Laura Suzanne Lieber

Professor of Religious Studies

External address:

118B Gray Bldg, Durham, NC 27708

Internal office address:

Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708-0964

Phone:

(919) 660-3504

Email:

laura.lieber@duke.edu

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.

Education

Ph.D., The University of Chicago 2003
M.A., Hebrew Union College 1998
B.A., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 1994

Lieber, L. S. Songs from the Western Shore: Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Brill, 2016.

Lieber, L. S. The Vocabulary of Desire: The Song of Songs in the Early Synagogue. Leiden: Brill, 2014.

Lieber, L. S. Yannai on Genesis: An Invitation to Piyyut. Hebrew Union College Press, 2010.

Green, D. A., and L. S. Lieber. Scriptural exegesis: The shapes of culture and the religious imagination essays in honour of Michael Fishbane, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206575.001.0001. Full Text

Lieber, L. S. Study Guide to the JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002.

Lieber, L. S. The Poetry of Communal Lament in Late Ancient Judaism and Eastern Christianity, n.d.

Lieber, L. S. Staging the Sacred: Liturgical Poetry through the Lens of Theater, n.d.

Lieber, L. S. “Entering the High Holy Days.” In Mishkan Ha-Nefesh, xvii–xix. New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 2015.

Lieber, L. S. “Piyyut (Jewish Liturgical and Secular Poetry).” In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Oxford: Blackwell, 2015.

Lieber, Laura S. “The Piyyutim le-Hatan of Qallir and Amittai - Jewish Marriage Customs in Early Byzantium.” edited by S. Fine and A. Koller, 73:275–99. WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH, 2014.

Lieber, L. S. “The Poetry of Creation: Zevadiah and Amittai’s Yotzerot le-Hatan (Groom’s Yotzers).” In Recent Developments in Midrash, edited by David Nelson and Rikva Ulmer. Gorgias Press, 2013.

Lieber, L. S. “Kedushah.” In Cambridge Dictionary of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, edited by Lisbeth Fried, Nicola Denzy Lewis, and Michael Satlow. Cambridge UP, 2013.

Lieber, L. S. “Jewish Women: Texts and Contexts.” In A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, 329–42, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444355024.ch24. Full Text

Lieber, L. S. “Piyyut.” In Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford UP, 2012.

Lieber, L. S. “Piyyut (Jewish Liturgical and Secular Poetry).” In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Blackwell / Oxford UP, 2012.

Lieber, L. S. ““Dew of Rest: The World of Nature in Qallir’s Gevurot shel Tal".” In Menachem Schmelzer Festschrift, edited by Debra Blank, 167–83. Brill, 2011.

Lieber, L. S. “Jewish Women.” In The Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by Sheila Dillon and Sharon James, 329–42. Blackwell / Oxford UP, 2011.