An Academic Legacy Squandered: Sheffield to close Biblical Studies

What the hell is going on over at the University of Sheffield? They are closing down the Biblical Studies department, dispersing the remaining staff to different departments while trying to maintain the post-graduate program there. It all came as a huge surprise to those in the department.

For those not in biblical studies, this might just seems as another university trying to save some money, but to those in the discipline, it is extraordinary news.

The University of Sheffield ranks among the most famous in the world for its innovative and creative biblical studies research, that is at least the equal to many of the U.K.’s older and more prestigious institutions. It had a global reputation of excellence, not only in the quality and quantity of its research but also in its teaching.

I can appreciate that universities are hard hit by the economic downturn, but to squander a department that offered so much to the U. of S.’s standing in the humanities around the world is truly short-sightedness.

For updates, visit  Save Biblical Studies, which is archiving letters sent to the University’s Vice Chancellor on this issue. I wrote a short email:

Prof. Burnett,
Let me add my voice to those who have already expressed themselves regarding the plans to close the world-class Department of Biblical Studies.  I appreciate the financial difficulties your institution is in, but abandoning a department of the calibre and reputation of this one can only bring short term gains at a very long term cost to the university.

The Department of Biblical Studies not only has a tremendous legacy of research on the part of its faculty members but an impressive tradition of inspiring innovative critical research by other academics around the world due to the many global contacts the department had fostered over the years. Added to this is the respect the department has earned in terms of its high quality pedagogical methods.

I spend one year in the 1990s in Sheffield after completing my PhD in biblical studies at the University of Edinburgh, turning my dissertation into a manuscript for publication in the (then) Sheffield based Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series.  The Department of Biblical Studies embodied the highest ideals of the open exchange of ideas and I was made more than welcome to join in the seminars although I had no formal affiliation with the university (my wife was studying in the library department).  I found my experiences in the department to be inspiring and highly educational and some of the contacts I made have lasted to this day.

In closing, I would ask that you reconsider this counter-productive decision, the ultimate academic cost to the University of Sheffield would greatly outweigh any financial savings.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. James R. Linville
Chair, Department of Religious Studies,
University of Lethbridge,
Lethbridge AB, Canada.

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