Bernard M. Levinson

Associate Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Law

Bernard M. Levinson

245 Nicholson Hall (Classical & Near Eastern Studies)

612-625-4323

612-624-4894

levinson(at)umn.edu

York University, Toronto, B.A.
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, M.A.
Brandeis University, Ph.D.

Professor Bernard M. Levinson is Associate Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Law at the University of Minnesota and holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible. His research focuses on Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern studies, specializing in biblical and cuneiform law (particularly the role of the ancient Near East in the emergence of constitutional thought); Deuteronomy and the history of interpretation; and literary approaches to biblical studies.

Professor Levinson teaches graduate courses in "Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics" and "Scripture and Interpretation in Israelite Religion and Judaism." He is on the editorial boards of Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte, Orientalia Biblica et Christiana, and International Commentary on the Old Testament. He presents regularly at national and international conferences.

Professor Levinson received his B.A. degree in English and Intellectual History with First Class Honors in 1974 from York University in Toronto. He earned a M.A. degree in Religious Studies from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University in 1991. He was a Visiting Scholar at the School of Theology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz/Germany (92-93) and also received an appointment in 1997 to the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), School of Social Science. He spent academic year 2007-2008 as Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute of Advanced Study).