The Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, her research interests include ancient pottery, ancient synagogues, and the Roman army in the East, and she has published and lectured extensively on these subjects. She has participated in twenty different excavations in Israel and Greece, including serving as codirector of the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada.