Colloquium Organizers

Dalit Rom-Shiloni (PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2001) serves as Professor at the Department of Biblical Studies in Tel Aviv University. Rom-Shiloni initiated and leads as General Editor the DNI Bible project (Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible, https://dni.tau.ac.il/), and the DNI Bible Supplements series (Bloomsbury T&T Clark), and she writes on and teaches courses on biblical nature imagery and conceptions of nature in the Bible. Among her other academic interests are Hebrew Bible theology, group-identity conflicts, inner-biblical allusion and interpretation, the formation of sixth-century BCE prophetic and poetic literatures (thus on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, and Psalms). She is the author of Exclusive Inclusivity: Identity Conflicts between the Exiles and the People Who Remained (6th–5th Centuries BCE) (2013); Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible (2021). Rom-Shiloni is the Founding Director of the Orit Guardians MA and research program, dedicated to the study and research of the Ethiopic Bible Scriptures of Beta Israel. She serves as General Editor of the journal Beit Mikra; and as a member of the SBL Council.

Joel M. LeMon (PhD, Emory University, 2007) is Rev. Dr. Donald Allen Harp, Jr. Distinguished Associate Professor of Biblical Studies in the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University, and associate professor extraordinary at Stellenbosch University. LeMon’s research focuses on the book of Psalms, the relationship between biblical imagery and the iconography of the Ancient Near East, and the reception history of the Bible. He is the author of Yahweh’s Winged Form in the Psalms: Exploring Congruent Iconography and Texts (Academic Press, 2010) and the co-editor of Method Matters: Essays on the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David L. Petersen (with Kent H. Richards; Society of Biblical Literature, 2009) and Image, Text, Exegesis: Iconographic Interpretation and the Hebrew Bible (with Izaak J. de Hulster; T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2015). Since 2021, he has also served as an editor of the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter).

Izaak de Hulster (PhD, Universiteit Utrecht, 2008) is Privatdozent, resp. dosentti at the Universities of Göttingen (Germany) and Helsinki (Finland). He also serves as Associate Director of the Tel Abel-beth-maacah Excavations and for both EABS and SBL as founding co-chair of the iconography and biblical studies program units; he is also a founding steering committee member of Nature Imagery and Conceptions of Nature in the Bible (lead by Dalit Rom-Shiloni). Beyond this, he has experience in publishing and co-founded aabner.org, a diamond open access journal for biblical and cognate studies. Next to publications on iconography in relation to the Hebrew Bible and hermeneutical-homiletical contributions, he has written on women in archaeological research, Bible translation, ancient cosmology/ geography, metaphor and coroplastics. Among his publications are two monographs, Figurines in Achaemenid Period Yehud (Mohr Siebeck, 2017), Iconographic Exegesis and Third Isaiah (Mohr Siebeck, 2009) and several edited volumes, e.g., Divine Presence and Absence in Persian Period Judaism (with Nathan MacDonald; Mohr Siebeck, 2013); Image, Text, Exegesis (with Joel M. LeMon; T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2015); In Search for Aram and Israel (with Omer Sergi and Manfred Oeming; Mohr Siebeck, 2016), and Iron Age Terracotta Fgurines from the Southern Levant in Context (with Erin D. Darby; Brill, 2022).

Moti Hollender (M.A, Tel Aviv University, 2022) is a fresh graduate of the "Orit Guardians" program for the study and research of Beta Israel Ethiopic biblical scriptures at the Department of Biblical Studies. He is Prof. Dalit Rom-Shiloni's research assistant, and worked for the last 6 or so months behind the scenes, helping Dalit with producing the conference. Moti also, currently, edits the DNI website.