Paul Essah is a doctoral student in the religious studies department. His research focuses broadly on concepts of exile and return in the Hebrew Bible, especially as they intersect with themes of imperialism, war and plunder, economics, diaspora, and identity in the broader social-cultural world of ancient Israel.He is most drawn to the interplay between exile and imperialism, mainly the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern textual and iconographic depictions of ancient Israel’s social, economic, and religious life in the shadow of empire (Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia). As a Ghanaian, he hopes to study these in comparison to African narratives of colonization, conflict-induced displacements, and transnational migration.
Paul holds an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur -Georgia, and an MA in Hebrew Bible from Yale Divinity School