Lauren Monroe is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Cornell University. Her research focuses on how what it meant to be Israelite changed over time and how such changes are reflected in the stratigraphy of the biblical text and the archaeological tel. Her book, Josiah’s Reform and the Dynamics of Defilement: Israelite Rites of Violence and the Making of a Biblical Text (Oxford University Press, 2011) explores the seventh century BCE religious reforms of the Judean King Josiah, whose rites of violence are a formative moment in the Bible’s representation of the emergence of monotheism.  She is currently working on two books, Joseph the Hebrew and the Genesis of Ancient Israel (Oxford University Press, under contract), and Becoming Israel: Political Identity and the Song of Deborah.  On the horizon is a project entitled Tidings from Sheba, which addresses how South Arabian Sabaean inscriptions from Yemen illuminate ancient Israelite society, politics and religion.