We are delighted to welcome Sarah Baker to the Hebrew Language program in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Professor Baker has a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (with a specialty in Hebrew Bible/Ancient Near East) from the University of Texas at Austin, where she taught both Biblical and Modern Hebrew for several years and received the student-nominated Foreign Language Teaching Excellence Award. She has developed a variety of innovative Biblical Hebrew curricula (in-person and online) for UT Austin, Ridley College (Australia), and eTeacher Group (Israel), as well as provided administrative and editorial support for the National Association of Professors of Hebrew and the Biblical Language Center.
Scholarly work that she has presented for conferences and peer-reviewed journals engages topics such as Hebrew language pedagogy, the social significance of biblical texts for the communities that composed and transmitted them (e.g., her dissertation work on the performative impact of Hebrew psalms), and clarifying linguistic and literary features of these texts in order to achieve more precise readings. Her present research deals with practical techniques for fostering genuine language acquisition in the ancient language classroom by integrating key principles of modern language pedagogy. Please help us welcome Professor Baker to Duke and Durham!