June 16 – 20, 2008

Faculty members

Dr. Robert Kugler
Robert Kugler is the chair of the Religious Studies department at Lewis and Clark College and the Paul S. Wright Professor of Christian Studies. He teaches courses on Jewish and Christian origins, including courses on both the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and New Testament. His particularly area of academic interest involves the interpretive traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Jewish and Christian literature from Greco-Roman Egypt. He is the author or co-editor of five books and numerous essays in edited volumes. Kugler earned a PhD in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Cecilia Wassen
Cecilia Wassen, until recently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, is an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism. She received an MDiv from Uppsala University as well as an MA and PhD from McMaster University. Her book, Women in the Damascus Document, provides a fresh look at the roles of and attitudes towards women in community responsible for the authorship of the Damascus Document. Wassen also co-authored the article “Women” in the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dr. Hanne von Weissenberg
Hanne Von Weissenberg earned an MA and PhD from the University of Helsinki where she has been a Senior Lecturer and currently holds a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship. Her Doctoral dissertation, “4QMMT—The Problem of the Epilogue,” has been accepted for publication by Brill Academic Publishers, and her current project deals with the process of canon formation in light of the witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to her academic responsibilities, she is also an ordained minister in the Church of Finland.

Dr. Ian Werrett
Ian Werrett is the Director of the Spiritual Life Institute and an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Martin’s University. An expert on the Hebrew Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Ancient Judaism, he has given academic papers in Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Holland, Israel, Canada, and the United States. He has worked in situ on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem and, most recently, he acted as a member of the Pacific Science Center’s Speakers Bureau, which offered public presentations on the recent Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Seattle. Werrett earned a PhD in Biblical Studies and Second Temple Judaism from the University of St Andrews in 2006.