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Chris Heard
Associate Professor of Religion

 

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my faculty web site! In case you don’t know me, let me introduce myself: I’m Chris Heard, Associate Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University. I use this web site as an extension of my teaching and scholarship, and a window into my personal world. Here you can find resources for the classes I teach, synopses of my research projects, and more. I hope you enjoy your visit and find it helpful. Students enrolled in my courses can find more detailed information posted within the Courses site for each class. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions—but be patient, as I have lot going on!

Website Renovation in Progress!

Please feel free to visit any of my category pages available through the menu in the left-hand column of this page. However, please also be aware that I am currently renovating my faculty web site to conform to the new look and feel of the Pepperdine and Seaver College web sites. It will take me some time to convert all of the older content to the new look, so please be patient with me if some of the links on "deeper" pages don't function quite right at present.

Current Teaching Activities

Spring 2012 Courses

  • HEB 3391 Elementary Biblical Hebrew II
    Tuesdays and Fridays, 12:00–1:50 PM in Appleby 286
  • REL 101 The History and Religion of [Ancient] Israel
    Tuesdays and Fridays, 8:00–9:30 AM and 10:00–11:30 AM in Plaza 190

Spring 2012 Contact Information

  • Study: Appleby 278
  • Open-Door Hours
    • Mondays, 8:30–10:00 AM or by appointment
    • Tuesdays, 2:30–3:30 PM or by appointment
    • Wednesdays (if no faculty or committee meetings), 8:30–10:00 AM or by appointment
    • Thursdays, unavailable
    • Fridays, by appointment only
  • Phone: 310-506-4299
  • E-mail: cheard@pepperdine.edu
  • Twitter: @drcheard
  • Skype: My status

Summer 2012 Courses

  • HEB 520 Intermediate Biblical Hebrew
    Schedule uncertain at present

Fall 2012 Courses

  • REL 101 The History and Religion of [Ancient] Israel
    Schedule uncertain at present, but probably 8:00–9:30 AM and 10:00–11:30 AM on Tuesdays and Fridays
  • REL 504 The Pentateuch
    Schedule uncertain at present, but probably 12:00–1:50 PM or 2:00–3:50 PM on Tuesdays and Fridays

 

Teaching Initiatives

During the 2011–2012 semester, my Hebrew students are using a prepublication textbook (Biblical Hebrew: An Illustrated Introduction) by Robert Holmstedt and John Cook. They’re using the book in PDF form on iPads provided by Pepperdine, submitting their homework digitally using the annotation tools available in iAnnotate PDF for iPad.

For some time now, I’ve been experimenting with the gamification of Religion 101. That exploration continues in Spring 2012.

Fall 2012 Committee Assignments

  • Rank, Tenure, and Promotion Committee (SFA)

Current Scholarly Activities

My scholarly publications to date have focused mostly on aesthetic, ethical, and social analyses of biblical narratives, especially the narratives in Genesis. At present, I am doing basic research and initial writing on Genesis 1–21 through the Centuries for the Blackwell Bible Commentary series; this volume, which I will submit to the series editors in September 2012, surveys the use, influence, and impact of the book of Genesis 1–21 on Western culture. I will follow this project with a companion volume, Genesis 22–50 through the Centuries, due to the publisher in March 2015.

I recently finished a term as Past President for the Society of Biblical Literature/Pacific Coast Region, a one-year appointment culminating at the regional meeting in 2011. I am now an at-large member of the SBL/PCR Executive Committee.

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