Prof Jaqueline (Jackie) du Toit
Photo: Johan Roux

Prof Jackie du Toit acclaimed for Near Eastern studies  



Prof Jackie du Toit introduction: video 

Prof Jaqueline (Jackie) du Toit is professor at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice. She received a PhD from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with the dissertation ‘The Organization and Use of Documentary Deposits in the Near East from Ancient to Medieval Times: Libraries, Archives, Book Collections and Genizas’ in 2002.

Her book Canada’s Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls (2010) followed on her PhD and received attention worldwide.

Her current research interests include archives and memory; the intellectual history, creation and transfer of ancient Near Eastern culture; and the cross generational transfer and the cultural reception of the Bible in children’s religious literature. Prof Du Toit is overseeing the development of the Institute’s interdisciplinary research nodes on ‘Archives and Memory’ as well as on ‘Food, Reconciliation and Social Justice’.

She is an invited external member of the McGill Centre for Research on Religion. She received acclaim for research work. Among them a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship for doctoral studies, fellowships from Morton and Bernice Brownstein, Harold Helm Major, Max E Binz Major Fellowship and Thomas and Willa Ferguson Smythe, and also scholarship from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Internationally she is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion. Nationally she is secretary of the executive of the South African Society for Near Eastern Studies. She is also the convener of the South African Society for Near Eastern Studies' colloquium for young researchers in the field.