Judith is a biblical heroine best known for cutting off the head of the general Holofernes, with his own sword and in his own bed – a bold act that has sparked the imagination of readers for millennia. Jennifer L. Koosed, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, examines the multivalent violence wielded against and by Judith, focusing especially on the ways this scene has become a site of female resistance and feminist rage, from Artemisia Gentileschi to #MeToo.
This lecture is sponsored by the Religious Studies Department and the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding in memory of Alice Laffey, a long-time professor of Religious Studies at Holy Cross who passed away in 2023.