Faculty Directory
Angela Kim Harkins
Professor of New Testament
Professor Ordinaria
Angela Kim Harkins
Ph.D.
Contact
Simboli Hall 321
Telephone: 617-552-6512
Email: angela.harkins@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0002-1105-4165
Education
- B.A.., Loyola University, Chicago
- M.A., University of Notre Dame
- S.T.L., Boston College STM
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Research Interests
Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Prayers, Deuterocanon, Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses, Religious Experience, History of Interpretation
Expertise
- Biblical Studies
- Spirituality Studies
- Theology and the Arts
Profile
Dr. Angela Kim Harkins (Professor Ordinaria of the New Testament) is a biblical scholar and educator who specializes in early Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and early Christianity. She teaches and writes on the intersection of prayer, apocalyptic imagination, and scriptural interpretation in ancient Judaism and Christianity, with particular attention to ritual practices of reading and praying and the lived experience of religion. She is deeply committed to mentoring students, fostering contemplative approaches to Scripture, and bridging rigorous historical inquiry with contemporary questions about religion and spirituality.
Biography
Dr. Harkins was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. She completed her M.A. degree in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in biblical languages in 1997. She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel under Emanuel Tov with funding from a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997-1998, an exciting year that coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. She returned to Notre Dame to begin her Ph.D. studies in the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity area, with a minor in Syriac exegesis and Liturgical Studies. She wrote her dissertation on the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hebr. Hodayot) from Qumran under James C. VanderKam (2003).
Dr. Harkins arrived at the BC CSTM in 2015. She spent the previous two years in England where she held a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship at the University of Birmingham (309,235 Euros) for interdisciplinary research on religious experience and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prior to this fellowship, Dr. Harkins was a tenured Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department and a member of the Judaic Studies faculty at Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT), where she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award by the College of Arts and Sciences in 2011.
Dr. Harkins has published extensively on the topic of prayers, emotions, and religious experience in early Jewish and Christian texts. She has authored or edited nine books, and more than forty scholarly articles and essays. She is the author of Reading with an “I” to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions, Ekstasis 3 (De Gruyter, 2012) and Experiencing Presence in the Second Temple Period: Revised and Updated Essays in Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 111 (Peeters, 2022). Her latest monograph is An Embodied Reading of the Shepherd of Hermas: The Book of Visions and its Role in Moral Formation, Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture series (Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2023).
Dr. Harkins serves as the Executive Editor of the Journal of Ancient Judaism (Brill), a position that she shares with Jonathan Klawans, Boston University (2022-present).
Selected Appointments, Awards, and Grants
- 2022: Executive Editor of Journal of Ancient Judaism, Brill.
- 2021: President, New England/Eastern Canada Region of the Society of Biblical Literature
- 2020: Elected to membership in the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS)
- 2014: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow, European Commission, €309,235
- 2011: Fairfield University College of Arts and Sciences, Distinguished Teaching Award
- 2010: Wabash Center for Teaching in Religion and Theology, pre-tenured fellow
- 2001: Excellence in Teaching Award. Kaneb Center. University of Notre Dame
- 1997: Fulbright Student Award for research at Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- 1994: Theology Department Undergraduate Award, Loyola University Chicago
- 1993: Alpha Sigma Nu. National Jesuit Universities Honor Society
Professional Activities
- Chair of the Prayer in Antiquity Program Unit of the Society of Biblical Literature
- Chair of the Qumran and Dead Sea Scrolls Program Unit of the International Society of Biblical Literature
- Board member of Collegium
Editorial Positions
- Journal of Ancient Judaism. Executive Editor, Brill (2022-ongoing)
- Journal for the Study of the New Testament. Editorial board member, Sheffield Press (2016 ongoing)
- Journal of Theological Studies. Editorial board member, Oxford University Press (2021-ongoing)
- Editorial Board/Consulting Board Member, CBA new series on biblical studies, Paulist Press 2014-ongoing
- Ekstasis Series: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Medieval Period. Berlin: de Gruyter (2015-2020)