After postgraduate study at Oxford, I worked at Queen's College, Birmingham for three years, and then came to Durham in 1995. Here, my main teaching responsibility has been the second-year course in Literature and Theology of the Old Testament, which is a survey of the main types of literature set against their broader historical and cultural background. With my colleague, Prof. Robert Hayward, I also teach a third-year course (Issues in Old Testament Study), which looks at key areas of interest in the discipline, and I do some advanced Hebrew teaching as well. My other courses reflect personal interests outside mainstream biblical study. Having had to learn several varieties of ancient Egyptian for my doctoral work, I teach Middle Egyptian at MA level, and I also teach an exegetical course at this level, focusing on the technical skills involved in the examination of biblical texts. At various points in the past, I have also taught on aspects of ancient Near Eastern literature and religion, the Septuagint and Ugaritic language.

Biblical wisdom literature, Relationship between biblical and ancient Egyptian literature, Text criticism, esp. Septuagint