Jed Wyrick, B. A. Brandeis University in Classics, Ph.D. Harvard University in Comparative Literature
Trinity 233
(530) 898-6379
jwyrick@csuchico.edu

I come to the field of Religious Studies from the disciplines of philology and literary analysis. As an undergraduate, I studied ancient Greek, Latin, and biblical Hebrew language and literatures. My graduate study focused on ancient Greek literature, Hebrew Bible, midrash (a traditional form of interpretation of Bible found in Jewish and early Christian sources), Hellenistic culture and scholarship (the library at Alexandria is one of my interests), and Yiddish language and literature (I needed to know a bit about the 19th and 20th centuries too!). Along the way, I picked up reading knowledge of French, German, and Modern Hebrew (I speak a little of all three, but my German gets mixed up with my Yiddish). I studied French literary and critical theory (Derrida and Foucault in particular), and was trained in approaches to culture that derive from the study of anthropology (performance theory, gift exchange and economics of pre-literate societies, myth and ritual).

I have taught Modern Hebrew several times at Chico State (the course now receives GE area C2 credit). I regularly teach ancient Greek in directed study. I have also taught Latin, both as a graduate student and at Chico State. As someone who loves learning languages but has struggled with outdated pedagogical strategies, I am always looking for new strategies for teaching, and employ them when I find them.

Since coming to Chico, I have become more involved in the study of religion itself, rather than just religious texts. I have a seminar in cults and sects in the ancient world, and am nourishing an interest in theories of religion. Recently I have been studying the New Testament (in Greek, of course!) together with recent scholarly approaches to it.

On of my newest courses is RS 144 Religious Dimensions of Literature: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. This course is not only fun for students, but represents a lifelong interest of mine (my latest interest in Fantasy/Sci Fi is in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan). I also teach RS 100 Myth and Ritual, a course dedicated to the study of the Ancient Near East and ancient Greece, as well as the main approaches to the study of myth and ritual.

I will soon be publishing a manuscript entitled The Ascension of Authorship: Attribution, Textualization, and Canon Formation in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian Tradition, with Harvard University Press.

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