Visiting Academics

Professor Dr Marcello Fidanzio
René & Susanne Braginsky Visiting Fellow in Manuscript Studies

I am Full Professor at the Faculty of Theology of Lugano (FTL), affiliated with the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). At Lugano, I am the director of the Istituto di Cultura e Archeologia delle terre Bibliche, and member of the Centro di Judaica GMF. Twenty years ago, I founded and since lead the summer school ‘Gerusalemme’, focused on the archaeology related to the study of the Bible (www.archaeojerusalem.org). 

I am affiliated at the École Biblique at Archéologique Française (EBAF) and at the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ Center for the Study of Manuscript Cultures – University of Hamburg (CSMC).

My research focuses on the archaeology of the Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and the study of manuscripts starting from their materiality.

I lead the Qumran Caves Publication Project (EBAF – FTL USI) aiming at providing the final report on the archaeological excavations at the caves of the Qumran area, and related research: A Material Approach to the Qumran Quest funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

On the scrolls themselves, I lead the research project The Great Isaiah Scroll: A Biography (Israel Museum Jerusalem IMJ – FTL/USI) and I am engaged in related research dedicated to the study of the materiality of the Isaiah scroll fragments found in Caves 4Q and 5Q at Qumran and at Wady Murabba’at (Israel Antiquities Authority – FTL USI – CSMC). I am the scientific director of the exhibition A Voice From the Desert: The Great Isaiah Scroll at the IMJ 2026.

The volume I edited, The Caves of Qumran (STDJ 118; Leiden: Brill, 2016), was named the ‘Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology’ by the Biblical Archaeology Society (2019). I have received awards for scientific communication from the Ministry of Tourism of Israel (2021, 2023) and from the Association of Official Delegates of Foreign Tourism in Italy (2023).

Dr Dean Irwin
Visiting Fellow in Anglo-Jewish Medieval History

My doctoral work, at Canterbury Christ Church University, examined the records generated by Jewish moneylending activities between 1194 and 1275/6. Now, working outside of conventional academia, I pursue my many esoteric interests into medieval Anglo-Jewish history. This work is undertaken as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Lincoln and, now, Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (both in the historical diocese of Lincoln!).

At present, I am writing a book, under contract with Palgrave MacMillan, exploring Jews and Christians as Neighbours in the Towns of Medieval England (due 2027). Additionally, I am editing a volume of twelve essays on The Medieval Lincoln Jewry (Arc Humanities Press, due 2025), and co-editing Hebrew and Hebrew-Latin Documents from Medieval England, vol. 3, with Judith Olszowy-Schlanger. I speak regularly at national and international conferences, as well as organising panels, on all aspects of medieval Anglo-Jewish history, and have published a series of article length studies exploring acknowledgements of debt, the archae system, King John, and the social structure of the London Jewry. I also support community outreach programmes.

At the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, I co-convene a postgraduate seminar once a term with Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, looking at Medieval Anglo-Jewish Texts & History. Here we introduce postgraduate students to reading both Latin and Hebrew texts from medieval England. I also provide support to doctoral projects which fall within my area of specialism.

Dr Beatrice Bonnano

I am an ‘Assistenz-Professorin’ at the Institute of Biblical Studies at KU Linz, Austria. I earned my PhD in Theology from UCLouvain (Belgium) in 2022. Prior to that, I completed a degree in Classical Philology (University of Bologna, Italy; BA 2015, MA 2018) as well as a Certificat en études bibliques (UCLouvain, 2018). At UCLouvain, I held a postdoctoral position funded by the prestigious Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and taught Biblical Greek (2022–2025). I have undertaken several research stays abroad, including at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2019), the University of Vienna (2021, 2024), Arizona State University (Phoenix, USA, 2023) and the Phoenix Seminar (Phoenix, USA, 2023).

My research focuses on the Greek Bible (the Septuagint, its revisions, and the New Testament) and the relationships between Jews and Christians in the early centuries. I am particularly interested in the textual transmission of the Bible and all its textual witnesses (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament, and deuterocanonical literature). During my stay in Oxford, I will be working on the Jewish Minor Versions of Isaiah and their reception in early Christianity.

In addition to several scholarly articles, I am the author of The Septuagint of Ruth: Translation Technique, Textual History, and Theological Issues (Brepols, 2024) and the adaptation La mia Rut (Paoline, 2024).

I also serve as Program Chair and Meeting Coordinator of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) for the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) and am co-founder and co-chair of the research unit ‘The Greek Bible between Judaism and Christianity’ within the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS).

Dr Estee Rieder Indursky

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Azrieli Center for Israel Studies at Ben-Gurion University and a former fellow at the Hartman Institute’s Kogod Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought. My research focuses on Israeli Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) society from gendered, sociological and political perspectives, exploring questions of authority, agency and social change.

My first book, Invisible Women (Pardes, 2018), examined the emergence of Haredi feminism through the lens of political activism, while my second book, Through Transparent Bars (Resling, forthcoming), explores the phenomenon of ultra-Orthodox women studying Talmud and its implications for gender and knowledge.

My doctoral dissertation at Tel Aviv University, which received the Dan David Prize, analyzed women’s Talmud study from the learners’ perspective. In 2024, I was awarded an honorary PhD by the Open University for my social activism promoting gender equality in Israel.

Alongside my academic work, I am a well-known social activist committed to advancing equality, visibility and representation for Haredi women in public life. I teach at Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Reichman University, and my work bridges scholarship, activism and public discourse. During my stay at Oxford, I will pursue research on Haredi Feminism and Modern Jewish Thought: Comparative Perspectives on Religious Authority and Gender, situating Haredi feminism within broader global and theoretical contexts.

Dr Emily Rose

I am a scholar of Medieval and Early Modern Europe, whose work has been hailed as ‘a model of thoroughgoing historical scholarship presented to a general audience and should be studied by scholars who wish to bring the humanities to the public square’. A graduate of Oxford with an Honours degree in Modern History, I have taught British, European History and Jewish Studies at five universities.

My project at OCHJS examines ‘Expulsion (1290), “Re-admission” (1656), Celebration (1906): Jews of England and the Construction of a National Identity’.

My first book, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe (Oxford University Press, 2015) was named one of the ‘Ten Best History Books of the Year’ by the Sunday Times of London and described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘a landmark of historical research’. The American Historical Review called it ‘a significant achievement’ and the AJS Review described it as ‘a truly excellent book. It deserves to be read and studied by scholars in many if not all fields of medieval studies’. It won the Ralph Waldo Emerson award from the Phi Beta Kappa Association and was awarded the 2017 Albert C. Outler Prize of the American Society for Church History for the best ecumenical church history monograph of the past two years. 

I have also published on Christian-Jewish relations in late Antiquity, and on European politics and finance in the early Modern world. My articles have appeared in Parliamentary History, the Huntington Library Quarterly, JEGP, Studies in the Age of Chaucer and Viator among others. My essay on ‘Blood Libel, Crusades and Popular Violence’ appeared in The Cambridge Companion to the History of Antisemitism (2022).