Iranian Studies (Pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia): Old and Middle Iranian languages, and literatures, Iranian historical linguistics, Zoroastrianism, Indo-European, interactions of the Iranian and Jewish worlds, Late Antiquity, Ethnomusicology (19th-20th cent. Jewish and Greek music).
Selected Works:
"The Old East Iranian World View According to the Avesta" and "The Religion of Achaemenian Iran," in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, 1985
"Scatology and Eschatology in Zoroaster: On the Paronomasia of Yasna 48:10, and on Indo-European *H2eg 'to make taboo', and on the Reciprocity Verbs *K sen(w) and *Megh," in Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce II (Acta Iranica), 1985
"Coded Sound Patterns, Acrostics, and Anagrams in Zoroaster's Oral Poetry," in Schmitt and Skjaervoe, Studia Grammatica Iranica, Festschrift fur Helmut Humbach, 1986
Haoma and Harmaline: The Botanical Identity of the Indo-Iranian Sacred Hallucinogen "Soma" and its Legacy in Religion, Language, and Middle Eastern Folklore, (co-authored with D. S. Flattery), 1989
"Pers. Saugand Xurdan, Etc. 'To Take an Oath' (Not 'To Drink Sulphur')," Cahiers de Studia Iranica 7: Homages...Gilbert Lazard, 1990
"Sound, Sense, and "Seeing" in Zoroaster: The Outer Reaches of Orality," Cama Oriental Institute Congress Volume, 1991
Electronic Publications:
Apollo and Khshathrapati, the Median Nergal, at Xanthos
Revelations, Theology, and Poetics in the Gathas
The Etymology of Arabic xarāj, Revisited
Kirder's Clairvoyants: Extra-Iranian and Gathic Perspectives
From Healer to Hyle: Levantine Iconography as Manichean Mythology
On Haoma and its Liturgy in the Gathas
Qumran, Turfan, Arabic Magic, and Noah's Name
Sasm, Sesen, St. Sisinnios, Sesengen Barpharanges, and ... "Semanglof"
Encryptions in the Gathas: Zarathushrta's Variations on the Theme of Bliss
How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus: Inner-textual and Intertextual Composition
Pouruchista’s Gathic Wedding and the Teleological Composition of the Gathas