KENNETH J. BANNER

kbanner@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Areas of Teaching Competency:

Early Judaism-History, Literature, Society
Early Christianity-History, Literature, Society (Including New Testament)
Ritual Power ("Magic") in the Ancient World
Jewish Bible
Ancient Near East
World Religions
Religion in Contemporary America
New Religious Movements
Methods for the Study of Religion
Computers and the Humanities

Education:

University of Pennsylvania

Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies. Major Tradition: Judaism in the Hellenistic Period, Minor Tradition: Hinduism.

University of Notre Dame, M.A.

Biblical Studies, Jan., 1992. (Studied in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Program-Jewish Bible, Early Jewish Literature, Early Christian Literature)

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, M.A.T.S.

New Testament Studies, May, 1983.

Southwest Missouri State University

Graduate courses in the area of Ancient Near Eastern History and Religious Studies, 1981-1982.

Assemblies of God Graduate School

Graduate Courses in the area of Biblical Languages and Exegesis, 1980-1982.

Central Bible College, B.A.

Biblical Studies, May, 1980. Minor: Biblical Languages.

Teaching Experience:

Rutgers University-Camden Campus

Introduction to Religion, Fall, 1998; Fall, 1997; Spring, 1997

Religion in Contemporary America, Spring, 1998

Rowan University (Formerly Glassboro State College)

Introduction to Philosophy (Writing Intensive), Fall, 1998

Religions of the World, Summer, 1998; Spring, 1998; Spring, 1997; Spring, 1996; Spring, 1995

Introduction to Religion (Basic Concepts, Method, Focus upon scholarly approaches to the study of Religious Experience) Spring, 1996; Spring, 1995; Fall, 1994; Spring, 1994, Fall, 1993

Introduction to Critical Thinking, Fall, 1997; Fall, 1995

Introduction to the Bible, Summer, 1998; Fall, 1994; Spring, 1994; Fall, 1993

University of Pennsylvania

Computing and the Humanities, Fall, 1998; Spring, 1998; Spring, 1994; Spring, 1993

Religions of the West: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Historical and Comparative approach from Ancient Israel to the Modern World), Summer, 1998; Fall, 1997; Summer, 1997; Fall, 1993; Summer 1992; Summer, 1991
Assisting Dr. E. Ann Matter with a Distance Learning version of Religions of the West, Summer, 1999. Course will utilize extensive cutting edge technology to interact with students across the country via video streaming, internet, web resources, multimedia-an entirely online, interactive course--through PennAdvance and eCollege.

Introduction to Christianity, Spring, 1996

Christian Origins (Historical Jesus/Early Christianity-First Two Centuries),Summer, 1993; Fall, 1992

Teaching Assistant to Dr. Robert A. Kraft for Religions of the West, Spring, 1992

Teaching Assistant to Dr. E. Ann Matter for Religions of the West, Spring, 1991

Teaching Assistant to Dr. Stephen N. Dunning for Understanding the "Cult" Controversy (New Religious Movements), Fall, 1990

University of Notre Dame

Graduate Assistant to Dr. William L. Petersen. Assisted with an introduction/survey course which covered Ancient Israel, Early Judaism and the first three centuries of Christianity, Fall, 1989; Spring, 1990.

Computers/Programming Experience:

Extensive Use of Computers and the Internet for Teaching Religious Studies Courses 1993-present. Developing web materials for courses since Fall, 1995.

Member of the Humanities Computing Committee developing a new undergraduate course in Computing and the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania-implemented in the Fall of 1998. The course is being designed to meet the needs of several Humanities departments including Classics, Philosophy and Religious Studies, 1998-Present. (Taught the course in Fall of 1998).

Teaching Computers and the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, Fall, 1998; Spring, 1998; Spring, 1994; Spring, 1993

HTML Design-Dept. of Religious Studies Web Site, University of Pennsylvania. Redesigned the department web pages. Responsible for updating and maintaining the site. Spring, 1998-present.

Dept. of Religious Studies Computer Support, University of Pennsylvania. Technical support and maintenance of the department computer lab, Spring, 1996-Spring, 1998.

Assistant Coordinator of the Pew Project for Computer Assisted Instruction in Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania-Developing computer materials for courses in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Focus upon creating resources for use on the World Wide Web, Fall, 1995.

Member of a Programming Team which Produced Add-in Software for Using Greek and Hebrew in three major word processors (Microsoft Word for Windows, WordPerfect for Windows, Ami-Pro). Specialization: Word for Windows segment of the project. Languages: WordBasic, C, C++, Sept. 1993-Dec. 1995

Member of the Team which Produced the Initial CD-ROM of the Penn CJS Papyrii in Honor of Robert Kraft-A collection held at the Annenberg Center for Judaic Studies. Primary work was in photographing the papyrii, Spring, 1994

Septuagint Variants Project-Center for Computer Analysis of Texts, at the University of Pennsylvania. Worked on the team encoding variants for the electronic text of the Septuagint which is being produce by C.C.A.T. Also wrote software for use in the project. Sumer, 1991; Fall, 1991.

Graduate courses: "Computers and Textual Research" and "Computer Programming for the Humanities", Summer, 1990. Received the grade of "A+" for both courses.


Kenneth J. Banner
kbanner@ccat.sas.upenn.edu