Ms. Michele Freyhauf, ABDiss
Lecturer
Background
Michele Stopera Freyhauf is a Part-Time Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University and a proud alumna (M.A. '12). A mature learner who returned to school while working full-time and raising four children, she was drawn by a lifelong fascination with the story of the Exodus and Egyptology — a passion that transformed a career in accounting and law into one centered on archaeology, provenance research, and cultural heritage. She earned her B.A. from Ursuline College (Summa Cum Laude, 2008) and her M.A. from John Carroll University (Magna Cum Laude, 2012), where she studied biblical studies, social justice, and ethics and traveled to Turkey and Greece. She has been teaching at JCU since 2012.
Michele's teaching is shaped by two parallel professional lives. As a Provenance Researcher and Cultural Heritage Specialist at Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP, she conducts research on art repatriation, Nazi-era looted art, and cultural heritage policy — expertise she brings directly into the classroom through courses like "Religion, Terrorism & Culture Wars" and "Tombraiders: Engaging the Global Community." Her semester-long country case study model — in which each student selects a nation and researches its experience with genocide, cultural destruction, and restoration — has produced student work showcased at the Celebration of Scholarship and has been recognized with multiple university grants, including the Mandel Grant for Inclusivism and Diversity (2017) and a Course Development Grant (2016).
As a Ph.D. candidate at Durham University (U.K.), her doctoral research examines gender, cultural memory, and diaspora identity in the ancient Near East. Her thesis argues that women's voices and embodied practices were foundational to the survival of Jewish identity during the Second Temple period — that the women of this era were the midwives of memory and tradition bearers of a fragmented nation. This scholarly focus on the MENA region and the broader eastern Mediterranean informs every course she teaches.
Michele currently serves on the ASOR Cultural Heritage Committee (2nd term), advising on initiatives to protect Near Eastern cultural heritage. She has archaeological fieldwork experience at Bethsaida in the Golan region of Israel near the Syrian border (P. E. MacAllister Fellowship, ASOR, 2015), has presented at the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women (2013, 2014), and has a forthcoming invited book chapter on Gender in the Book of Tobit. She received the Outstanding Part-Time Faculty Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2018.
Her work has taken her from excavation trenches near the Syrian border to consulting on a documentary about the Hagia Sophia to presenting at the United Nations — and she brings all of it into the classroom at John Carroll.
OrcID: 0000-0001-6451-1588
Academia.edu: https://durham.academia.edu/MSFreyhauf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-stopera-freyhauf-84895044/
Areas of Expertise
- Cultural heritage preservation, protection, and repatriation
- Provenance research, including Nazi-era looted art
- Cultural heritage policy: 1970 UNESCO Convention, U.S. Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA), bilateral agreements
- Biblical archaeology and the ancient Near East (MENA region, eastern Mediterranean)
- Gender in antiquity: women's voices, maternal authority, and embodied practices in ancient texts
- Cultural memory, diaspora identity, and forced exile
- Oral tradition and performance in Hellenistic and Second Temple contexts
- Septuagint (Alexandrian) textual traditions and textual plurality
- Genocide, human rights, and the restoration of cultural identity
- Religion, violence, and the ethics of social justice
Research Interests
Michele's doctoral thesis, "From Womb to Wilderness to Restoration: Memory's Midwives and Motherhood in Diaspora Orality and Performativity of the Third Greek Tobit," examines the Third Greek recension of Tobit (G3), traditionally dismissed as a mediating or corrupted version, and argues for its status as an independent, oral-performative text within the Tobit tradition. Drawing on material evidence from Elephantine, Qumran, and comparative Hellenistic cultures, the study demonstrates that G3's narrative variances are supported by documented historical patterns and incorporate narrative memory rooted in cultural trauma, challenging androcentric models of ancient society. The thesis develops a four-lens analytical framework (textual, oral-performative, cultural, and theological) and applies it to the character arc of Hanna, revealing a chiastic structure that traces her journey from mother, economic provider, prophetic challenger, ritual mourner, vigilant watchwoman, to co-celebrant in restoration. By foregrounding women's voices and embodied practices, G3 preserves a model of maternal authority that emerges during times of chaos and disruption — the women of the Second Temple were the midwives of memory and tradition bearers of a fragmented nation.
Her research interests include cultural memory and diaspora identity, gender in antiquity, oral tradition and performance, Hebrew Scriptures, Septuagint studies, biblical archaeology, religious syncretism, forced exile and migration, and the protection of cultural heritage in conflict zones.
Michele has archaeological fieldwork experience at the Bethsaida Archaeology Project in the Golan/Tiberias region of Israel near the Syrian border (P. E. MacAllister Excavation Fellowship, ASOR, 2015).
