Matthew Suriano (PhD, University of California Los Angeles) specializes in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, ancient Near Eastern religions, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and the archaeology of the Levant. His first book The Politics of Dead Kings: Dynastic Ancestors in the Book of Kings and Ancient Israel (Mohr Siebeck, 2010) examined the motifs used to describe a king's death. His recent book, A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2018), which won ASOR's Frank Moore Cross Award, looks more broadly at death and burial in biblical literature. He is currently collaborating with Jacqueline Vayntrub on a new edition of Hebrew funerary incriptions from Iron Age Judah for the Society of Biblical Literature's series Writings from the Ancient World. His other areas of research include royal inscriptions and the study of kingship. Dr. Suriano is an active member of SBL and ASOR, and has been a fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (AIAR). He has participated in several archaeological excavations in Israel, and is a current member of the Tel Burna excavation project.