Dr Lindsey Arielle Davidson (formerly Askin) is a lecturer in Jewish Studies in the Department of Religion and Theology, School of Humanities, starting at Bristol in 2018.

Lindsey is an ancient historian and philologist specializing in early Judaism. She works mainly on Greco-Roman Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, scribal culture, and the Septuagint. She uses digital humanities as part of her work, and she has an interest in artificial intelligence ethics.

Lindsey's research interests revolve around ancient history, scribal culture, and language in Jewish antiquity, most of all in the Greco-Roman period stretching 331 BCE to 200 CE in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Her central focus on Jewish scribes and language involves areas of orality, literacy and education, wisdom, quotation, epigraphy, papyrology, translation, multilingualism, and language change. She is also interested in historical and intellectual questions that were important enough for ancient Jews to write about, especially: theology, politics, economics, health, war, and ethics. 

Current research projects are under "Projects." Publications are under "Research Outputs."

Research areas:

• History of Greco-Roman Judaism (331 BCE to 200 CE)
• Scribal culture in Jewish antiquity
• Hebrew language and philology (Classical Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew)
• Textual history (textual criticism) of the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint (LXX), and early Jewish and Christian literature
• Wisdom of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus or Sirach)
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Aramaic, Syriac
• Digital humanities, digital and AI ethics, responsible AI, digital education

Recent events organised: In 2023 she was a lead organizer for an IGRCT- and ICS-funded conference, Alpha, Aleph and AI, together with ECRs in Classics and Ancient History (Benjamin Folit-Weinberg, Maiken Mosleth-King and Martina Delucchi). YouTube videos of many of this conference's papers can be viewed here.

Personal website: "The Biblical Toolkit" collates databases and resources for biblical and early Jewish and Christian studies, especially geared for remote work, teaching, and research: https://biblicaltoolkit.wordpress.com/.

Teaching and Supervising

Undergraduate: Lindsey teaches specialized optional units in Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman Judaism, biblical studies, and introductory Biblical Hebrew language. She teaches general religious studies and Jewish studies at the introductory level within various other units, including the Holocaust/Shoah, antisemitism studies, and the Arab-Israel conflict. She contributes to much of the teaching in core mandatory units across the Religion and Theology programme. She teaches some New Testament and historical Jesus in her optional units.

Postgraduate supervision: Open to receiving new queries for MPhil and PhD students within her areas of research interest.

Highlighted roles (more under Activities)

• Secretary of the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies (2023 - present), previously Treasurer (2020-23)
• Co-Director of Second Temple Early Career Academy (2022 - present), previously co-steer (2020-22)
• Member of Turing AI for Arts Steering Group, The Alan Turing Institute, London
• Affiliate of Turing Humanities and Data Science Special Interest Group, The Alan Turing Institute, London
• Editorial board member, Journal of Theological Studies, OUP

Background

Past academic roles prior to Bristol:

• Honorary research associate, University of Exeter (2017-18)
• Editorial assistant, Journal of Theological Studies (2016-18)
• Visiting postdoctoral Polonsky fellow, Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, University of Oxford (spring 2016)
• Supervisor (tutorial teaching), Hebrew and Old Testament papers, University of Cambridge (2015-17)

Education:

• PhD in Divinity, University of Cambridge (Queens' College, 2012-16), supervisor: Professor James K. Aitken
• MA in Biblical Studies, Durham University (Hild-Bede, 2011-12), supervisor: Professor Robert (C.T.R.) Hayward
• PG Cert in Theory of Education, Durham University (Hild-Bede, 2010-11), Religious Education at secondary level
• MA Honours (undergraduate) in Divinity, University of Edinburgh (2006-10)
• Originally from Connecticut and Massachusetts, USA