Naomi A. Steinberg

Naomi Steinberg's work focuses on the study of the Hebrew Bible literature, history, and religion in its ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean context. Her teaching, research, and service focuses on the family in antiquity. She has written about the world of ancient Israelite women in Kinship and Marriage in Genesis: A Household Economics Perspective (Fortress Press, 1993) and about the plight of children in the biblical world in The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013). Steinberg's scholarly works and her community work with children both locally and internationally attest to her commitment to the best interests of children and to work that can change lives. Steinberg's most recent article, “Social Death as Gendered Genocide: The Fate of Women and Children,” is a critical analysis of two contemporary ethnic genocides that use contemporary data to underscore the impacts of war on women described in biblical texts. This study uncovers gendered patterns of warfare aimed at group annihilation and examines how rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence are intentional means of diluting the purity of the victims’ group that result in the social death of women and erasure of their past identities.