Heather Macumber

• BIBL 1020 Introduction to the Old Testament
• BIBL 2010 The Pentateuch
• BIBL 2650 Bible and the Arts
• BIBL 3060 Wisdom Literature
• BIBL 3070 Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
• BIBL 3616 Revelation
• BIBL 3640 Reception Studies: Mary Magdalene through the Ages
• BIBL 3650 Monsters and the Bible
• BIBL 3670 Gender and the Bible

University of St. Michael’s College (ON)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
2012

Tyndale Seminary (ON)

Master of Divinity (MDiv), Biblical Studies
2005

Queen’s University (ON)

Bachelor’s Degree (BA – Honours), History
2002

Present

• Providence University College, Faculty (since 2017)

Past

• Emmanuel College (Toronto, ON), Adjunct Professor (2013-2017)
• St. Michael’s College (Toronto, ON), Adjunct Professor (2009-2016)
• Queen’s University (Kingston, ON), Adjunct Professor (2009-2011)

Professional Associations

• Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
• Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS)
• European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS)

Select Awards

• Founders Prize – Awarded by the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies for the best student essay (2008)
• Hebrew Award, Tyndale Seminary (2004)

Dissertations

• PhD Thesis. Angelic Intermediaries: The Development of a Revelatory Tradition, 2012.
• MDiv Thesis. Yahweh’s Protection and Rejection of Israel: The Harlot Metaphor in Ezekiel 16, 2005.

Books

• Macumber, H. Recovering the Monstrous in Revelation. London: Bloomsbury Academic (2021).

Peer Reviewed Articles

• (In progress) Macumber, H. “Cherubim and Cyborgs in Ezekiel’s Divine World.”
• Macumber, H. “Muted and Hidden Monsters in Rev 12.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies 4.2 (2022): 89-106.
• Macumber, H. “The Threat of Empire: Monstrous Hybridity in Revelation 13.” Biblical Interpretation 27 (2019): 107-29.
• Macumber, H. “A Monster without a Name: Creating the Beast known as Antiochus IV in Daniel 7.” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 15: Article 9 (2016).

Chapters in a Collected Volume

• Macumber, H. “The Monstrous Dragon.” Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters. Edited by B. Grafius and J. Morehouse. New York: Oxford University Press (2025).
• Macumber, H. “Monsters, Hybridity, and Text: A Cautionary Tale,” in Religious Inventions: Ancient Mediterranean Practice and the Study of Religion. Edited by E. Vearncombe and W. Arnal. McGill-Queen’s University Press (2025).
• Macumber, H. “Apocalyptic Elements in Stranger Things,” in Theology, Religion, and Stranger Things. Edited by Andrew Byers and Adam J. Powell. Lanham: Lexington/Fortress Press (2025).
• Macumber, H. “Disappointing Dragons: The Powerless Monster of the Hebrew Bible,” in Pre-Modern Monsters: A Varied Compilation of Pre-modern Judeo-Christian and Japanese Buddhist Monstrous Discourse. Edited by Allan E.C. Wright. Wilmington: Vernon Press (2024).
  
• Macumber, H. “Monsters at Qumran.” Pages 145-68 in Dead Sea Scrolls: Revise and Repeat. Edited by C. Palmer, A. Krause, E. Schuller, and J. Screnock. Atlanta: SBL Press (2020).

Invited Panellist – Conferences

Upcoming
“Proximate Neighbours: The Fuzzy Line between Gods and Monsters.” 2026 Society of Biblical Literature (Social-Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section), Denver, Colorado.

Upcoming
Book Review Panel for Brandon Grafius, 2026 American Academy of Religion, Denver, Colorado.

2026
“Anomalous Bodies and Female Monsters.” LEAF Panel, 2026 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Mount Allison University.

2023
Book Review Panellist for The Book of Revelation and the Visual Culture of Asia Minor: A Concurrence of Images (Andrew Guffey). 2023 Society of Biblical Literature (Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Section), San Antonio, Texas.

2022
Book Review Panel of Recovering the Monstrous in Revelation. 2022 British New Testament Society, St. Andrew’s, Scotland.

Conference Presentations

2025
“The Spectres of Sodom and Gomorrah: Revisiting and Reinscribing Trauma.” 2025 Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts.

2025
“Something is Rotten in Hosea: God as Moth, Maggot, or Disease.” 2025 Humanimal 2.0 Virtual Conference.

2024
“Ghostly Cities: Spectres of the Past in John’s Apocalypse.” 2024 EABS Annual Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria.

2024
“Who is in charge? The multivalent roles of devils, angels, and demons as guardians of hell.” Devil 2024, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

2023
“Slipping through Time and Space in Hawkins and Patmos.” 2023 Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.

2023
“The Monstrous God in Ezekiel 32.” 2023 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, York University.

2023
“Cherubim & Cyborgs in the Divine World of Ezekiel.” 2023 Humanimal Virtual Conference.

2022
“Disappointing Dragons: The Powerless Monster of the Hebrew Bible.” 2022 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Virtual Conference.

2021
“Becoming the Dragon: Reading Revelation with Blake and Harris.” 2021 Bible & Critical Theory Research Seminar, Virtual Conference.

Public Scholarship

• Online Art Exhibition – Visual Commentary on Scripture (2026): “A Dissenting Opinion” (Job 15-17)
• Los Angeles Review of Books: “What’s the Difference between a God and a Monster?” (Nov 12, 2025)
• Online Art Exhibition – Visual Commentary on Scripture (2024): An Uncertain Future (Ruth 1)
• Prov Talk (2024): Uncanny Metaphors: What do Eyelids, Lions, and Midwives have to do with God?
• Anderson Forum for Progressive Theology (Oct 27, 2024): Metaphors for God: Disrupting the Familiar & Embracing the Uncanny
• Ancient Jew Review (2024): Gamifying the Exam
• It Means What It Means Podcast (2023): Monsters in Revelation
• Online Art Exhibition – Visual Commentary on Scripture (2022): Leah’s Struggles
• CHVN Interview on “Connections” (2022): Monster Theory and the Bible
• John Morehead Video Podcast (2021): Monstrous in Revelation
• Bible for Normal People Podcast (2021): Monsters in the Bible
• Prov Talk (2018): Holy Terror: Finding Monsters in the Bible