Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Israelite History in its Ancient Near Eastern Context

Knotted Knowledge: New Perspectives on the Poetics and Composition of Prov 10:1–22:16 

As early as 1873, Franz Delitzsch characterized, in his pivotal commentary on the Book of Proverbs, the composition of Prov. 10:1-22:16 as a wave-like movement. Recent research also takes up Delitzsch’s observation, and suggests a development towards a sapientia discursiva – in other words, a coherent wisdom discourse. It is striking, however, that the concept of the discursivity of wisdom remains poorly defined. My dissertation aims to define more precisely the compositional (non-linear) techniques at work in discursive wisdom. Furthermore, my dissertation will reflect on them from a methodological perspective, in the light of poststructuralist approaches. 

In this way, my work chiefly pursues two objectives: on the one hand, (1) it will carry out a structural analysis of Prov 10:1–22:16, which traces and exegetically elaborates the already mentioned wave-like, almost concentric movement; on the other hand, (2) it will conceptualize a concept of discursive wisdom which, by using post-structuralist methods, demonstrates that the inner-biblical self-problematizations and theological pluriformities are intentional compositional principles aiming at ethical character formation through poetry. In turn, Prov 10:1–22:16 is conceived as a discursive entanglement that is aware of its own limits of discourse, and, thus, designs its own model of knowledge production that fundamentally differs from Greek (and Western) philosophy. 

Lectures

• "Reflections on מִקְרֶה - Qohelet’s Materialism(s)" as part of the 2025 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA (11/2025)
• "Tender Metaphors - Notes on an Eco-Aesthetics of Biblical Metaphor" as part of the 2025 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA (11/2025)
• "Sapientia Discursiva – The Hermeneutics of Sapiential Thinking" as part of the 25th Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in Berlin (08/2025)
• "Queer Philologies" as part of the interdisciplinary research seminar “Mensch Frau* forscht und entwirft neue Text(ilien)”, organized by Prof. Dr. Dorothea Erbele-Küster, Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz) (01/2025)
• "Less Loss More Abundance" - Queering Prov 10:1-22:16 as part of the 2024 SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA (11/2024)
• "And a word in its time - how good (it is)!" - The Dynamics of Time and Iterative Wisdom in Prov 10:1-22:16 as part of the 2024 SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA (11/2024)
• "Towards an Aesthetics of the מְשָׁלִים – Theoretical Reflections on Prov 10:1–22:16" as part of the 2024 SBL International Meeting in Amsterdam, NL (08/2024) 
• "Metatextuality in the Book of Proverbs - Second Order Thinking in Proverbs 10:1-22:16" as part of the 2023 SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX (11/2023)
• "Indecent exegesis and theological transgressions - scenes of queer imagination" as part of the lecture series "Religion* - Geschlecht* - Hermeneutik*: Zur Performanz religiöser Texte", organised by the project group Gender in den Theologien, Humboldt University of Berlin (01/2023)

Publications

• Edited Volumes

 co-edited with Bernd U. Schipper, Towards an Aesthetic Reading of Hebrew Bible Poetry (under contract; Bloomsbury: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies). 

• Articles

"Uncanny Resemblances – Prov 9 as an Introduction to Proverbial Thinking," ZAW 137/1(2025): 60-83. 

"Doing and Undoing Wisdom – Reading Prov 10:1–22:16 as 'Dynarchive'," HeBAI 13/3 (2024): 351-378.

• Reviews

Review of Rotasperti, Sergio: Metaphors in Proverbs. Decoding the Language of Metaphor in the Book of Proverbs. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 117/4-5 (2022): 374-376. 

Recent courses

• Bad Readings – Eroticism, Sexuality and Gender in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel (in collaboration with Dr. Robert Kade; seminar; HU), awarded the award for excellence in teaching of the Theological Faculty of HU for the best course of the winter semester 24/25
• Undoing Time - Queer Temporalities (block seminar; University of Hamburg)
• Beyond Orthodoxy and Heresy - Ancient Christianity and its Margins (seminar; HU)
• Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature (tutorial; HU)

Organisation of conferences 

• "Metakritische Salongespräche" ("Metacritical Soirées"), Workshop at Humboldt University of Berlin (with Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Vayntrub, upcoming)

• "My heart is astir with a good word" (Ps 45:2) – Towards an Aesthetic Reading of Hebrew Bible Poetry at Humboldt University of Berlin, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper, funded by Thyssen-Stiftung (June 2-4, '24)

• "Grenzüberschreitungen: Queere Perspektiven auf Religion und Migration" ("Transgressions: Queer Perspectives on Religion and Migration") as part of the event series "Stipendiat*innen machen Programm", in collaboration with Rieke Schröder (Aug. 25-27, ’23)

• 3rd Berlin-Oxford Summer School "New Perspectives on the Book of Proverbs" at Humboldt University of Berlin, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper (June 18-22, '18)

• "Genie und Anti-Genie – die Rolle des*der Künstler*in im kunsttheoretischen und gesellschaftspolitischen Diskurs" as part of the event series “Stipendiat*innen machen Programm”, in collaboration with Louisa Denker (June 3-5, "16)

Transfer of knowledge

Organisation of the event "Forbidden Fruit" (Voguing Ball) at Parochialkirche, in collaboration with the artists Ambrosia and Fifi Fantôme, pastor Corinna Zisselsberger and superintendent Dr. Bertold Höcker

Memberships and Affiliations

• Society of Biblical Literature
• "AG Gender in den Theologien"
• Associate member of the research unit "New Creation? - Aitiological Reception of the Genesis Narrative in Discourses on Cosmos, Humanity and Gender in Early Christian Literature", funded by the DFG (Prof. Dr. Christine Gerber and Prof. Dr. Cilliers Breytenbach)    
• Affiliated Early Career Researcher in the international working group "Renewed Philology"