Prof. Dr. Nathan P. Gibson
Professor für Religionswissenschaft (Jüdisch-Islamische Beziehungen)
Raum 6.552 |
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Sprechstunde Wintersemester 2023/24: Montag 14–15 Uhr (ohne Termin, einfach vorbeikommen!) Montag 15–16 Uhr (mit Termin) |
Academic Positions
2023-present | Professor for Religious Studies (Jewish-Islamic Relations), Faculty of Protestant Theology, Goethe University Frankfurt |
2017-2023 |
Academic Associate, Judaic Studies, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
08.2022-02.2023 Part-time parental leave |
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03.2022-present Principal Investigator of the subproject “Arabic Literary Personages as Jewish Documentary Subjects” in the BMBF project “Beyond Conflict and Coexistence: Entangled Histories of Jewish-Arab Relations” |
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12.2021-02.2022 Research sabbatical, Postdoc Support Fund, Faculty for the Study of Culture |
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12.2018-11.2021 Principal Investigator of the BMBF Kleine Fächer project “Communities of Knowledge: Interreligious Networks of Scholars in Ibn Abi Usaybiʿa’s History of the Physicians” (usaybia.net) |
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02.2018-11.2018 Part-time parental leave |
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10.2017-11.2018 Senior Research Associate in the DFG project “Biblia Arabica” |
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2015-2017 | Postdoctoral Scholar, Divinity School, Vanderbilt University |
10.2015-06.2017 Postdoc in the National Endowment for the Humanities Project “Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal” |
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10.2015-09.2017 Guest Researcher in Judaic Studies, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
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2013-2015 | Instructor, The Catholic University of America |
08.203-05.2015 Teaching Fellow in Theology and Religious Studies (The First-Year Experience Program) |
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08.2014-12.2014 Teaching Assistant in Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures |
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2011-2014 | Part-Time Research Assistant |
08.2012-08.2014 National Endowment for the Humanities and Balzan Foundation Project “Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal,” Beth Mardutho Institute and Vanderbilt University |
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08.2011-05.2012 Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures Department, The Catholic University of America |
Education
2021-present | Habilitand, History and Culture of the Near and Middle East Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Project: Analysis of Interreligious Networks in Ibn Abi Usaybiʿa’s History of the Physicians |
2011-2015 | Ph.D., Semitic & Egyptian Languages & Literatures (Arabic & Syriac) The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC Dissertation: “Closest in Friendship? Al-Jāḥiẓ’ Profile of Christians in Abbasid Society in ‘The Refutation of Christians’ (Al-Radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā)" Defended 23.04.15 “with distinction” Supervisor: Sidney H. Griffith |
2009-2011 | M.A., Semitic & Egyptian Languages & Literatures (Arabic & Syriac) The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC Adviser: Sidney H. Griffith |
2007-2010 | M.A. (with honors), Biblical History & Geography (Historical Geography) Jerusalem University College, Jerusalem, Israel Thesis: “From the Day the Israelites Came up from Egypt: The Exodus as Geographical Argumentation in the Former Prophets according to Toulmin’s Model of Argument” Supervisor: Paul H. Wright |
2004-2006 |
B.A. (magna cum laude), Religion (Bible and Communications) Kentucky Mountain Bible College, Vancleve, KY Adviser: John E. Neihof, Jr. |
Research Interests
- Networks of late-antique and medieval scholarship across religious boundaries
- The intersection of intellectual and cultural history in texts from diverse religious communities
- Social and cultural warrants in interreligious reasoning and argumentation
- Personal and rhetorical encounters among Near Eastern religious communities
- Polemic as a tool for historical investigation
- The role of intertextuality in argumentation
Publications
Dissertation
Gibson, Nathan P. Closest in Friendship? Al-Jāḥiẓ’ Profile of Christians in Abbasid Society in ‘The Refutation of Christians’ (Al-Radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā). Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:28277.
Monographs
Gibson, Nathan P. Polemic, Power, and Popular Opinion: Al-Jahiz’s Social Argumentation on the Muslim-Christian Encounter in Abbasid Iraq [revisions in preparation].
Edited Volumes
Bantu, Vince and Nathan P. Gibson, eds. Global Christian Texts: Readings in Early Christianity from African, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages. Oakland: University of California Press [contracted].
Pohl, Walter, Andre Gingrich, eds., and Nathan P. Gibson, guest ed. Knowledge Collaboration among Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Muslims in the Abbasid Near East II [thematic section]. Medieval Worlds: Comparative & Interdisciplinary Studies 18 (July 2023): 137–270. https://doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no18_2023.
Pohl, Walter, Andre Gingrich, eds., and Nathan P. Gibson, guest ed. Knowledge Collaboration among Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Muslims in the Abbasid Near East I [thematic section]. Medieval Worlds: Comparative & Interdisciplinary Studies 18 (December 2022): 59–216. https://doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no17_2022.
