Sat. Mar 7th, 2026

Travel

Strasbourg PPT, First Slide An Academic Pilgrimage: Germany Summer 2025 13 min read

An Academic Pilgrimage: Germany Summer 2025

Matthew Saunders June 26, 2025
TL;DR: For the past few weeks, I’ve traveled to Stuttgart, Tübingen, Berlin, Wittenberg, Erfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Göttingen, and Hamburg, including the following three conferences: Semitic Dialectology (Berlin); Studying Hebrew in Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg (Strasbourg); and Current Research and Challenges in Ugaritic Studies (Göttingen). Here's an overview of the talks I attended.... Read More
PTS Image 2025 JHU-PTS Doctoral Symposium 3 min read

JHU-PTS Doctoral Symposium

Matthew Saunders February 23, 2025
One week ago, I presented a lecture at the first annual Johns Hopkins-Princeton Theological Seminary Doctoral Symposium for Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Northwest Semitics. My lecture focused on Aramaic-based code-alternation in the Hebrew Bible, categorizing its motivations and functions. It was an honor to engage with faculty like Mark S. Smith and F.W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp and to share insights from my ongoing dissertation research. A more focused version of this talk is in progress for a future conference.... Read More
SBL 2024 Talk ASOR and SBL 2024 5 min read

ASOR and SBL 2024

Matthew Saunders November 27, 2024
Last week, I attended the 2024 annual meetings of the American Schools of Overseas Research (ASOR) in Boston, MA, and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in San Diego, CA. These back-to-back conferences were a highlight of my academic year, featuring groundbreaking research, engaging discussions, and opportunities to connect with colleagues and friends in Near Eastern studies. Here's a few of the talks I attended as well as a brief summary of my research which I presented at SBL.... Read More
AI generated image of my Spring and Summer 2024 in review. Spring and Summer 2024 Semesters in Review at JHU 5 min read

Spring and Summer 2024 Semesters in Review at JHU

Matthew Saunders September 1, 2024
TL;DR: During the Spring and Summer 2024 semesters at JHU, I completed various advanced seminar courses, various projects, and extracurricular activities. I also traveled for research and vacation across Europe and the USA. For Fall 2024, I will continue my coursework both at JHU and CUA, anticipating a demanding but fulfilling semester.... Read More
copenhagen_logo Copenhagen: Digital Applications in Assyriology 4 min read

Copenhagen: Digital Applications in Assyriology

Matthew Saunders August 30, 2024
TL;DR: Today marked the end of my final summer school before commencing the Fall 2024 academic semester at Hopkins. I participated in the Digital Applications in Assyriology Nordic Summer School held at the University of Copenhagen from August 12-16 followed by a presentation of our final projects on August 30. Highlights included learning computational methods for digital Assyriology and collaborating with Adel Oubraham on a project comparing cuneiform collections from the British Museum and the Louvre.... Read More