The Parchment & Clay Team

Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.

Lead Instructor

Dr. Harvey approaches tablets, scrolls, and ruins as products of deeply human activities—not as dry or dusty relics or sources for sensationalist fantasies. His twenty years of study have taught him how to balance their timeless and universal themes with their cultural uniqueness. In his courses, he draws out all of this complexity—the everyday, the extraordinary, the brutal, and the beautiful—to expand students’ idea of human possibility and to approach contemporary questions in new and ancient ways.

Dr. Harvey earned his PhD. from Brandeis University in 2020, where he received the Nahum and Ann Glatzer Prize for an Outstanding Dissertation. Since then, he has held two postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University and his research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

He is the author of Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel from Cambridge University Press, and has articles in the Journal of Biblical Literature and Osiris, as well as in edited volumes, encyclopedias, and online journals.

Dr. Harvey went blind from a degenerative retinal condition in the process of earning his Ph.D. This has brought with it many new realizations and understandings of the world, and he has incorporated this expanded perspective and the skills of blindness into his practices of scholarship. It has not always been easy working as a blind scholar in an often inaccessible field, but he has found curiosity, inspiration, and joy among the obstacles. You can read more about his journey at his personal blog.

Blindness has also brought with it an interest in access and inclusion. In 2024–2025, Dr. Harvey directed a digital humanities project titled Braille in Ancient Studies: Digital Accessibility for Blind Scholars of Antiquity, which expanded and improved braille access to the languages and literatures of the ancient Middle East.

Dr. Harvey is excited to bring his experience and expertise out of academia and to people everywhere. He is looking forward to meeting you!

Tucker Culbertson

Producer

Tucker is the brilliant and mysterious producer of Parchment & Clay. He is part of all and all is part of him.