Sarah Wisialowski is Biblicist focusing on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Starting in Autumn 2026, she will be a Dan David Fellow at Tel Aviv University.
Her research examines how ancient Jewish communities use stories about the past to create traditions that bind people together, particularly in moments of cultural change.
Her current book project, based on her DPhil dissertation, reframes Second Temple prayers as active sites of history-making that shape communal memory, identity, and conceptions of time. She is in the early stages of a second project that explores how texts written as a means of coping with trauma are reinterpreted over time, sometimes with a new traumatic consequences.
More broadly, her work aims to shed light on how reading and re-reading texts actively shape communal identities and scriptural use.
Sarah Wisialowski defended her DPhil in Theology at the University of Oxford in June 2025, and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship with the Einstein Center Chronoi at the Freie Universität.
Background
Sarah Wisialowski received an MSt in Theology from the University of Oxford (2019), an MA in Biblical Studies from King’s College London (2018), and an MA (hons) in Biblical Studies and Medieval History from the University of St Andrews (2017).
MA (hons), University of St Andrews
2013 – 2017
MA, King’s College London
2017 – 2018
DPhil Candidate, University of Oxford
2020 – 2025
MSt, University of Oxford
2018 – 2019