Fellow elected President of the Society for Old Testament Study
Thursday 3 February 2022
Members of the Society for Old Testament Study have elected a Fellow of St Catharine’s to serve as their President from January 2023. Professor Katharine Dell (1996), Director of Studies in Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion at St Catharine's, is only the sixth woman to be elected to lead the Society and it is the first time in the Society’s history that women have served back-to-back presidencies (Professor Dell succeeds Professor Charlotte Hempel of the University of Birmingham).
Professor Dell comments, “It is a genuine honour to be elected the next President of the Society for Old Testament Study. The Society has come a long way since I was the first woman to serve as Secretary in 1995, and even further since Baroness Eileen de Ward served as the first female President in 1975. I’m proud that the Society is now firmly committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and improving representation at its highest levels.”
Professor Dell (credit: Elodie Guige)
The Society for Old Testament Study, founded in 1917, is an academic learned society embracing the Old Testament and its cognate areas: Hebrew and other Semitic languages; the literature, religion, history, archaeology and sociology of ancient Israel; and the study of the Old Testament in the light of modern literary theory. It represents 400 members, many of whom are British citizens.
The Society currently holds two conferences each year: a Winter Meeting and a Summer Meeting. During her year in office, Professor Dell will present a presidential paper at the 2023 Winter Meeting and will host the 2023 Summer Meeting (4–7 September) at St Catharine’s.
She adds, “I look forward to bringing the Society for Old Testament Study’s Summer Meeting to St Catharine’s. It is exciting to think that the College’s new Central Spaces, including state-of-the-art and accessible meeting facilities, will have been open for a year by the time 120+ delegates from the UK and around the world arrive here in September 2023.”
