark, 2022.
  • "Binding Samson to Yhwh: From Disorder to Order in the Samson Cycle." Pages 49-68 in Corrine Carvalho and John L. McLaughlin, eds.听God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History.听CBQI 2. Baltimore: Catholic Biblical Association, 2021.
  • "Ally or Enemy? Political Identity and Ambiguity in the Tales of David and Gath." Pages 211-224 in Sara Kipfer and Jeremy Hutton,听eds.听The Book of Samuel and its Response to Monarchy.听BWANT 228. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2021.
  • "'All the 讙讘讜诇 of Israel': Israel's 'Boundaries' in David's Wanderings. Pages 103-126 in听Hannes Bezzel and Reinhard G. Kratz, eds.听David in the Desert: Tradition and Redaction in the "History of David's Rise."听BZAW 514. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021.