Speaker Dr. Tawny Holm, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Penn State University.

Wednesday, January 31,2024

2:10-3:25pm

Prof. Holm joins the Qumran Aramaic class (Mullen 034). All students are welcome to join.

5:00-6:30pm

The eleventh annual Hyvernat Lecture, "Wandering Aramaic: Western Dialect(s) in Papyrus Amherst 63"

Papyrus Amherst 63, dating to the fourth century BCE, is written in Aramaic but in the Demotic Egyptian script. The language of this unique, multi-composition papyrus from Egypt corresponds to a western dialect or dialectal bundle. On the basis of her own edition of the papyrus, currently in press, Dr. Tawny Holm will provide a comprehensive overview of the western linguistic features of the Aramaic on the papyrus.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday January 31st in Caldwell Auditorium at 5pm, with a buffet dinner immediately afterward. Please rsvp here. 

The tenth annual Hyvernat Lecture willl be given by Dr. Theodore Lewis, Blum-Iwry Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

The lecture title is "Representations of Israelite Divinity: From the Physical to the Abstract".

An intense amount of recent scholarship has been devoted to understanding how ancient Israelites represented God (El, Yahweh) in material culture. These portrayals range from standing stones to animal images to anthropomorphic figurines. This presentation will provide a brief synthesis that includes analogues from neighboring cultures as well as a sensitivity to how visual and textual narratives have diverse functions and/or audiences and reflect different kinds of literacies. The synthetic model advocated here argues that our focus on physical representations need not come at the cost of looking at abstract representations of divinity which are incredibly profound but harder (though not impossible) to demonstrate in the archaeological record. If one views ancient Israelite religion as having multiple voices, differing models for divinity is just what we should expect. 

 

The lecture will take place on Tuesday March 21st in Caldwell Auditorium at 5pm, with a buffet dinner immediately afterward.

Speaker, William Schniedewind, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Languages in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

5:00 pm

A Pre-Hyvernat Lecture Event

Mr. Brett LaPrad, "Scribes, Kings, and Caves: Memories of Biblical Texts in Syriac Traditions"

Location: The May Gallery, Mullen Library (first floor)

This lecture is open to the public.

6:00 pm

Semitics dept. students will join Dr. Schniedewind for dinner at a local restaurant.

Thursday, March 24, 2022

5:00 pm

The Ninth Annual Hyvernat Lecture will be delivered by William Schniedewind, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Languages in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.

Lecture Title: "How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible"

How did scribes learn to write in ancient Israel? What was their curriculum? How did their education influence the writing of biblical literature? This lecture will reconstruct features of ancient Israelite curriculum using Hebrew inscriptions and comparative evidence and then illustrate how scribal education shaped biblical literature.

Location: McInery Auditorium

A reception will follow immediately after the lecture in Heritage Hall.

This event is free and open to the public.

To request disability accommodations, contact cua-semitics@cua.edu or 202-319-5084

Speaker, Cynthia Miller-Naudé, Senior Professor, Department of Hebrew, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

5:00 pm-6:00 pm

The "Hyvernat Eve Lecture" will be delivered by Ms. Meghan Howard, the 2018 recipient of the Hyvernat Fellowship Travel Grant.

Location: May Gallery, Mullen Library (first floor)

Lecture Title: "From the Nile to the Seine: Working with Coptic Documentary Papyri from the Collection of the Sorbonne."

This lecture is open to the public.

6:00 pm

Currently enrolled Semitics dept. students and invited guests are invited to join Prof. Cynthia Miller-Naudé and Prof. Jacobus Naudé for dinner at a local restaurant (to be announced). This dinner is free to the students and invited guests. The dinner group will proceed from the May Gallery to the restaurant after Ms. Howard's lecture. For more information about the student dinner, contact Prof. Andrew Gross (grossa@cua.edu).

Thursday, March 28, 2019

5:00 pm

The Eighth Annual Hyvernat Lecture will be delivered by Cynthia Miller-Naudé, Senior Professor, Department of Hebrew, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Lecture Title: "Sentential Edges and Their Structure in Biblical Hebrew."

Left dislocation, right dislocation, topicalization and extraposition are four syntactic constructions which involve a constituent in a non-canonical position at the edges of the sentence, either at the beginning of the sentence (the left edge) or at its end (the right edge). They differ, however, with respect to the placement of the non-canonical constituent vis-à-vis the sentence edge. Left dislocation and right dislocation involve a constituent that occurs outside the sentence boundary with a resumptive element within the sentence proper, whereas topicalization and extraposition involve a constituent that occurs just inside the sentence boundary. Two additional constructions occur in Biblical Hebrew. At the left edge is a construction that is like topicalization in having no resumptive element within the sentence although it is apparently like left dislocation in that it occurs outside of the left edge of the sentence. Although a similar kind of construction has been presumed to occur on the right edge of the sentence, biblical examples have not been identified previously. An examination of the intersection of negation with these constructions provides new syntactic evidence for delimiting and defining them, especially with respect to the presence (or absence) of resumption and the determination of the sentence boundary.

