Research Interests for Laura S. Lieber

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.

Current projects:

Songs from the Western Shore (volume on Aramaic poetry)

The Liturgical Stage (ancient hymnography through lens of theater)

Areas of Interest:

Byzantine Liturgical Poetry
Jewish Culture in Late Antiquity
Jewish Liturgy (history of)
Rabbinic Literature
History of Biblical Interpretation
Medieval Judaism

Recent Publications

1. Lieber, LS, "On This Day, We Are Perfect": Embodiment in Yannai's Yom Kippur Qerova, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol. 30 no. 1 (January, 2022), pp. 37-69 [doi] [abs]
2. Lieber, LS, Sukkot in the Garden of Eden: Liturgy, Christianity, and the Bronze Bird on Mount Gerizim, in The Samaritans: A Biblical People (January, 2022), pp. 94-101, ISBN 9789004466906 [doi]
3. Lieber, LS, No translation needed: Hebrew in two Samaritan aramaic hymns, in The Poet and the World: Festschrift for Wout van Bekkum on the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday (July, 2019), pp. 161-182, ISBN 9783110600759 [doi]
4. Lieber, LS, Call and response: Antiphonal elements in jewish palestinian aramaic poetry, Aramaic Studies, vol. 17 no. 2 (January, 2019), pp. 127-144 [doi] [abs]
5. Lieber, LS, With One Voice: Elements of Acclamation in Early Jewish Liturgical Poetry, Harvard Theological Review, vol. 111 no. 3 (July, 2018), pp. 401-424, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi] [abs]