Right around this time of year, biblical scholars around the world start getting serious about their papers and activities for the annual Society of Biblical Literature conference held in November. I for one am certainly starting to plan things out in more detail, and (of course) getting my presentations on paper. I’ll be involved in a variety of activities in my various groups in linguistics, Septuagint, and lexicography. But I wanted to be sure to draw attention to an event that my readers might be interested in attending.

Since the untimely death of Jim Aitken, last spring, I have been working with my friend and colleague Marieke Dhont to organize a memorial reception at SBL in his memory. We are grateful that this event has been sponsored by the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge as well as the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies.

This event is open to all who knew Jim or his work and want to spend time with others remembering him. It will be held on Saturday and the details are as follows (also see the image above):

• Saturday, November 18th
• 7-10pm
• Westin Hotel
• Room: Zapata
• Session ID: M18-503

Note too that around 7:45 or so, we will have brief remarks on Jim’s life, scholarship, and friendship from Katharine Dell, Benjamin Wright, and Chris Fresch. If you’re planning to attend SBL, I do hope you can join us for part of the evening.