Dr Peter Hill

I am one of a team of Academic Developers within UniSA. In particular, my role centers on capacity building for excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Accordingly, I take special responsibility in areas of reward and recognition, such as Teaching Awards and Grants, and through facilitating our Building Innovation in Learning and Teaching (BuILT) initiative. At UniSA we have developed a strategy that actively reinforces staff involvement in Teaching Awards and Grants.Through this approach we aim to recognise and reward excellence in ways that foster innovation, benchmark and disseminate better approaches, and that generally enhance student learning outcomes. Since the inception of the national Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) awards in 2006, UniSA has achieved 29 Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (recognising 44 staff members) and one Award for Teaching Excellence. The University has enjoyed notable success in the ALTC Grants Scheme, and since 2006 has led or is leading 13 national projects.

Over some 30 years association with higher education, I have taught a number of courses, and had research associations with Melbourne and Sydney Universities, and adjunct status at the University of Tasmania and currently with Flinders University. Prior to starting with UniSA in 2006, I worked as a freelance academic editor.

I am active in research, both in my disciplinary specialisation as well as in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and I'm involved in a number of academic forums and societies. Many of my scholarly interests focus on Syria and the Levant,in particular the Late Antique history and literature of Syriac Christianity, and Christian-Muslim relations in the modern period. In 2007, I was afforded the honour of being made a 'Friend of Syria' by H. E. Ambassador Sulaiman.

In April 2009, I was awarded an Australian Government Endeavour Executive Award for placement from Oct. to Dec. as a Visiting Professor at the Center for Teaching and Learning of the American University of Beirut.

Check out "Learning in Lebanon" a blog about my experiences during placement at the American University of Beirut, Oct - Dec. 2009

UniSA and National Learning & Teaching Awards and Grants

BuILT: Building Innovation in Teaching and Learning

Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing - Birmingham

Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Syrian Studies Association

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies

Endeavour Awards

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa

Syrian Studies Association

BA(Adel)

DipTheol(PTCVic)

MA Preliminary(Hebrew & Near Eastern Studies)(Melb)

MAHons(1st class)(Melb)

PhD(Melb)

Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS)

• The Syriac versions of the New Testament, in particular the seventh-century version of Thomas of Harkel.
• The works of Dionysius Bar Salibi (Syriac, twelfth century).
• Hagiography: authorial intentions, motifs and imagery, animals and saints, in the Oriental and Anglo-Saxon traditions. A particular interest is the Mar Thekla tradition preserved at Ma'aloula in Syria.
• History and significance of scholarship.How is scholarship recognised and validated across time and cultures? What is the 'Scholarship of Teaching', and where does it fit within the paradigms of academic scholarship?
• The history and develpment of higher education in the Arab States.
• Christian - Muslim relations, with particular reference to the perspectives and experience of Orthodox Christianity.

2008. 'Boyer's model of scholarship: A Syriac case study from seventh-century Egypt', Paper 3, Occasional Papers on Learning and Teaching at UniSA. University of South Australia. Adelaide. URL:http://www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/staff/progress/activities/occasional/hill.pdf

2008. 'Matthew 16:18 in the Philoxenian Version', TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, 13. URL: http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/vol13/Hill20008.pdf

2006. 'The Harklean Passion Harmony', Parole de l'Orient 31: 213-230.

2006. 'A Ninth Century Passion Harmony', in Byzantine Narrative: Papers in Honour of Roger Scott, ed. John Burke, Byzantina Australiensia vol. 16 (Melbourne) 421-432.

2004. 'Bar Salibi and the Trisagion', in Orientale Lumen II: Australasia and Oceania—An Exchange of Gifts, ed. Lawrence Cross (Strathfield), 169–182.

2004. 'The Harklean 'Currency Annotations'', Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56: 105–127.

2004. Collaborating ed. with Rifaat Ebied, Herman Teule & Joseph Verheyden, Symposium Syriacum VIII, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56 (Leuven).