Articles
2023 | Gibson, Nathan P. “Labeling Religious Affiliation in Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa’s History of Physicians: A Quest.” Medieval Worlds 18 (July 2023): 246–70. https://doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no18_2023s246. Gibson, Nathan P.[1], and Robin Schmahl. “Communities of Knowledge: Interreligious Networks of Scholars in Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa’s History of the Physicians (Project Report).” Medieval Worlds 18 (July 2023): 196–218. https://doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no18_2023s196. Ghorbaninejad, Masoud, Nathan P. Gibson1, and David Joseph Wrisley. “Right-to-Left (RTL) Text: Digital Humanists Plus Half a Billion Users.” In Debates in the Digital Humanities 2023, edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein, 47–73. Debates in the Digital Humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023. |
2022 | Gibson, Nathan P. “Knowledge Collaboration among Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Muslims in the Abbasid Near East: Introduction.” Medieval Worlds 17 (2022): 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no17_2022s59. Gibson, Nathan P.1, and Ronny Vollandt. “Cross-Communal Scholarly Interactions.” In Routledge Handbook on the Sciences in Islamicate Societies: Practices from the 2nd/8th to the 13th/19th Centuries, edited by Sonja Brentjes, Peter Barker, and Rana Brentjes, 723–40. Routledge Handbooks. London: Routledge, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315170718-65. Schwartz, Daniel L.2, Nathan P. Gibson, and Katayoun Torabi. “Modeling a Born-Digital Factoid Prosopography Using the TEI and Linked Data.” The Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative. https://doi.org/10.4000/jtei.3979. Gibson, Nathan P.2, and David A. Michelson. “Modeling a Body of Literature in TEI: The New Handbook of Syriac Literature.” The Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative Selected Papers from the 2016 TEI Conference [accepted, revisions in preparation]. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.17613/M6V67M. |
2019 | Platt, Andrew and Nathan P. Gibson1, “Inquiring of ‘Beelzebub’: Timothy and al-Jāḥiẓ on Christians in the Abbasid Legal System,” in Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith, edited by David Bertaina et al, 256–83. Arabic Christianity: Texts and Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004383869_013. Preprint: https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/59778. |
2018 | Gibson, Nathan P.1, Miriam L. Hjälm, Peter Tarras, Ronny Vollandt, and Vevian Zaki. “The Bible in Arabic: An Update on the State of Research.” In Between the Cross and the Crescent: Studies in Honor of Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, edited by Željko Paša, 57–84. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 304. Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute, 2018. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.49819 | https://doi.org/10.17613/M6Z892D9J. |
2017 |
Gibson, Nathan P. “A Mid-Ninth-Century Arabic Translation of Isaiah? Glimpses from al-Jāḥiẓ.” In Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims, edited by Miriam Lindgren Hjälm, 327–69. Biblia Arabica 5. Leiden: Brill, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004347403_015. Gibson, Nathan P.[2], David A. Michelson, and Daniel L. Schwartz. “From Manuscript Catalogues to a Handbook of Syriac Literature: Modeling an Infrastructure for Syriaca.org.” Journal of Data Mining and Digital Humanities Special Issue on Computer-Aided Processing of Intertextuality in Ancient Languages (May 30, 2017). http://jdmdh.episciences.org/1395. |
2015 | Gibson, Nathan P.1, Winona Salesky, and David A. Michelson. “Encoding Western and Non-Western Names for Ancient Syriac Authors.” In Proceedings of the Symposium on Cultural Heritage Markup. Balisage Series on Markup Technologies 16. Washington, D.C., 2015. https://doi.org/10.4242/BalisageVol16.Gibson01. |
Interactive Online Publications
2020 | Gibson, Nathan P., ed. Communities of Knowledge: Interreligious Networks of Scholars in Ibn Abi Uṣaybiʿa’s History of the Physicians. Version 0.6.0-dev. Munich: Usaybia.net, 2020–. https://usaybia.net. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3975505. - Coauthor and coeditor of all 2,428 person entries and 594 place entries.[1] Example: “ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī,” https://usaybia.net/person/32. |
2018 | Vollandt, Ronny (gen. ed.), and Nathan P. Gibson (assoc. ed.). Bibliography of the Arabic Bible: A Classified and Annotated History of Scholarship. 2018–. https://biblia-arabica.com/bibl. Contains 356 bibliography entries total. - Coauthor and coeditor: 131 entries - Coeditor only: 225 |
2016 | Gibson, Nathan P., David A. Michelson, and Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, eds. The New Handbook of Syriac Literature. 2016–. http://syriaca.org/nhsl. Contains 2,825 total entries for literary works. Example: “Matthew (Peshitta version),” https://syriaca.org/work/72. - Coauthor and coeditor: 355 entries |
2016 | Michelson, David A. (gen. ed.), Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, Nathan P. Gibson, and Daniel Schwartz (assoc. eds.). The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. 2016–. http://syriaca.org/persons. Contains 2,673 person entries total, of which 929 are included in vol. 2 (David A. Michelson and Nathan P. Gibson, eds., A Guide to Syriac Authors, 2016, http://syriaca.org/authors). Example: “Pethion,” https://syriaca.org/person/996. - Coauthor and coeditor: 857 entries - Coeditor only: 107 entries |