Esther Brownsmith

• Ph.D., Bible and Ancient Near East, Brandeis University, 2020
• MAR, Hebrew Bible, Yale Divinity School, 2009
• B.A. in Religion and Philosophy, Rice University, 2004

Esther Brownsmith is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton, having received her doctorate from Brandeis University and conducted postdoctoral research at M.F. Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society.

She is author of Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative: The Devouring Metaphor (Routledge, 2024), winner of an AJS Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award, and editor-in-chief of Unruly Books: Rethinking Ancient and Academic Imaginations of Religious Texts (Bloomsbury, 2025), a collected volume emerging from the "Books Known Only by Title" international project. Her recent publications center on the book of Esther in the light of fan fiction studies, queer theory, and affect theory; she also has a forthcoming crossover/trade book project titled Sacred Unhappiness: Reading the Bible with Feminist Killjoys.

Dr. Brownsmith's research focuses especially on the stories of the Hebrew Bible and the cultural and literary norms that make them so resonant. In addition to her work on metaphor theory and gender, she conducts research on archives, archival loss and feelings about the past. She has been interviewed by the New York Times for her creation of "cuneiform cookies," and she maintains an interest in the creative juxtaposition between ancient texts and "women's arts" like crochet, cross-stitch and baking.

• Society of Biblical Literature
• Association for Jewish Studies
• Renewed Philology Affiliated Early Career Researcher
• Jewish-Christian Network of Young Scholars Salzburg

• Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
• Ancient Near East
• Metaphor studies and Conceptual Metaphor Theory
• Gender and queer theory
• Affect theory, embodiment and feelings about the past
• Fan fiction theory
• Biblical narrative
• Disability studies
• Metacriticism of biblical scholarship

• Foundations of Biblical Study
• The Psalms
• Scripture as Fan Fiction
• The Pentateuch
• Methods and Tools for Biblical Interpretation
• Gender, History and Theology
• Deborah: Judge, Prophet, Warrior and Mother in Ancient Israel
• Fan Fiction, Ancient and Modern

"In and Out of the Jewish Heavenly Archive: Esther and Imagined Canon." In Esther: Themes and Issues (Equinox, 2025), eds. Kristin Joachimsen and Helge Bezold.

"'Why Do You Transgress?': Non-Binary Biblical Readings of Mordecai and Beyond." In Trans Biblical: Variations on Interpretation and Embodiment (Westminster John Knox, 2025), eds. Joseph Marchal, Melissa Harl Sellew, and Katy E. Valentine.

"'Learning to Read [Scripture] Well': Philology's Role in Jewish-Christian Dialogue." Co-authored. Crosscultural Studies of Religion and Theology 3.1 (2024).

"Metaphors Realized in Narrative: A New Direction for Biblical Metaphor." Religion Compass 18.10 (2024), 1–8.

"Queer Futures and Phallic Humor in the Book of Esther." Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies 5.2 (2024), 54–80.

"Commanding the Queen: Agency and Gender Roles in the Book of Esther." Religion and Gender 14 (2024), 13–33.

"'I Wrote My Way Out': Embodied Appropriation, Fan Fiction, and the Book of Esther." Bible and Critical Theory 19.1-2 (2023).

"'Call Me By Your Name': Critical Fabulation and the Woman of Judges 19." Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies 4.2 (2022), 5–27.

"Getting Steamy in Amnon's Chamber: Philological and Metaphorical Observations on 2 Samuel 13." Vetus Testamentum 72.3 (2022), 355–385.

"To Serve Woman: Jezebel, Anat, and the Metaphor of Women as Food." In Researching Metaphor in the Ancient Near East, edited by Marta Pallavidini and Ludovico Portuese. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020), 29-52.

"Mind the Gap: An Introduction to Biblical Philology, Gender, and the Two Mothers." Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI), vol. 8, 2019: 388-398.

"The Problem of Purim's Proximity: New Light on Esther and the Akitu Festival," ("The Bible in Its Ancient Iranian Context" conference at UCLA, 2025.)

"Fan Fiction's 'Legitimation Paradox' and the Circumscribed Subversiveness of Esther and Ruth." (SBL Annual Meeting, 2024.)

"'That Power Looks So Good On You': Esther/Ishtar in Pink," ("Barbie and the Bible: Conversations in Pop Culture, Gender, and Theology" conference, 2024.)

"Canon Not Found: Esther's Self-Positioning in the Jewish Archive." (AJS Annual Meeting, 2023.)

"Esther's Ephemeral Archive: Uneasy Memory in Esther 9." (SBL Annual Meeting, 2023.)

"Queer Futures and Phallic Humor in the Book of Esther." (Invited lecture at Smith College, 2023.)

"Non-Binary Performances in Esther: How Stories Create Gender." (Invited lecture at Uppsala University, 2023.)

"Queering, Fearing, Persevering: Jewish and Queer Identity in Esther 8:17." (SBL Annual Meeting, 2022.)

"For the Love of the Jews: The Book of Esther as Emotioned Literacy." (European Association of Biblical Studies annual conference, 2022.)

"Absence and Yearning: Applying Affect Theory to Textual Gaps." ("Lost, Yearned-for, and Unknown Books and Manuscripts" Conference, 2021.)

"Love and Eunuchs: Esther and Ishtar as Queer Queens." (SBL Annual Meeting, 2021.)

"That's What She (?) Said: Gendering Authorship and the Hebrew Bible." ("Books Known Only by Title" webinar, 2021.)