Sarah F. Porter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies

Dr. Sarah F. Porter is a historian of the literature, practices, and material culture that emerged in the wake of Christianity in the second through fifth centuries CE. Her research and archaeological fieldwork has taken her to Greece, Italy, and Turkey....

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Portrait of Dr. Sarah F. Porter

Contact Information

  • Office Hours Fall 2024
    Tuesdays, Thursdays: 12:30-2:00pm
    available both Zoom and in-person

    or by appointment 

  • (509) 313-6778

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D., A.M., Harvard University

M.Div., Vanderbilt University Divinity School

B.A., Southwestern University

Courses Taught

RELI 267: Early Christian History
Dr. Sarah F. Porter is a historian of the literature, practices, and material culture that emerged in the wake of Christianity in the second through fifth centuries CE. Her research and archaeological fieldwork has taken her to Greece, Italy, and Turkey. Her current book project focuses on early Christian deathscapes, such as cemeteries and martyria, as sites of emotion and political jockeying. Other publications engage with the complicated legacies of archaeology and museums. In her classes, students encounter the complex and vibrant worlds of the early Christian Mediterranean through archaeology and ancient texts. Dr. Porter strives toward an inclusive and dynamic learning environment in the classroom.

Articles

“A Church and Its Charms: Space, Affect, and Affiliation in Fourth-Century Antioch.” Studies in Late Antiquity 5.4 (2021): 639–677.

“Imagining Otherwise: The Lives of Objects and Other Expert Practitioners.” Religious Studies Review 47.3 (2021): 303–5.

“Incompatible Sites: The Land of Israel and the Ambulant Body in the Museum of the Bible.” Ancient Jew Review (). 30 January 2018.

Chapters

With Laura Nasrallah. “Things.” In Religion and Context: Graeco-Roman Religious Practices in their Socio-Cultural Milieu. Ed. Jan N. Bremmer, Jorg Rüpke, and Georgia Petridou. Neue Pauly Supplements. Stuttgart: Metzler. With the editor; forthcoming.

“Teaching the Body: Spatial Strategies at the Museum of the Bible.” In The Museum of the Bible: A Critical Introduction, ed. Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon, pp. 121–42. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books / Fortress Academic, 2019.

Reference Entries

With Jennifer A. Quigley. “Archaeology, Greco-Roman.” Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies. Ed. Christopher Matthews. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

“Sardis.” Bible Odyssey (). Society of Biblical Literature. 2020.

“Ephesus.” Bible Odyssey (). Society of Biblical Literature. 2019.

Book Reviews

Cavan Concannon, Assembling Early Christianity: Trade, Networks, and the Letters of Dionysios of Corinth (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2017). Ancient Jew Review (). 10 December 2018.

Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford University Press, 2015). Ancient Jew Review (). 15 March 2017.

Research: Dr. Porter is currently revising her dissertation for publication as a monograph, Early Christian Deathscapes in Fourth-Century Antioch: Affect, Material Culture, and Affiliation.