Shelley Birdsong

Shelley L. Birdsong is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at North Central College. As a biblical scholar, Dr. Birdsong's research often centers on biblical characters and the plurality of the sacred scriptures. Dr. Birdsong's major works include The Last King(s) of Judah (2017) and Partners with God: Theological and Critical Readings of the Bible in Honor of Marvin A. Sweeney (2017). More recently, Dr. Birdsong has used feminist criticism and gender theory to problematize portrayals of biblical characters including women who have theophanic experiences and the weeping woman from Timnah (Judges 14). The next major project on the horizon is a commentary on the book of Judges for Smyth & Helwys. 

Dr. Birdsong is co-chair of the Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible section for the Society of Biblical Literature and has contributed to the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Oxford Bibliographies Online, Review of Biblical Literature, and Religious Studies Review.

Selected Scholarship

Judges, Gender, and Intertextuality. Co-edited with J. Cornelis de Vos and Hyun Chul Paul Kim. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023.

The Last King(s) of Judah: Zedekiah and Sedekias in the Hebrew and Old Greek Versions of Jeremiah 37(44):1-40(47):6. FAT II Series. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.

Partners with God: Theological and Critical Readings of the Bible in Honor of Marvin A. Sweeney. Co-edited with Serge Frolov. Claremont, CA: Claremont Press, 2017.

"Jeremiah." Oxford Bibliographies Online. Revised Edition. Co-edited with Marvin A. Sweeney. 2021.

“The Narratives about Isaiah in Isa 36–39.” The Oxford Handbook of Isaiah. Edited by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer. Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Courses Taught

Introduction to the Bible

Violence, War, and Peace in the Bible

Women and the Bible

Bible Seminar

Introduction to Judaism

Introduction to World Religions

Theories of Gender and Sexuality

Nature & Wellbeing

Sustainability