Professor Naomi Janowitz, director of the Religious Studies Program at University of California-Davis, is the author of numerous articles on Judaism, Christianity and Graeco-Roman religions in late antiquity and three books The Poetics of Ascent: Rabbinic Theories of Language in a Late Antique Ascent Text (SUNY press), Magic in the Roman World: Pagans Jews and Christians (Routledge) and Icons of Power: Rituals Strategies in Late Antiquity (Penn State Press) which was chosen as a Choice Journal Outstanding Academic book for 2003. She is currently also an advanced candidate at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and has a private practice in Berkeley.