Michael Penn in Turkey

Michael Penn is the Teresa Hihn Moore Professor of Religious Studies. As a historian of pre-modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, his work explores the interactions between these traditions. At Stanford he also teaches classes on the history of the Bible in its original Ancient Near Eastern and Roman contexts. His own scholarship concentrates on Eastern Christianity examining the question of how our understanding of Christianity changes once we recognize that, for over a thousand years, Christianity’s geographic center was not Rome or even Constantinople but rather Baghdad. He is currently working on two book projects, The Church of Baghdad and The Social Lives of Manuscripts. Professor Penn also leads a number of research teams that investigate how to use recent advances in digital technology and data science to better understand pre-modern societies. Much of Professor Penn’s research focuses on early and medieval Christianity in Eastern Turkey.

During our program, Professor Penn’s lectures will examine more than two thousand years’ worth of intercultural encounters in Eastern Turkey. They will also provide historical background for the sties we see, including discussions of the iron age Hittites, the Byzantine Empire, Armenian Christianity, and the Islamic Seljuks.

• Stanford University: Teresa Hihn Moore Professor (2017–present)

• Mount Holyoke College: Professor (2014–2016), William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair (2013–present), Associate Professor (2008–2014), Assistant Professor (2002–2008)

• Author of Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church, Envisioning Islam, When Christians First Met Muslims, and An Invitation to Syriac Christianity

• Numerous fellowships, including from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council for Learned Societies, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

• Phi Beta Kappa’s Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2024

• PhD and MA, Duke University

• BA, Princeton University