Ian Wilson, PhD
Pronouns: he/him
Contact
Associate Professor, Augustana - Fine Arts & Humanities
- iwilson@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Hebrew Bible History Narrative Memory Anthropology Religion
About
I am a scholar of religion, specializing in the Hebrew Bible and the histories and cultures of ancient Israel and Judah, and of West Asia more broadly. At Augustana, I teach courses on the contemporary religions of the world, theories of religion, biblical studies, the ancient West Asian context, and related topics. I also serve as Associate Editor for the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures.
My work, in research and in the classroom, has focused mainly on how communities remember and imagine themselves, and how different social memories and imaginaries interrelate with one another. My first monograph, Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah (Oxford University Press, 2017), explores these processes through the texts of the Hebrew Bible, revealing how ancient Judeans balanced and navigated various and even competing understandings of their monarchic past, with their literature. The book won the R.B.Y. Scott Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in 2018. My research has also appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as Brill Research Perspectives, Harvard Theological Review, Vetus Testamentum, Die Welt des Orients, and Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft; and I co-edited the volume History, Memory, Hebrew Scriptures: A Festschrift for Ehud Ben Zvi (Penn State University Press / Eisenbrauns, 2015).
Recently, my research has addressed prophetic literature in particular: What can these literary artifacts tell us about historical thought in antiquity, about how the communities responsible for this literature thought about (and with) conceptions of their past? What was the interrelationship between the literary forms of prophetic books and historical thinking in ancient Judean culture, and how has this interrelationship impacted the ongoing reading and interpretation of these texts? In my current book project, I am drawing on the concept of archive to address these questions, contending that prophetic literature had an archival function in Judean antiquity, and that the prophets' bodies—as represented in the literature—were also understood to be archival.
Courses
AUIDS 101 - First Year Seminar
Selected topics that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. This seminar-style class is the first course in Augustana's Core. The focus and content of each course are determined by faculty interests, and vary from year to year.
AUIDS 440 - Advanced Topics in Ethics and Global Studies
This course covers selected topics-at an advanced level-in the study of religion, philosophy, history, or politics. Topics may vary from year to year depending on the course instructor. The course serves as the culmination of the Ethics & Global Studies program. Prerequisites: Any 300-level course in AUHIS, AUPHI, AUPOL or AUREL.
AUREL 100 - Introduction to Religion
An introduction to the study of religion, focusing on major religions of the world. The course briefly examines the histories of these religions and various social and cultural phenomena associated with them, and also introduces students to the contemporary discipline of religious studies and the theories and methods associated with it.
AUREL 216 - The Hebrew Prophets
Attempt to interpret selected prophets within their historical context. The course explores the relevance of the prophetic mode of analyzing contemporary society.
AUREL 250 - Theories of Religion
An introduction to the concept of religion, through studying and reflecting critically upon the work of prominent and influential thinkers from the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology and contemporary religious studies. Coursework focuses upon the challenge of defining religion as a human phenomenon, and comparing and evaluating different approaches to understanding it as such.
AUREL 325 - Sex and Gender in Ancient Religions
An examination of religious texts and artifacts from the ancient world (e.g. biblical texts, Mesopotamian myths, iconography on statuary, reliefs, etc.), with a specific focus on representations of sex and gender. The course will introduce contemporary issues in gender theory to use as a lens for examining material from the ancient world, with the goal of better understanding various human beliefs and practices in relation to sexuality, the body and construction of gender.
AUREL 390 - Selected Topics in Religious Studies
Selected topics in the study of religion. Topics may vary from year to year depending on the course instructor.
AUREL 391 - Directed Reading in Religion I
Intensive study in a specific area of religion as defined by the student and a supervising instructor. Prerequisite: Consent of the Instructor. Note: An Application for Individual Study must be completed and approved before registration in each of these courses.
Featured Publications
Ian D. Wilson
Die Welts des Orients 54, pp. 278–290. 2025 March;
Ian D. Wilson
The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel, ed. Corrine Carvalho (Oxford University Press), pp. 166–186. 2023 October;
Ian D. Wilson
Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation 3.2, pp. 1–69. 2018 August;
Ian D. Wilson
Oxford University Press. 2017 January;
Ian D. Wilson
Vetus Testamentum 66, pp. 646–661. 2016 October;
Ian D. Wilson
Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire, ed. Jason M. Silverman and Caroline Waerzeggers (SBL Press), pp. 325–361. 2015 December;
Ian D. Wilson
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 126, pp. 521–534. 2014 December;
Ian D. Wilson
Harvard Theological Review 106, pp. 309–329. 2013 August;