Baker, Cynthia M. (Department Chair)
Cynthia M. Baker
Professor of Religious Studies
Associations
Religious Studies
Hedge Hall, Room 203
Classical and Medieval Studies
Hedge Hall, Room 203
About
Ph.D., Duke; M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School; B.A., Wesleyan
Professor Baker teaches a wide range of courses including: Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence; Hebrew Bible; New Testament; Eve, Adam, and the Serpent; Jews and Judaism in Antiquity; History of Early Christianity; Human Suffering: Job, Genesis, Revelation; Gender and Judaism; The Nature of Spirituality; Biblical Criticism; Food and the Sacred; and Images of Jesus in Film.
Her research explores ideas about gender, race/ethnicity, and nationalism in the formative periods of Judaism and Christianity and in modern historiography on these periods. Her recent book, Jew is the focus of a Marginalia: Los Angeles Review of Books Forum and was highlighted in a New York Times Op-Ed in April 2017. It has been called “A rewarding and important book” and “Highly Recommended” by the American Library Association.
When not in her office she can often be found foraging about the woods for wild gourmet mushrooms.
Expertise
Links
- New Books Network podcast interview with Cynthia Baker about
- Members of Whose Tribe? An NPR Code Switch podcast featuring Cynthia Baker
- Association for Jewish Studies, Adventures in Jewish Studies podcast
- “What’s in Your Tabernacle? Journeys through Time, Space, and Community” (a June 2020 video series collaboration with the Portland Museum of Art)
- Buen Camino Bates Multifaith Chaplaincy Podcast: A Conversation with Cynthia Baker (March 2020)
- Cynthia Baker's CV 2020