Gale A. Yee (; born 1949) is an American scholar of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' postcolonial criticism,

ideological criticism Ideological criticism is a method in rhetorical criticism concerned with critiquing texts for the dominant ideology they express while silencing opposing or contrary ideologies. It was started by a group of scholars roughly in the late-1970s thr ...

, and

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

ism. She applies

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

frameworks to biblical texts. An American of Chinese descent, she has written frequently on biblical interpretation from an

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

perspective. She is the first woman of color and Asian American to be President of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Early life and education

Yee was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, on April 9, 1949. She attended the Academy of Our Lady High School, graduating in 1967. She earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in English literature in 1973 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

in 1975, both at

Loyola University of Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Its namesa ...

. She completed her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree in 1985 in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

at the University of St. Michael's College in the

Toronto School of Theology Affiliated with the University of Toronto, the Toronto School of Theology (TST) is an Ecumenism, ecumenical consortium of seven Seminary, theological colleges. Its seven member schools are Emmanuel College, Toronto, Emmanuel College, Knox College, ...

Career

In 1987, Yee published her dissertation as ''Composition and Tradition in the

Book of Hosea The Book of Hosea () is collected as one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Tanakh, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament where it has fourteen chapters. According to the ...

: A Redactional Critical Investigation'' with Scholars Press (Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 102). From 1998 until 2017, she was the Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical Studies at the

Episcopal Divinity School The Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) is an unaccredited theological school in New York City. Established to train people for ordination in the American Episcopal Church, the seminary eventually began training students from other denominations. T ...

. From 1984 to 1998, she served as Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of Women's Studies at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN). She is the former general editor of Semeia Studies. She and

Athalya Brenner Athalya Brenner-Idan (; born 17 July 1943 in Haifa, Israel) is a Dutch-Israeli biblical scholar known for her contribution to feminist biblical studies. Academic career Brenner studied at Haifa University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem b ...

have worked together to edit commentaries in the Texts@Contexts series for Fortress Press. On November 19, 2017, Yee was elected as Vice-President of the

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

in 2018, leading to the position as President of the SBL in 2019. On November 24, 2019, she delivered the presidential address at the SBL Annual Meeting in 2019 in San Diego, California. She has donated her papers (1966–2014) to the

Burke Library Burke Library of the Union Theological Seminary is located at 3041 Broadway, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1838, since 2004 it has been a part of the Columbia University Libraries. Holding over ...

(

Columbia University Libraries Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources ...

) at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Honors

Yee was honored as a ''qianbei'' ("respected elder") at the 2014 International Congress of Ethnic Chinese Biblical Scholars, received the Graduate Theological Foundation's Krister Stendahl Medal in 2015, and received the Society of Biblical Literature's "Status of Women in the Profession Committee Mentor Award" in 2016. She received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. It is the largest and second-oldest such accredited se ...

in 2020. Gale A. Yee was president of the

in 2019.

Works

Books

* * *

Edited

*
The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives
' (with Athalya Brenner and Archie C. C. Lee), Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018. OCLC 1007036296 * ''Honouring the Past, Looking to the Future: Essays from the 2014 International Congress of Ethnic Chinese Biblical Scholars'' (with Matthew Coomber and Hugh Page), Shatin: The Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2016. * ''The Fortress Commentary on Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha (with Athalya Brenner),'' Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. * ''Joshua and Judges''. Texts@Contexts Series (with Athalya Brenner), Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013.

References

External links

Gale A. Yee's CV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yee, Gale 1949 births 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century Christian biblical scholars 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century Christian biblical scholars Academics from Ohio American academics of Chinese descent American biblical scholars American Marxists Women Marxists American women non-fiction writers Christian feminist biblical scholars Episcopal Divinity School faculty Women biblical scholars Living people Loyola University Chicago alumni Marxist feminists American Marxist writers Old Testament scholars University of St. Michael's College alumni Writers from Cincinnati 21st-century American women writers Presidents of the Society of Biblical Literature