Program in Early Cultures

Ross S. Kraemer, Emerita Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies, specializes in early Christianity and other religions of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, including early Judaism. While much of her research focuses on aspects of women's religions in the Greco-Roman world, particularly Christian and Jewish women, her interests also extend to questions of theory and method in the academic study of religion, the study of women and religion cross-culturally and trans-historically, and even religion and modern media (she has taught courses on Religion and Film, Star Trek and Religion, and Jesus in Contemporary Cinema). Before coming to Brown in 2000, she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

Her publications include Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions Among Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman World (Oxford University Press, 1992), When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered, (Oxford, 1998); Women and Christian Origins , edited with Mary Rose D'Angelo (Oxford, 1999); Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books and the New Testament , edited with Carol Meyers and Toni Craven (Houghton-Mifflin, 2000; Eerdmans, 2001 [paperback]); and Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook, (Oxford, 2004), a greatly revised and expanded version of Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics: A Sourcebook of Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World, originally published by Fortress Press in 1988. Her 2011 book (Oxford) Unreliable Witnesses: Religion, Gender and History in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean considers the effects of ancient gender constructions on ancient narratives about women's religions and the use of such narratives as evidence for actual practices. It won a 2011 American Academy of Religion Prize for Excellence. Her newest book, forthcoming from Oxford (2019), considers what happened to Jews in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean diaspora in the wake of Christianization. She is the author of numerous journal articles and other publications, and has lectured throughout the United States and abroad.

At Brown, she served for many years as the Director of Graduate Studies in Religious Studies. She was Acting Chair of the department (Fall, 2002), a co-editor of Brown Judaic Studies, a Freshman Advisor, a co-chair of the Seminar on Culture and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean (CRAM), a member of the university Committee on Academic Standing and the University Resources Committee, and a speaker at various student and faculty gatherings. As a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, she served on numerous committees.