Professor Dr. Jo Hackett

Biography

Jo Ann Hackett is a Professor Emerita with expertise in Middle Eastern Studies and Religious Studies. Before joining the University of Texas at Austin in fall 2009, she taught Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and directed the Biblical Hebrew program in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. In 2006, Professor Hackett was awarded the Everett S. Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Harvard University Graduate Student Council. In fall 2015, she presented a Festschrift on Epigraphy, Philology, and Biblical Studies, and in spring 2016, she was inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. Her research interests focus on Old Testament epigraphy, the Phoenician language and religion, as well as the lives of women in the ancient Near East and topics related to fertility religion, sacrifice, child sacrifice, myths and mythology, the polemic against foreigners, and the use of digital photography in studying ancient inscriptions. She has authored numerous monographs, including the Balaam Text from Tell Deir Alla, and has contributed to the HarperCollins Study Bible and the Oxford History of the Biblical World. Her most recent publication is a textbook titled Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, released in 2010.

Research Interests