Katharina Pyschny is Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Graz.
She completed her Dr. theol. in Hebrew Bible Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum in 2015 (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Frevel). Her monograph, entitled “Verhandelte Führung. Eine Analyse von Num 16-17 im Kontext der neueren Pentateuchforschung”, reconstructs the complex literary development of the so called ‘murmuring stories’ in Num 16-17 and situates it in the post-exilic discourses on political and cultic concepts of authority and leadership. She is currently working on a habilitation about (Katharina: can you please add some information here?). In addition to her extensive research related to the Hebrew Bible, she is a specialist in the archaeology and especially the visual culture of the Southern Levant. In the context of the SNF-project “History of the Pentateuch”, she worked in an interdisciplinary way, bringing her expertise on these biblical books to innovative research on the sanctuaries in ancient Israel and Judah. She has also published and presented extensively on iconographic topics, such as imagery on incense burners, women and child figurines, and concepts of male and female nudity. She is currently a member of the executive board of the German Society for the Exploration of Palestine. Her research has also benefited from numerous fellowships, allowing her to participate in research trips, courses, and excursions in Israel/Palestine.
Her main research interests include concepts of leadership in the Hebrew Bible, historical-critical biblical exegesis (Pentateuch, especially the Book of Numbers and the Book of Deuteronomy), biblical anthropology, archaeology of the Southern Levant (especially the Persian and early Hellenistic periods), and ancient Near Eastern iconography.
In the context of this international collaboration, she is leading a research team at the University of Graz, investigating the symbol system of the Southern Levant, with the broader goal of reconstructing the complex religious-historical landscape of the Persian and early Hellenistic periods.