Dr Siam Bhayro

Research Interests

Bible, Semitic Languages and the Ancient Near East; Early Judaism and Jewish Biblical Exegesis; Medicine in the Christian and Islamic Orient; Aramaic incantation texts; ancient and medieval music

Grants Awarded:

  • awarded January 1st, 2009: British Academy Small Research Grant (SG-52081), £5,000 for "Publication of Pre-Islamic Incantation Bowls"
  • awarded February 14th, 2011: British Academy Small Research Grant (SG-101726), £6,240 for "The Collection of Aramaic Incantations in the Berlin Museum", with Dan Levene (University of Southampton)

Series Editor:

  • Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity - published by E. J. Brill [with Professor Shaul Shaked (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)]
  • Cambridge Genizah Studies - published by E. J. Brill [with Professor Geoffrey Khan (University of Cambridge) and Dr Ben Outhwaite (Cambridge University Library)]
  1. B. M. Outhwaite and S. Bhayro (eds), “From a Sacred Source”: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif (Cambridge Genizah Studies Series, Volume 1; Leiden: Brill, 2010) http://www.brill.nl/sacred-source
  2. N. Vidro, Verbal Morphology in the Karaite Treatise on Hebrew Grammar Kitāb al-ʿUqūd fī Taṣārīf al-Luġa al-ʿIbrāniyya (Cambridge Genizah Studies Series, Volume 2; Leiden: Brill, 2011) http://www.brill.nl/verbal-morphology-karaite-treatise-hebrew-grammar-kitab-al-uqud-fi-ta-arif-al-luga-al-ibraniyya

Editorial Board:

  • Near-Eastern Musicology Online (http://nemo-online.org/)

Academic Board:

  • International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (http://www.iconea.org/)

Dissertations Examined:

  • 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

Research papers presented at the following meetings:

1998

  • British Comparative Literature Association Eighth International Conference, Lancaster, UK

1999

  • British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Manchester, UK

2000

  • British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Leeds, UK

2001

  • Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Rome, Italy

2002

  • British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Southampton, UK
  • Aramith: Conference on Aramaic Lexicography, Sheffield, UK

2003

  • British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Durham, UK
  • Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Cambridge, UK
  • History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Cambridge MA, USA

2004

  • American Association for the History of Medicine 77th Annual Meeting, Madison WI, USA
  • Society for Ancient Medicine European Meeting, Birmingham, UK
  • Ninth International Congress of Ethnobiology, Canterbury, UK
  • Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Groningen, The Netherlands
  • The Nineteenth Barnard Medieval and Renaissance Conference, New York NY, USA
  • Interactions: Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine Symposium, London, UK

2005

  • 12th Italian Meeting of Afroasiatic Linguistics, Ragusa, Sicily
  • The Fourteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel

2006

  • Warburg Institute Colloquium: Ritual Healing in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, London, UK
  • 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, UK
  • Mediterranean Editors and Translators Meeting, Barcelona, Spain

2007

  • Ninth workshop of the AHRC project Late Aramaic: The Linguistic and Literary Context of the Zohar, London, UK
  • Fourth Enoch Seminar: Enoch and Jubilees, Camaldoli, Italy

2008

  • Plants and Knowledge, Exeter, UK
  • Music in Sumer and after, International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology, British Museum, London, UK

2009

  • Talmudic Archaeology, Institute of Jewish Studies Summer Conference, University College London, UK
  • Comparative Organology, International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology, Sorbonne, Paris, France

2010

  • The Semitic Languages of Jewish Intellectual Production, Memorial for Dr F. Niessen, CCHS, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
  • Approaches to Ancient Medicine, International Conference hosted at Cardiff University, UK
  • Aramaic Magical Texts from Late Antiquity: Sources, Contexts and Transmission, BIRAX workshop, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Musical Exchanges between Ancient Egypt and the Near East, International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology, Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study, London

2011

  • Anglo-American Conference 2011: Health in History, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, London

2012

  • An Evening on Aramaic Incantation Bowls, Excellence Cluster TOPOI, Free University, Berlin

Invited Lectures and Seminars

2005

  • University of Durham Theology Research Seminar, Durham, UK

2006

  • Annual Joint Lecture of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society/Institute of Jewish Studies, London, UK
  • Lecture in series "Passover: Journey to Freedom", Jewish Museum, London, UK

2008

  • Lecture to United Learning, Kenton, Kingsbury, Wembley United Synogogues, London, UK
  • University of Southampton Medieval Research Seminar, Southampton, UK

Conferences/Symposia Organised

  • 2002 Aramith: Conference on Aramaic Lexicography, Sheffield, UK
  • 2005 Yale Semitics Seminar Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Haven CT, USA
  • 2007 First International Genizah Studies Conference, Cambridge, UK

Prizes

1996 Jews Commemoration Prize

1997 Hester Rothschild Scholarship

1997 Rosa Morrison Prize and UCL Faculty of Arts Medallion