Prof. Herbst’s scholarly work focuses on the religious and cultural history of antiquity and the early medieval world, with particular attention to the enduring influence and contemporary resonance of this content.

His forthcoming article, “‘The Only Other Thing is Nothing:’ Survival and Beauty in the Colorado Desert,” will be part of the  From Glory to Grave?:  “Dead Cities” throughout Time and Space symposium project. This follows his previous studies on the region: “Pilgrimage and the Sacred in the Colorado Desert,” Desert Researcher (2025);” Journey to the Center of the World:  Memory and the Sacred in the Colorado Desert” in World History Connected Vol. 20/no. 2 (Summer 2023); and “God, Satan, and Freshmen in the Southern Californian Desert” in World History Connected Vol. 18/no. 2 (Summer 2021). For a related topic, see his “Water in World History:   Pedagogical and Thematic Approaches” in World History Bulletin (Fall 2024), a reflection that ranges from the ancient to the contemporary world.

Another project examines religious war in the early medieval Mediterranean, with a focus on the city of Jerusalem, co-written with ASU historian Stefan Stantchev (expected completion in 2027). Here, Prof. Herbst returns to his study of the Roman/Byzantine world, which he previously reflected upon in “Hagia Sophia: Bridge Across Time,” in Asia in World History: Comparisons, Connections, and Conflicts, Education about Asia, Vol. 26/3 (2022), and “Broadcasting Power: Teaching Historical Transformation through Hagia Sophia” in World History Connected Vol. 16/3 (October 2019).