Profile for Mark Chavalas
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Mark Chavalas
Professor
History
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Specialty area(s)
Ancient Near East, Classical, Biblical, archaeology
Brief biography
In addition to world history, my courses include, Ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq), Egypt, Israel, Turkey (Anatolia), Iran before Islam, Syria, Greece, Rome, Women in the Ancient World, six semesters of the Akkadian language (Babylonian), and two semesters of the Sumerian language. I deal with a 'bare bones' investigation of primary sources in all of my classes in the attempt to show the student just how ancient history is reconstructed by the scholar.
My research in the past decade has been centered on interconnections with ancient Mesopotamia and outlying areas (Anatolia, the Aegean, Iran, Egypt, and Syro-Palestine, and even the Adriatic). I have also focused on issues such as gender constructs in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamian historiography. My current research concerns a history of Bronze Age Syria from the advent of writing in the mid-third millennium B.C. to the Iron Age.
I am family oriented, happily married to Kimberlee, along with our six children and two grandchildren. I serve in a number of capacities at my church (First Evangelical Free Church, Onalaska), primarily teaching about the historical context of the Bible. In my spare time, I am a hopeless baseball fanatic, bleeding Dodger blue.
Current courses at UWL
Fall 2022: History 110 (World Civlizations) ; His/Arc 369: History of the Babylonian Language 2
Education
Ph. D. History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1988
M.A. History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1982
B.A., California State University-Northridge, 1975
Career
Teaching history
Lecturer, California State University, Northridge, 1985-89
Lecturer, Long Beach State, 1988-89
Lecturer, UW-L, 1989-92
Assistant Professor, UW-L, 1992-95
Associate Professor, UW-L, 1995-98
Visiting Lecturer, UW-Madison, 2000-2001
Professor, UW-L, 1998-
Professional history
Visiting scholar at various universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, UC-Berkeley, U Arizona, UW-Madison, Penn. St., U. Cincinnati, Univ. of Chicago, Cornell, etc.
Former President American Oriental Society, Middle West
Board of Directors, American Oriental Society.
Former Board of Trustees, American Schools of Oriental Research.
Editorial Board, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
Research and publishing
Selected Publications or Presentations
Recent Book Publications
1. Co-Editor, New Horizons in the Study of Ancient Syria (Malibu: Undena = Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 25, 1992) pp. 232 + viii; 2 maps (with J. Hayes).
2. Editor, Emar: The History, Religion, and Culture of a Syrian Town in the Late Bronze Age (Bethesda: CDL Press, 1996) pp. 178 + xvi.
3. Co-Editor, Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael C. Astour on his 80th Birthday (Bethesda: CDL Press, 1997; with G. Young and D. Averbeck, pp. 689 + xxiv).
4. Co-Editor, Mesopotamia and the Bible (London/New York: Continuum, 2002), 436 pp., with K.L.Younger Jr.).
5. Co-Author, IVP Bible Background Commentary of the Old Testament (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2000; with J. Walton and V. Matthews. 13 printings 2001-2012, pp. 800).
6. Co-Editor, Life and Culture in the Ancient Near East (Bethesda: CDL Press, 2003).
7. Editor, The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation (Oxford/Malden, Ma: Blackwell, 2006). Chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for the American Library Association's magazine, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (October, 2007).
8. Editor, Great Events from History: The Ancient World, 2 vols. (Pasadena: Salem Press, 2004), pp. 1132.
9. Editor, Current Issues in the History of the Ancient Near East (Claremont: Regina Books, 2007 = Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 8)
10. Editor, Women in the Ancient Near East: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2013).
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