Education
Ph.D. Candidate, Theology and Religion, Durham University (U.K.) — Anticipated Fall 2026
M.A., Theology and Religious Studies, John Carroll University (Magna Cum Laude, 2012). Focus: Biblical Studies, Social Justice, and Ethics. Study Abroad: Turkey and Greece. Alpha Sigma Nu.
Post-Graduate Coursework, Department of History, University of Akron (2011–2012). Focus: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality. Gold Key Society.
B.A., Religious Studies, Ursuline College (Summa Cum Laude, 2008). President's List.
Courses Taught
Current:Religion, Terrorism & Culture Wars — Examines genocide, cultural destruction, and the marginalization of Indigenous communities through the lens of religion, war, and human rights. Students explore conscience and memory, the erasure and restoration of cultural identity, and efforts to restore the voice and heritage of the lost. Each student selects a country for semester-long case study research. Past student topics include Nazi-looted art restitution, the Armenian Genocide, cultural destruction in Syria, the Xinjiang Territory, Tibet, Palestine, Cambodia, North Korea, and El Salvador.
Tombraiders: Engaging the Global Community — Examines cultural heritage preservation, the illicit antiquities trade, and international efforts to combat looting and cultural property crime. Explores sustainable heritage tourism as a means of deterring tomb-raiding, and how cultural heritage preservation intersects with Indigenous communities — including questions of ownership, sacred objects, and community-led stewardship.
Past Courses:
John Carroll University:
The Holocaust and Its Meaning
Introduction to Religious Studies
Archaeology and the Bible
University of Mount Union:
Jesus and the Gospels
Ursuline College:
Introduction to the Study of Religion
History of Catholicism in America
Contemporary Christian Theology
Understanding the Book of Revelation
Religion and Violence
Bible and Archaeology
Faiths of Abraham
In Development:
Archaeology and the Bible — The intersection of archaeological evidence and biblical narrative in the ancient Near East, engaging students with material culture, fieldwork methods, and the scholarly conversation between text and artifact.
Stolen Voices, Sacred Objects: African Cultural Heritage and the Colonial Legacy — Examines the Christianization of Indigenous African peoples, the colonial seizure of sacred objects, the distinction between "art" and sacred cultural heritage under Western frameworks, and the global repatriation debate.
Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible — Introduces the range and complexity of the Bible's approaches to sexuality and relationships, surveying key texts around issues such as the creation and reproduction of gender norms, sexual violence, bodily fluids, and same-sex relationships situated within their original milieu and contemporary academic discourse.
Religion and Human Rights: Contemporary Debates — Examines the contested relationship between religion and human rights, exploring the universality of rights, their philosophical grounding, and the intersections of religious traditions with contemporary human rights discourse.
War, Power, and Peace in the Bible—examines warfare, conquest, and military ideology in the ancient Near East, with a focus on Deuteronomy and the theological framing of violence, holy war, and land in ancient Israelite tradition.
Rhetoric, Orality, and Performativity in the Hebrew Bible — Explores how ancient Israelite texts were composed, transmitted, and performed within oral cultures, examining the rhetorical strategies, performative dimensions, and communal functions of biblical literature.
Publications
Forthcoming:Invited book chapter on Gender in the Book of Tobit (details to be announced).
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
Freyhauf, M. S. (2016). "Who Let the Dogs Out?: An Examination of Outside Cultural Influences in the Book of Tobit." Conversations with the Biblical World, 35, 53–77.
Freyhauf, M. S., Levand, M., Ludwa, B., & Witker, K. (2011). "'To the Lost of Israel': An (Hypothetical) Ancient Letter with Commentary." Conversations with the Biblical World, 31, 217–235.
Freyhauf, M. S. (2011). "Hagia Sophia: Political and Religious Symbolism in Stones and Spolia." Popular Archaeology Magazine and Journal of Anthropology.
Book Chapter:
Freyhauf, M. S. (2015). "The Catholic Church and Social Media: Embracing [Fighting] a Feminist Ideological Theo-Ethical Discourse and Discursive Activism." In G. Messina-Dysert & R. R. Ruether (Eds.), Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century (pp. 57–68). Routledge.
Book Review:
Freyhauf, M. S. (2016). Review of Unconventional Wisdom by June Boyce-Tillman. Theology and Sexuality, 18(1), 98–100.
Textbook Materials:
Teacher's Manual and PowerPoint Presentations for R. S. Ellwood, Many Peoples, Many Faiths, 10th Ed. (Pearson, 2014).
Assessments for M. P. Fisher, Living Religions, 9th Ed. (Pearson, 2013).
