Professor Baker teaches a wide range of courses including: Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence; Hebrew Bible; New Testament; Eve, Adam, and the Serpent; Jews and Judaism in Antiquity; History of Early Christianity; Human Suffering: Job, Genesis, Revelation; Gender and Judaism; The Nature of Spirituality; Biblical Criticism; Food and the Sacred; and Images of Jesus in Film.

Her research explores ideas about gender, race/ethnicity, and nationalism in the formative periods of Judaism and Christianity and in modern historiography on these periods.  Her recent book,  is the focus of a and was highlighted in a in April 2017.  It has been called “A rewarding and important book” and “Highly Recommended” by the American Library Association.

When not in her office she can often be found foraging about the woods for wild gourmet mushrooms.

Professor Melnick Dyer specializes in the history of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, with a focus on the uses of hagiography and revelatory literature in the historical record. She enjoys teaching a wide range of courses in Asian Religious traditions. Her research considers questions at the intersection of authority, gender, privilege, and the role of the religious institution in Tibetan and Chinese literature and society, and she writes about how women exercise authority in these contexts. Her current work focuses on the life of Mingyur Peldron (Tib. mi ‘gyur dpal sgron), an 18th century female Buddhist leader and teacher.

When not in her office, she can be found exploring Maine’s mountains and rocky shoreline.