Dr. L. Stephanie Cobb

Dr. L. Stephanie Cobb specializes in the study of early Christian martyrdom narratives, with particular expertise in gender dynamics, early Christian doctrine, and the cultural context of North African Christianity. Her research examines how martyrdom accounts shaped early Christian identity and communal memory, with special attention to figures like Perpetua and Felicitas. Dr. Cobb has published three books with prestigious university presses, including her most recent work, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 2021). The book brings together all known texts, sermons, inscriptions, and artistic depictions of the two martyrs, Perpetua and Felicitas, between the third and eighth centuries CE. Written in close collaboration with colleague Andrew S. Jacobs, the volume includes original texts in Greek, Latin, and Syriac, along with fresh translations. Her scholarship extends beyond monographs to peer-reviewed articles published in some of the most important journals in her field: Journal of Late Antiquity, Church History, and Journal of Religious History. As an authority in the field, Dr. Cobb is regularly invited to contribute to major references works, such as The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies and The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Her expertise is also recognized by invitations to deliver lectures across the country.

Dr. Cobb is currently writing a book on the history of martyrdom entitled, “Gods at War: Piety and Persecution in the Age of the Martyrs.” In it, she urges readers to approach the history of martyrdom empathetically, with a commitment to understanding the logic, and the piety that drove all actors in these dramas—including those Christians who did not choose to be martyred and those Roman rulers who did the martyring, not just the Christian heroes.

An award-winning educator, Dr. Cobb’s courses range widely in the fields of New Testament, Early Christianity, and Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World: from Introduction to New Testament to “Satan,” from “Gods of the Pharaohs” to “Magic and Religion,” from the history of antisemitism to Jewish and Christian visions of the end of the world. And, of course, one of her favorite courses is “Dying for God,” a study in the history and literature of early Christian martyrdom.