2003. 'Bar Salibi's Commentary on Habakkuk', Antioch & Alexandria 1: 18–31.

2003. 'How Thomas of Harkel Read St. Luke', in Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church 3, Liturgy and Life, ed. B. Neil, G.D. Dunn & L. Cross (Strathfield), 315–325.

1998. 'Spiritualising the Spiritual—Bar Salibi On the Prophets', Phronema 13: 41–52.

1996. 'Article Review: "The Jesus Papyrus" by Carsten Peter Thiede and Matthew D'Ancona', Buried History 32: 82–95.

1994. 'Robert Mitchell – "Father of the A.I.M."’, in Presbyterian Leaders in Nineteenth Century Australia, ed. R.S. Ward (Melbourne), 165–180.

UNPUBLISHED THESES

'The Verb BACHAR and the Election of Israel in Deuteronomy', MA Prelim. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1991.

'Dionysius Bar Salibi, Commentary on Habakkuk', MA Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1996.

'The Harklean Syriac Version of St.Luke 1-11: A Critical Introduction and Edition', PhD Dissertation, University of Melbourne, 2002.

MAJOR CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS

2008 'Building Capacity in Learning and Teaching through Awards and Grants Schemes', presentations to the Center for Teaching and Learning, American University in Beirut (November); and to the Centre for Educational Development, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (November).

2008 'A Case Study in the Cross-cultural Application of Boyer's Theory of Scholarship', Egypt at the Crossroads: Literary and Linguistic Studies, Cairo University (November)

2007 'Thomas of Harkel at the Enaton', Monasticism Symposium, St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Theological College, Melbourne(September).

2007 ‘The Ever-Virgin Theotokos: the Biblical Data’, 2nd Annual VOSCA Studies Conference (April).

2007 ‘The Ecology of Vices and Virtues: Animal motifs in Early Christianity’, Classical Association (SA) (April).

2006 ‘The Challenge of the Philoxenian Version’, Western Pacific Rim Patristics Society 3rd Annual Conference, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan (September).

2006 ‘Biblical Motifs in the Vita Columbani’, Western Pacific Rim Patristics Society 3rd Annual Conference, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan (September).

2006 ‘Peter/Kepha, Gates/Bars, Overcome/Withstand: Matthew 16:18 in the Philoxenian Version’, Seminar, University of Tokyo, Japan (September).

2005 ‘The Problem of Anti-Judaic Textual Corruptions’, Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church IV, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy (July).

2004 ‘The Harklean Passion Harmony’, IXth Symposium Syriacum, Kaslik, Lebanon (September).

2003 ‘Dionysius Bar Salibi and the Trisagion’, Orientale Lumen II: Australasia and Oceania, Australian Catholic University, Stathfield (July).

2002 ‘Saint Athanasius in the Russian Orthodox Tradition’, Saint Athanasius Symposium, Coptic Theological College, Melbourne (July).

2002 ‘How Thomas of Harkel Read St. Luke’, Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church III, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy (July).

2000 ‘The Harklean “Currency Annotations”’, VIIIth Symposium Syriacum, Sydney (July).

1998 ‘The Syrian Monastery in the Wadi `n-Natrun’, International Coptic Studies Symposium, University of Melbourne (July).

1998 ‘The Harklean Version: Problems and Prospects’, New Testament Cluster Seminar, Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey (February).

1998 ‘Harklean Manuscripts and Glosses’, Syriac Seminar, Oriental Faculty, Oxford University (January).

1996 ‘Dionysius Bar Salibi on the Minor Prophets’, Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church I, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne (May).

1996 ‘The Harklean Version’, Textual Criticism Seminar, University of Melbourne (April).

I am able to provide media comment in the following areas of expertise:

Discipline: Language, Languages Education, University Teaching and Learning

• Syriac & Aramaic language and literature
• Transmission, history, versions and criticism of the New Testament text
• Reward and recognition in Higher Education