Dr. Meir Bar-Maymon has a BA and MA degrees in Biblical Studies from Tel Aviv University (2009, 2011). His Master’s thesis is on masculinization and de-masculinization processes in the Book of Judges. His PhD dissertation (2015), “Mythologies of Masculinities and the Search of the [Male] Israelite Self in the Book of Ezekiel”, was written at Tel Aviv University and the Sciences Po Paris, under the supervision of Prof. Athalya Brenner-Idan and Dr. Michael Mach.
He approaches the Hebrew Bible through the prism of cultural studies, political theology and post-structuralism, with emphasis on the construction of the subject and the relations to his/her sovereign.
In the DIP project, Bar Maymon intends to work on Sa‘adia Gaon’s translation to the Book of Job, and to study the links between Sa‘adia’s translation and his theology. Bar Maymon’s main premise is that Jewish perception of self-subjectivity underwent a profound change as a response to Islamic challenges. Such a change will be looked for in Sa‘adia’s translation to Job, based on the understanding that translation is always a form of interpretation and theological updating. Sa‘adia’s translation will also be compared with Yefet Ben Eli’s work, and different aspects of Jewish subjectivity that may be reflected from the translations of both will be examined.
