Krista Dalton

Krista Dalton is Chair and Associate Professor of Religion at Denison University. She is a cultural historian of religion, working primarily with the texts and traditions of ancient Judaism within the Mediterranean context. Her first book, entitled How Rabbis Became Experts (Princeton University Press, 2025), analyzes the social processes by which the rabbis of late ancient Roman Palestine forged strategic relationships with their Jewish communities. Her second and current book project, entitled The Rabbi: a Cultural History (Princeton University Press), offers a broad survey of the office of rabbis from antiquity to modernity. Dalton is co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Rabbinic Literature and a volume devoted to Sages, Magicians, and Poets. In addition, Dalton serves as an Editor-in-Chief of the digital journal Ancient Jew Review, Co-Editor of Theoria book series with Fordham University Press, and Vice President of Membership and Outreach on the Executive Committee of the Association for Jewish Studies.

Dalton teaches courses on the history of Judaism, religious studies, gender and sexuality, magic and mysticism, cyborgs and sci-fi, and charity and philanthropy.