Charlotte Hempel --- Smith Lecture, Spring 2025

Each semester, an outstanding female scholar from any sub-discipline of Divinity is invited to St Andrews to deliver the Smith Lecture in memory of Agnes Lewis and Margaret Dunlop (both née Smith), twin sisters from Ayrshire, whose contribution to Divinity led to the award of honorary doctorates in 1901 by the University.

A Smith Lecturer addresses a wide-ranging audience of undergraduates, postgraduates and staff and also meets informally with female students who might be interested in pursuing an academic career in the discipline.

Charlotte Hempel is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Birmingham. Her main research interests are the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible. In 2013-2014 she worked on a project funded by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship entitled: ‘The Development of Complex Literary Traditions in the Second Temple Period' which resulted in the project monograph, ‘The Community Rules from Qumran: A Commentary'. Until 2016 Prof. Hempel was the host scientist-in charge for the EU funded Marie Curie Fellowship of Dr. Angela Harkins and co-investigator with Isabel Wollaston on a three year educational project ‘Jewish Heritage and Culture: Birmingham Perspectives'. More recently she was awarded an Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellowship to work on a project entitled ‘Ezra's Legacy and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Law and Narratives of Exclusion' and was the founding Director of the Second Temple Early Career Academy, a Virtual Common Room of global reach.

Following the lecture, women scholars will have the opportunity to meet Prof. Hempel in an adjacent venue for conversation not only about her lecture but around ways of encouraging and advancing women's careers in the academy.

This event is organised by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee of the School of Divinity of the University of St Andrews.