Location: Hannan Hall, room 108

A reception will follow immediately after the lecture.

This event is free and open to the public.

6:45 pm

The Semitics faculty will join Prof. Cynthia Miller-Naudé and Prof. Jacobus Naudé for dinner at an off-campus location.

Speaker, Professor Steven E. Fassberg, Caspar Levias Chair in Ancient Semitic Languages, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

11:10 am—12:25 pm

Prof. Fassberg meets with the Biblical Hebrew Poetry II (SEM 712) class in the ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Prof. Andrew Gross (grossa@cua.edu) for information.

2:10 pm—3:25 pm

Prof. Fassberg meets with the Aramaic Dialects (SEM 724) class in the ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Prof. Edward Cook (cooke@cua.edu) for information.

5:00 pm

Announcement of this year's recipient of the Hyvernat Fellowship Travel Grant for Semitics Students.

5:15 pm-6:15 pm

The "Hyvernat Eve Lecture" will be delivered by Mr. Jeremy Brown, the 2017 recipient of the Hyvernat Fellowship Travel Grant.

Location: May Gallery, Mullen Library (first floor)

Lecture Title: "Just One More Manuscript: Witnesses to Jonah in the Ethiopic Biblical Tradition."

This lecture is open to the public.

6:30 pm

Currently enrolled students and invited guests are invited to join Prof. Fassberg for dinner at a local restaurant (to be announced). This dinner is free to the students and invited guests. The dinner group will proceed from the May Gallery to the restaurant after Mr. Brown's lecture. For more information about the student dinner, contact Prof. Andrew Gross (grossa@cua.edu).

Thursday, March 22, 2018

5:00 pm

The Seventh Annual Henry Hyvernat Lecture will be delivered by Professor Steven E. Fassberg, Caspar Levias Chair in Ancient Semitic Languages, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Lecture Title: "Is There an Enclitic Mem in Hebrew?"

The discovery of Amorite, the El-Amarna tablets, and Ugaritic have shed light on the Northwestern Semitic milieu from which Hebrew emerged. One feature that has captured the imagination of Biblical scholars is the 'enclitic mem'. H.L. Ginsberg was the first to argue in the mid-1930s that a reflex of the early Canaanite word-final -ma /-mi particle could be found in the Hebrew Bible. He suggested that the Masoretes, however, no longer understood its original meaning and vocalized the mem (without final vowel) in ways that made sense according to the context. In 1957 H.D. Hummel presented a maximalist list of 107 examples of enclitic mem in the Hebrew Bible. Though scholars have disagreed over which examples have an enclitic mem, few have openly rejected its existence in Biblical Hebrew. An exception is John Emerton in the Menahem Haran Festschrift (1996). The late Chaim Cohen responded to Emerton in the Moshe Weinfeld Festschrift (2004).

In the lecture I point out some of the methodological difficulties related to reconstructing an enclitic mem in Hebrew. The first is that while the uses of the -ma /-mi particles are well-attested and understood in Amorite personal names and in the El-Amarna tablets, this is not the case in Ugaritic, where (1) the alphabetic script does not allow a glimpse into the phonetic realization of the particle and (2) the language would appear to have a plethora of enclitic particles, all of which are generally thought to be emphatic. Thus the Ugaritic evidence must be used with caution. Moreover, scholars have tended to assume a monolithic Biblical Hebrew syntax and viewed deviations from the norm as errors requiring emendation. The failure to recognize the existence of linguistic diversity in Biblical Hebrew has led some to ignore competing and parallel syntactic structures that better explain the existence of a final mem. I concentrate on annexation and apposition, tamyiz, and the use of plural nouns.

The lecture is open to the public. A light reception will follow.

Location: McGivney Hall 106-Keane Auditorium

6:45 pm

The Semitics faculty will join Prof. Fassberg for dinner at an off-campus location.

Speaker, Gary A. Rendsburg, Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.

 Wednesday, March 22, 2017

11:10 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Prof. Rendsburg meets with Biblical Hebrew classes (SEM 612/712) combined in the ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Dr. Gross (grossa@cua.edu) for information.

2:10 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

Prof. Rendsburg meets with Aramaic classes (SEM 522/724) combined in the ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Dr. Cook (cooke@cua.edu) for information.

5:00 p.m.

Announcement of this year's recipient of the Hyvernat Fellowship Travel Grant for Semitics Students.

5:15 p.m.—6:15 p.m.

