Christine Hayes
Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica
B.A. summa cum laude Harvard University;
M.A. and Ph.D.
U.C. Berkeley;
Christine Hayes is Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, she was Assistant Professor of Hebrew Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University for three years. Her published works include two books and several articles in Vetus Testamentum, The Journal for the Study of Judaism, The Harvard Theological Review, and various scholarly anthologies. Her first book, entitled Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds (Oxford University Press, 1997) was honored with a Salo Baron prize for a first book in Jewish thought and literature, awarded by the American Academy for Jewish Research (1999). Her second book, Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities: Intermarriage and Conversion from the Bible to the Talmud (Oxford University Press, 2002) was a 2003 National Jewish Book Award finalist. With the support of a New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation, Hayes spent 2005-2006 at the Yale Law School, working on a third book, provisionally entitled Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Anxiety. Hayes is active in professional and academic organizations, currently serving on the program committee of the Association for Jewish Studies. A specialist in talmudic-midrashic studies, Hayes offers undergraduate courses on the literature and history of the biblical and talmudic periods (including Introduction to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and Introduction to Judaism) as well as advanced text courses and graduate-only seminars. In 2005, Hayes was awarded the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities. She has served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Religious Studies as well as for the Program in Judaic Studies. Recent university service includes the Committee on Yale College Education and the Committee on Majors. From 2004-2006, Hayes was a fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center.
