|
Alan F. Segal is professor of Religion and Ingeborg
Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College,
Columbia University in Manhattan. When appointed he was the
youngest full professor in the humanities in the university.
He was chair of the Department between 1981-1984 and
occasionally thereafter.
He was born in Worcester Massachusetts, educated at
Worcester Academy, Amherst College (B.A. 1967), Brandeis
University (M. A. 1969), Hebrew Union College - Jewish
Institute of Religion (B. H. L. 1971) and Yale University
(M. A. 1971, M. Phil. 1973, Ph. D. 1975). His studies
included English Literature, Psychology, Anthropology,
Comparative Religion, Judaica, Christian Origins, and
Rabbinics.
Before moving to Columbia University, Professor Segal was
appointed to Princeton University for two three-year terms
starting in 1974 and to the University of Toronto with
tenure. He received tenure at the University of Toronto in
1977, three years after beginning his teaching career.
He was also invited to the Aspen Institute for Humanistic
Studies in Aspen, Colorado and to leadership training at
Aspen's Wye Plantation in Maryland. While living in Israel
in 1977-1978 on a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lectured at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and Bar
Ilan University. He has served as guide on trips to Egypt,
Turkey, and Israel and traveled extensively in Europe. He
has held fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the
American Council of Learned Societies, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, The Annenberg Institute, and
the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation.
In the summer of 1988 at the Jubilee celebration in
Cambridge England, he became the first Jewish member of the
Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas to address the society.
He was elected into membership of the American Society for
the Study of Religion and the American Theological
Association. He was also the first American to be elected
president of the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies while
living abroad. He has also written many scholarly articles
for journals in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Professor Segal's publications include Jews and Arabs: A
Teaching Guide (UAHC Press), Two Powers in Heaven (Brill),
Deus Ex Machina: Computers in the Humanities (Penn
University Bulletin Board), Rebecca's Children: Judaism and
Christianity in the Roman World (Harvard University Press),
The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity (Scholars Press). Paul
the Convert: The Apostasy and Apostolate of Saul of Tarsus
was published by Yale University Press in Spring 1990 and
was the Editor's Choice, the main selection of the History
Book Club's summer list. It is also a selection of The Book
of the Month Club.
His latest book is called Life After Death: The Afterlife
in Western Religions (New York: Doubleday, 2004). It was a
selection of the History Book Club, the Book of the Month
Club, and the Behavioral Science Book Club. It has been
featured on the Leonard Lopate Show, Talk of the Nation, and
was the cover article of the Globe and Mail Book Review
Supplement of Toronto.
Professor Segal lives in Ho-Ho-Kus N. J. with his family.
His wife, Meryl Segal, is the Director of Social Work at the
Forum School for emotionally disturbed and autistic
children.
Complete CV (PDF)
Courses
- Reli V3495: Life After Death
- Reli V3501: Introduction to Hebrew Bible
- Reli X3997: Senior Research Seminar
- Reli G8850: Comparative Scriptural Exegesis
Office Hours (Spring 2010)
On leave Spring 2010.
|
Back to faculty page
Back to top