The "Hyvernat Eve Lecture"  will be delivered by Dr. Andrew Litke, Fellow of the Institute of Christian Oriental Research (ICOR):

"Following the Frankincense: Reassessing the Sitz im Leben of Targum Song of Songs."

Location: May Gallery, Mullen Library (first floor)

This lecture is open to the public.

6:30 p.m.

Currently enrolled students and invited guests are invited to join Prof. Rendsburg for dinner at a local restaurant (to be announced). This dinner is free to the students and invited guests. The dinner group will proceed from the May Gallery to the restaurant after Dr. Litke's lecture. For more information about the student dinner, contact Ryann Craig (ryanncraig@gmail.com).

Thursday, March 23, 2017

2:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

Prof. Rendsburg meets with the Historical Hebrew Grammar class (SEM 719) in the ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Dr. Cook (cooke@cua.edu) for information.

6:00 p.m.

The Sixth Annual Henri Hyvernat Lecture will be delivered by Gary A. Rendsburg, Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Lecture Title: "Scroll Down: Classical Jewish Texts, from Parchment to Internet."

Over the course of more than two millennia, Jewish texts have transitioned from scroll to codex to book - and now to the digital age. This talk will survey the classical Jewish sources (Bible, Mishnah, Talmud, Siddur, Haggadah, etc.) from before the age of printing, now available on the internet for the public at large to view, read, and study. This talk will bring this old-new world of Hebrew Studies scholarship to the general community in an accessible manner. We will focus both on the contents of the manuscripts (especially when they differ from later printed editions) and the history of these documents, including their preservation in museums and libraries for centuries, along with the move to greater access in the current digital age. To present just one tease: we will look at various manuscripts of the Passover Haggadah - with two, three, four, and even five questions!

The lecture is open to the public. A light reception will follow.

Location: Heritage Hall in Father O'Connell Hall

7:45 p.m.

The Semitics faculty will join Prof. Rendsburg for dinner at an off-campus location.

Speaker, Dr. Jan Joosten, former Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford.

*In June 2020, Jan Joosten was sentenced to prison by a court in France for possession of child pornography. We no longer support or endorse his scholarship by this or any other means. We strongly denounce his abhorrent behavior and criminal actions. We express our sincere sympathy with all victims and their families.

 
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
 
11:10 a.m.—12:15 p.m.
 
Prof. Joosten meets with Biblical Hebrew classes (SEM 612/712 combined) in ANE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Dr. Cook (cooke@cua.edu) for information.
 
2:10 p.m.—3:25 p.m.
 
Prof. Joosten meets with Syriac Literature class (SEM 632) in CNE Seminar Room; a limited number of students not enrolled in the class may attend; contact Dr. Butts (buttsa@cua.edu) for information.
 
5:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.
 
Mr. Brad Sabin Hill, Curator of the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection of the Gelman Library of George Washington University, will deliver an illustrated lecture, "Hebrew Printing in the Arab and Islamic World."
 
Location: May Gallery, Mullen Library (first floor)
 
This lecture is open to the public.
 
6:30 p.m.
 
Currently enrolled students and invited guests are invited to join Prof. Joosten for dinner at Brookland Pint. This dinner is free to students and invited guests. The dinner group will proceed from the May Gallery after Dr. Hill's lecture to Brookland Pint. For more information about the student dinner, contact Ryann Craig (ryanncraig@gmail.com).
 
Thursday, March 17, 2016
 
5:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.
 
The Fifth Annual Henry Hyvernat Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Jan Joosten, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University.
 
Lecture Title: "How did Hebrew Become a Holy Language?"
 
Location: Aquinas Hall Auditorium, CUA campus
 
The lecture is open to the public. A light reception will follow.
 
7:30 p.m.
 
The Semitics faculty will join Prof. Joosten for dinner at an off-campus location.

Speaker, Leo Depuydt, Professor of Assyriology and Egyptology, Brown University.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

11:10 a.m.-12:25 p.m. The classes SEM 682 (Introduction to Coptic Studies) and SEM 709 (Comparative Semitic Grammar) will meet jointly with Prof. Depuydt in the Christian Near East Seminar room (Mullen 036). If you are not registered for either of these classes, and would like to sit in on the discussion, please notify Prof. Timbie or Prof. Butts.

5:00 p.m. "Jesus, Judas, and Me: A Coptic Scholar Addresses the Public" by Prof. Janet Timbie in the May Gallery of Mullen Library. This lecture is open to the public, and will be followed by a question period.

6:00 p.m. Prof. Depuydt's dinner with departmental students at Brookland Pint.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

5:00 p.m. The 4th Annual Hyvernat Lecture, Aquinas Hall Auditorium.

Leo Depuydt, Brown University

Title: "The Literature of the Copts and the Contributions of Msgr. Henri Hyvernat to the Study of the Subject."

