Laura S Lieber
- Associate Professor for the Department of Religion, Assistant Director of Jewish Studies
- Religion
- 230D Gray Building
- Phone: (919) 660-3513
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Specialties
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Research Summary
History of Biblical Interpretation; Rabbinics; Early and Medieval Synagogue -
Research Description
My primary area of research is in the area of synagogue poetry ("piyyut") from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period. I examine these works from a variety of perspectives, including literary, performative, and comparative (particularly with early Christian hymnography in Syriac and Greek), and also as a genre of early Jewish biblical interpretation. In recent years, I have begun to integrate the study of material culture into my analysis of these literary works, as part of taking a more fully "contextual" approach to literary analysis. My most recent work approaches late ancient hymnography through the lens of theater studies and performance.
