Eric Harvey holds a PhD from Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, with a specialization in Bible and the Ancient Near East. This means he studies the history, literature, and religions of ancient Israel, Syria, Iraq, and the surrounding areas. Mostly he reads texts from the Hebrew Bible, from Assyria and Babylon, and from a whole host of other kingdoms and peoples that almost no one’s ever heard of, and tries to make sense of them and their world. His dissertation, “Sing to the Lord a New(-ish) Song: The Psalms of the Egyptian hallel across Two Thousand Years,” traces the development and transformation of several biblical Psalms from their hazy origins to the invention of the printing press, changing from manuscript to manuscript in coevolution with a variety of historical, religious, and socio-cultural contexts. His next research project investigates how blindness was lived and imagined in the ancient Near East.
Eric is married to the beautiful and talented Kristin Myers Harvey, who inspired this blog. He is also the father of Jane and Amelia,.
Eric is very slowly going blind, and he’s a good bit of the way there already. He has been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease that has led to legal blindness and will inevitably cause full blindness in the future. For more information on Eric’s vision, see the following posts:
My Vision in Experiential Terms
Eric is intent on finding creative new ways to engage in scholarship, family, and the world as a blind person. He is writing this blog to share the process and hopefully learn from others who might wander by.