6:00 p.m. Post-Lecture Reception at Aquinas Hall.

All members of the public and the university community are invited to attend.

7:00 p.m. Post-Lecture Dinner with Semitics department faculty and guests at Mama Ayesha's, Adams Morgan.

For more information, please contact Department Chair Prof. Edward Cook at cooke@cua.edu or semitics.catholic.edu.

Speaker, Prof. John Huehnergard, University of Texas at Austin.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Prof. Huehnergard visits the Biblical Hebrew Poetry class in Mullen 034 [limited to registrants for Biblical Hebrew].

2:10 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Prof. Huehnergard visits the Aramaic Dialects class in Mullen 034 to answer questions about Aramaic and Hebrew historical grammar [contact Prof. Cook if you want to attend and are not registered for the class].

3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Prof. Huehnergard visits the Akkadian Texts class [tentative; class normally meets at 3:40 p.m.; contact Prof. Gross for details].

04:10 p.m.-5:00 p.m. The "Hyvernat Eve" lecture in the May Gallery of Mullen Library:

Michal Marmorstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2014 ICOR Research Fellow

Title: "The 'Resembling Verb'   in Classical Arabic Grammar"

All members of the public and the university community are invited to attend.

After the lecture, students will convene in the May Gallery and then go to dinner with Prof. Huehnergard at Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant (address: 1114-1118 U St. NW). This dinner is free to Semitics students. RSVP to Ryann Craig!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

12:30 p.m: Women students lunch with Prof. Huehnergard. Contact Ryann Craig for details.

5:00 p.m. The 3rd Annual Hyvernat Lecture, Aquinas Hall Auditorium. [Note the new location.]

John Huehnergard, University of Texas at Austin

Title: "Writing Carefully: Letters of the King of Babylon to the King of Egypt"

All members of the public and the university community are invited to attend.

7:00 p.m. Post-Lecture dinner with Faculty.

For more information call 202-319-5084 or write to cua-semitics@cua.edu.

Speaker, Prof. Lucas Van Rompay of Duke University.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

01:10-2:00 p.m. Prof. van Rompay will visit the combined Aramaic classes taught by Dr. Cook (SEM 722 Qumran Aramaic and SEM 522 Intro to Aramaic II) in the Ancient Near East Seminar room (Mullen 034).

Other students who have studied Aramaic may attend, but check first with Dr. Cook (cooke@cua.edu) about available seating.

05:00-6:00 p.m. Dr. Shawqi Talia will give a lecture "Readings in Neo-Aramaic Literature: Qiryana b-Lushana Aramaya Hadhta" in the May Gallery of Mullen Library. There will be a special presentation in honor of Prof. van Rompay.  All members of the public and the university community are invited to attend.

After Dr. Talia's lecture, the students will have dinner with Prof. van Rompay at an off-campus site. For more information, contact GSA representative Ryann Craig.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

02:10-3:25 p.m. Prof. van Rompay will visit Prof. Sidney Griffith's Syriac Literature class (SEM 632) in the Christian Near East Seminar room (Mullen 036).

Those who are not registered for the class may attend, but check with Prof. Griffith (griffith@cua.edu) about available seating.

05:00 p.m. The 2nd Annual Hyvernat Lecture: "Christianity and Scholarship in the Syriac-Orthodox Monasteries of the Early Islamic Period," by Prof. Van Rompay in the Pryzbyla Center Great Room B.

All members of the public and the university community are invited to attend.

After the lecture, which will end approximately at 6:00 p.m., there will be a reception with light refreshments. All are invited to stay and greet the lecturer and other guests.

At 7:30 p.m., the department faculty and invited guests will have dinner with Prof. van Rompay at Mama Ayesha's in Adams Morgan.

Speaker, Prof. Geoffrey Khan of Cambridge University.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

10:00 a.m. Hebrew class with Prof. Khan in the Ancient Near East Seminar room (Mullen 034).

01:00 p.m. Aramaic class with Prof. Khan in the Ancient Near East Seminar room (Mullen 034).

05:00 p.m. "Readings in Neo-Aramaic Poetry" by Dr. Shawqi Talia in the May Gallery of Mullen Library.

06:30 p.m. Prof. Khan's dinner with Semitics dept. students and recent dept. alumni.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

02:00 p.m. Syriac class with Prof. Khan in the Christian Near East Seminar room (Mullen 036).

05:00 p.m. The 1st Annual Hyvernat Lecture at Aquinas Hall Auditorium: "The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects and their Historical Background," by Prof. Khan. At Aquinas Hall Auditorium.

06:00 p.m. Post-Lecture Reception at Aquinas Hall.

07:00 p.m. Department Faculty Dinner with Prof. Khan.