Berlin To Retire at End of Semester

The career of Adele Berlin, Robert H. Smith Professor of Bible, was celebrated by the University on the occasion of her retirement.

After a remarkable thirty year career at the University of Maryland, Adele Berlin will retire at the end of the spring 2009 semester. The Department of English recently co-sponsored, with the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, a conference in Berlin's honor. "Biblical Poetics and Interpretation" was held on May 3, 2009 and proved to be a grand success.

Berlin's many career accomplishments include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment of the Humanities. She served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2000, and remains a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research, in addition to serving on its executive council. 

Beyond her achievements in scholarship, Berlin has also served with distinction in a variety of administrative posts at the University of Maryland, including terms as director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, and chair of the University Senate. In 1994, Berlin was awarded the Robert H. Smith Professorship of Hebrew Bible. Her book length publications include The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford UP, 2004), Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative (Sheffield, 1983), The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Indiana UP, 1985), and Biblical Poetry Through Medieval Jewish Eyes (Indiana UP, 1991).

"To acknowledge all those achievements does not, somehow, seem to say enough," says Kent Cartwright, Department Chair. "We all know Adele to be as modest as she is brilliant, as generous listening as she is in sharing her own remarkable insight, and as collegial and gracious as she is gifted. Adele's career has been a model for all of us."

Read more about "Biblical Poetics and Interpretation: A Conference in Honor of Adele Berlin" here.