Professor Sarah J. K. Pearce Bachelor of Divinity (University of London); DPhil (University of Oxford); FRHistS
Ian Karten Professor and Head of the School of Humanities
Professor Sarah J. K. Pearce is an Ian Karten Professor of History at the University of Southampton.
I am currently a member of the University's Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
My research interests are primarily in the reception and interpretation of traditions of the Bible in the Second Temple period, and, more generally, in the culture and society of Jews in the Hellenistic world and the early Roman Empire. My current research focuses primarily on the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, and the ways in which his work as an interpreter of the Greek Bible opens up new perspectives on the world of first-century Alexandria and its Jewish and non-Jewish communities. A major part of my current research involves the preparation of a new English translation and commentary on Philo's On the Decalogue for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series.
Together with Professor Tessa Rajak, I was co-director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council project on the ‘Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World' (2001-2006). I am currently a collaborator on an AHRC project based at the University of Oxford on ‘The Reception of Josephus in Jewish Culture from the Eighteenth Century to the Present'.
From 2007-2013, I served as co-chair (with Dr Ellen Birnbaum,) of the Philo of Alexandria Seminar and its annual meetings at the North American Society of Biblical Literature.
In 2010 I was elected as President of the British Association for Jewish Studies.
I also serve as Editor (with Sacha Stern) of the Journal of Jewish Studies, and as Associate Editor (with David Runia and Gregory Sterling) of The Studia Philonica Annual.