Bernadette J. Brooten, Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies,  of  Women’s  and  Gender  Studies,  of  Classical  Studies, and of Religious  Studies at Brandeis  University,  is the founder and director of the Brandeis Feminist Sexual Ethics Project. She received her Ph.D. (1982) from Harvard University. She has written Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues (1982), Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (1996), and she has edited Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies (2010). She has also published on various topics in ancient Jewish and early Christian history. In addition to a MacArthur Fellowship, she has held fellowships from the Harvard Law School, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for 2011–2012 to write a book on early Christian women who were enslaved or who owned enslaved laborers, and was a Visiting Scholar involved in research with the Harvard Women’s Studies in Religion Program. She also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern. Bernadette was a fellow at the IIAS (2014/15).