I study the religious literature of the ancient Mediterranean. I am fascinated by the ways in which stories are told and retold by successive communities—how narratives morph and take on new meanings overtime, how the values of the storyteller shape the poetics of a tale, and how material realities influence what gets remembered. I took my first religious studies course in undergrad because I thought I knew a lot about the Bible and it looked like it would be an easy A. I’ve stayed in religious studies all these years later because I discovered in that class a new way of looking at the world. As an educator, I love supporting students as they find these moments of discovery for themselves.