Professor Siam Bhayro

Professor Siam Bhayro was appointed Associate Professor of Semitic Languages and Jewish Studies in 2022, having previously been Associate Professor in Early Jewish Studies since 2016, Senior Lecturer since 2012, and Lecturer since 2007.

Biography:

Professor Siam Bhayro joined the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in 2022 as Associate Professor of Semitic Languages and Jewish Studies. He was previously in the Department of Theology and Religion, as Associate Professor in Early Jewish Studies since 2016, Senior Lecturer since 2012 and Lecturer since 2007.

He graduated in 1997 with a First Class Honours degree in Hebrew from the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London. He was also awarded the Faculty of Arts Prize and Medallion for that session. He gained a PhD from the same department in June 2000 for his research into the Book of Enoch.

For the next two years he worked on the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew at the University of Sheffield, before working for three years as Lector of Semitic Languages in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University, one year as Wellcome Trust Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London and, finally before arriving at Exeter, one year as Research Associate at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, University of Cambridge.

He can often be seen walking Paul, his English Springer Spaniel, around Exeter, and is a season ticket holder for his beloved Arsenal.

Other information:
Teaching Awards

• 2010 — Voted Department Tutor of the Year
• 2012 — Shortlisted for Best Feedback Provider, Students' Guild Teaching Awards
• 2012 — Also nominated for Best Lecturer
• 2013 — Shortlisted for Best Feedback Provider, Students' Guild Teaching Awards
• 2014 — Runner-up for Most Supportive Member of Staff, Students' Guild Teaching Awards
• 2014 — Also nominated for Best Feedback Provider, Best Lecturer, Innovative Teaching, and Research Inspired Teaching
• 2015 — Winner in the category of Most Supportive Member of Staff, Students' Guild Teaching Awards
• 2015 — Also nominated for Best Feedback Provider, and Best Lecturer
• 2016 — Nominated for Best Lecturer, Innovative Teaching, and Most Supportive Member of Staff.
• 2017 — Nominated for Best Undergraduate Supervisor, Best Feedback Provider, and Most Supportive Member of Staff.
• 2018 — Shortlisted for Most Supportive Member of Staff, Students' Guild Teaching Awards
• 2018 — Also nominated for Most Supportive Personal Tutor
• 2019 — Nominated for Best Teacher/Academic, Best Supervisor, and Most Supportive Member of Staff.

Research supervision:

Recent PhDs supervised

Anne Burberry, Edition and Analysis of Twenty-Five Unpublished Aramaic Magic Bowl Texts in the Collection of the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin) (2020) - Examined by Geoffrey Khan and Daniel Ogden.

Abigail Pearson, A Transcription, Translation, and Analysis of John Rylands Library ms. Syr. 52 (2022) - Examined by Marco Moriggi and David Horrell.

Matthew P. Bartlett, Edition and Analysis of Twenty-Seven Unpublished Aramaic Bowl Texts from the Collection of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (2022) - Examined by Philip Alexander and Emily Selove.

Harriet Elizabeth Walker, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowl Texts: Uncovering Operational Mechanisms of the Practice using Digital Methods (2024) - Examined by Jason Mokhtarian and Martin Pitts.

Dissertations Examined

A. Avetisyan, Linguistic Variation in MS 1751 Judaeo-Arabic Medical Manuscript of the Matenadaran Collection, PhD, University of Cambridge, 2023

P. Moore, Studies in the Language of Targum Canticles, with Annotated Transcription of Geniza Fragments, PhD, University College London, 2021

D. Molin, The Language of the Biblical Hebrew Quotations in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls, MPhil, University of Cambridge, 2017

A. Bellusci, The History of the She'elat Ḥalom in the Middle East from the Medieval Era back to Late Antiquity, PhD, Tel Aviv University, 2017

S.C. Barry, The Question of Syriac Influence Upon Early Arabic Translations of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, PhD, University of Manchester, 2016

M.L. Morris, Translation and Critical Commentary of the Syriac Martyrdom Text, The Slave of Christ, PhD, University of Southampton, 2009

S. Aldihisi, The Story of Creation in the Mandaean Holy Book of the Ginza Rba, PhD, University College London, 2008

M. Schmierer, Selected Aspects of the Historical Phonology of Aramaic, MPhil, University of Cambridge, 2007