Esther Brownsmith, PhD

Esther Brownsmith, PhD

@brownsmith.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Dayton. Studying dead languages and living ideas. Interested in Hebrew Bible, gender, fanfic theory, and accessible, liberatory pedagogy. She/her.

1.8K followers330 following264 posts

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

Maya Evan MacGregor / Eamhair MacGriogair
@maigheach.bsky.social

It’s Non-binary Day, so hello from your friendly neighbourhood agender void who writes fantasy books full of folk like me We’ve got YA Gaelic fantasy romance! We’ve got urban fantasy! We’ve got epic fantasy! We’ve got spicy epic fantasy romance! We’ve got gothic why-choose dystopian fantasy!

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

For yesterday's book launch of Esther Keeps the Score, by @alexianafry.bsky.social, I wrote a piece of fiction that embodied her book’s brilliant insights about Queen Esther as a character shaped by cPTSD and the “fawn” trauma response. Check out the story here: archiveofourown.org/works/82743236

archiveofourown.orgFawn - mostlydeadlanguages - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

As an undergrad, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling was the single most (trans)formative book I read. This year, the last Sunday of Pride Month has the Binding of Isaac as its lectionary reading. Guess who is going to be giving a sermon about Kierkegaard and the sacredness of queer love?

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Part of what excites me about this is that Christians too often treat the Hebrew Bible as something that needs to be read through the lens of the New Testament. Whereas I’m going to be reading Paul through the lens of Genesis—and arguing that it helps make his theology more expansive/inclusive.

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

Lawrence Haunting (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️
@lhardingwrites.bsky.social

I know I keep circling back to this, but I don't think k a lot of well-meaning people realise how much it rankles when the response to Harry Potter funding trans genocide is a focus on "what to read instead to be a Good Person" rather than, I dunno, more directly helping combat the trans genocide.

Lawrence Haunting (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️@lhardingwrites.bsky.social

While it's nice to see more noise about how terrible JKR is, as a trans woman I would appreciate it if there was less focus on "here's what you can read instead" and more "here's how you can materially help trans people". We're the victims here, please stop centring the purity of your bookshelves.

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

T Ash
@crewgrrl.bsky.social

Inspired by @bethrevis.bsky.social’s post on Threads looking for pre-assembled Doctor Who scarf kits, I present screenshots from the late, lamented ThinkGeek’s product page for their Tom Baker scarf. The person that wrote this either was a knitter, lived with one, or loved one very dearly.

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

You should come to this, because: 1) I’ve read the book, and it’s WONDERFUL, and 2) Alexiana invited us to do something more creative than the usual standard book launch response, and I will be taking her up on that challenge. *mysterious smile*

Alexiana Fry@alexianafry.bsky.social

You are invited! Join me and these lovely biblical scholars - Sarah Emanuel, @brownsmith.bsky.social, and Katherine Gwyther - on Tuesday, April 7th, to celebrate my forthcoming book. www.eventbrite.com/e/esther-kee...

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

SBL Press
@sblpress.bsky.social

Named and unnamed women appear throughout the Bible, yet they are often understudied or easily missed by casual readers. Bible Odyssey has a new collection of articles that explore the fascinating and complex roles women play in the Bible. buff.ly/IiA3bep #WomensHistorySBL26

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

This is a large part of why I learned nålbinding.

Quinn Daedal@quinnanya.me

I love this plan. What knowledge from the past do you have in your head to carry forward and teach? Now I'm tempted to go sign up for some of the more obscure lace making classes at the local lace museum, just out of AI spite. 🤔 #DHmakes

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

This script is baffling me. Definitely not Neo-Assyrian, Old Persian, or Ugaritic, and I'm not able to pin it down to any other cuneiform system that I can identify. (For instance, the second sign on the second line is just not one that gets used.) Any ideas, Assyriologists?

Antijen@antijen.bsky.social

Help me out, smart people. I feel like the people who made this are the type to probably actually go in for the full joke and have those "cuneiform" (their term) symbols spell out something fun or meaningful. Any ideas?

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

So go out and do some damage, friends. Empathize radically and deeply. Love your neighbor as yourself. Sow wildflowers in the dung of his legacy. Water them with your tears, whether of sorrow or relief. Tend the rainbow blossoms as they grow.

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

Jonathan M. Katz
@katz.theracket.news

A 1955 writer casually dropping a “Germans tended to go along with Nazis just like your all-American wife goes along with segregation” is both the answer and the question for “how we got here”

Jonathan M. Katz@katz.theracket.news

Hell of a passage to read in twenty twenty five

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Hey everyone, my interview with @gregsoden.bsky.social is live on the Classical Ideas Podcast! Listen up for discussion about my biblical studies journey, nonbinary readings of the Bible, and my exciting upcoming project on biblical killjoys. classicalideaspodcast.libsyn.com/ep-332-nonbi...

classicalideaspodcast.libsyn.comThe Classical Ideas Podcast: EP 332: Nonbinary Biblical Readings of Mordecai and Beyond w/Dr. Esther BrownsmithEsther Brownsmith (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton. Her first monograph, Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative: The Devouring Metaphor (Routledge, 2024), ...

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

Kevin Solez
@kevinsolez.bsky.social

Cool stuff!

Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.@blindscholar.bsky.social

It's out, and now free to download for the next 2 weeks! Go give my new book a read (it's short enough to finish in a sitting) and then share it far and wide to your friends who live for the connections between myth, ritual, and economics (all of them)!

cambridge.orgReading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and IsraelCambridge Core - Archaeology: General Interest - Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel
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Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Reading these texts through the lens of fanfic helps us understand how emotional attachment, entertainment, and the desire to "fix" canon all motivated ancient authors and readers of scripture, just like they motivate modern fanfic authors and readers.

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Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Less simple: what is fanfic? It's a modern phenomenon, a genre, an exchange of gifts—but for our purposes, it's a mode. Fanfic is a mode of writing fictional texts that respond to preexisting texts, a mode that really emphasizes inspiration, passion, creativity, and community.

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Sometimes, the texts that made it into the Bible seem firmly rooted in the mode of fan fiction! Examples include the books of Esther (which seems to reimagine the goddess Ishtar as a nice Jewish girl) and Ruth (which tells the untold story of King David's immigrant ancestress).

Esther Brownsmith, PhD
@brownsmith.bsky.social

Let's start simple: what is the Bible? It's a library: a set of conversations preserved in dozens of texts that respond to each other and build upon each other. (And it's just one fragment of the broader conversations that took place in the ancient world.)

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

General Strike US
@generalstrikeus.bsky.social

We’re partnering w/ a number of groups participating in an #economicblackout THIS Friday, 2/28. Do not spend, if possible. No Starbucks on your way to work. No drinks w/ the coworkers after work. No dining out. No Walmart run. No quick McDonald’s drive-thru hit. Hurt their wallets!

Esther Brownsmith, PhD reposted

Unfuck Your Habitat
@teamufyh.bsky.social

Panic and despair without an outlet can be self-destructive. Interrupt the doom spiral: -Do 1 self-indulgent thing that makes you feel happy or content. -Do 1 thing to make your home environment more calm or comfortable. -Do 1 thing to help your community and people in it. Repeat as needed.