Jeremy Penner is Senior Curator of African and Near Eastern Manuscripts at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. His research focuses on Judaism in the Second Temple and early Roman periods, the history of prayer and liturgy, and the manuscript cultures of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. His work integrates philology, religious studies, and the material history of writing, with particular attention to how texts were transmitted, performed, and preserved in antiquity.

He has published on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish liturgical traditions, and the functions of prayer and psalmody, and has held research appointments at the University of Helsinki, KU Leuven, the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Cambridge University Library. He maintains active collaborations through the Centre for Biblical Studies and the Manchester Centre for Correspondence Studies.

At the Rylands, Jeremy leads and contributes to major curatorial and manuscript-research initiatives across the Greek, Coptic, Ethiopic, Hieratic, and Demotic collections. He is co-curator of Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt (2026–28), a large international exhibition in partnership with the Harry Ransom Center, and co-lead of Coptic in Manchester: Connecting Manuscripts and Communities, funded by a UKRI–AHRC IAA Catalyst Award (2026–28). His work aims to bridge academic scholarship, curatorial practice, and public engagement, ensuring that complex manuscript traditions are rigorously interpreted and made accessible to diverse audiences.