| Alan F. Segal, Distinguished Scholar |
| Professor of Religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University in Manhattan
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 Christanity 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 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 Leonardi Lopate Show, Talk of the Nation, and was the cover article of the Globe and Mail Book Review Supplement of Toronto.
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| Gregory Shaw, Distinguished Scholar |
| Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Shaw graduated from Arizona State University in 1977 as Outstanding Senior in the Fine Arts College. He earned an M.A. (1980) and Ph.D. (1987) in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Joining Stonehill in 1987, he has enjoyed working in the Religious Studies Department and with the entire Stonehill community.
Research interests include Religions of Late Antiquity, especially Neoplatonism, history of divination with an emphasis on dreams; contemporary religious movements that draw from Hermetic and Platonic sources; Jungian psychology; UFO phenomena.
He has published several articles on Neoplatonism and religions in Late Antiquity and a book Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Penn State Press, 1995).
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| Mark Turner, Distinguished Scholar |
| Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University
He is Founding Director of the Cognitive Science Network; Founding President of the Myrifield Institute for Cognition and the Arts; Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, the New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for the Science of Origins; Extraordinary Member of the Humanwissenschaftliches Zentrum der Ludiwig-Maximilians-Universitaet; External Research Professor of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. For 2011-2012, he is scheduled to be a fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
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| Dale Martin, Distinguished Scholar |
| Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University
Dale B. Martin specializes in New Testament and Christian Origins, including attention to social and cultural history of the Greco-Roman world. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1999, he taught at Rhodes College and Duke University. His books include: Slavery as Salvation: The Metaphor of Slavery in Pauline Christianity; The Corinthian Body; Inventing Superstition: From He Hippocratics to the Christians; Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation; and Pedagogy of the Bible: an Analysis and Proposal. He has edited several books, including (with Patricia Cox Miller), The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies: Gender, Asceticism, and Historiography. He was an associate editor for the revision and expansion of the Encyclopedia of Religion, published in 2005. He has published several articles on topics related to the ancient family, gender and sexuality in the ancient world, and ideology of modern biblical scholarship, including titles such as: "Contradictions of Masculinity: Ascetic Inseminators and Menstruating Men in Greco-Roman Culture." He currently is working on issues in biblical interpretation, social history and religion in the Greco-Roman, and sexual ethics. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humbold Foundation (German), and Lilly Foundation, the Fulbright Commission (USA-Denmark), and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2009).
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| Roger Beck, Distinguished Scholar |
| Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto at Mississauga
Roger Beck received his B.A. in Literae Humaniores at the Oxford University in 1961. In 1963 he attained the A.M. in Latin at the University of Illinois. He was Lecturer at the University of Manitoba between 1963 and 1964. In 1964 Roger Beck started his career at the University of Toronto, Erindale College and Department of Classics (Lecturer 1964-1965, Assistant Professor 1968-1974, Associate Professor 1974-1984, Professor 1984-1998, Professor Emeritus since 1998).
He attained his Ph.D. in Classical Philology at University of Illinois in 1971 with the thesis "Meter and Sense and in Homeric Verse" (Supervisor: J.J. Bateman). He was appointed to Graduate School and cross-appointed to Center for Religious Studies [currently Centre for the Study of Religion] in 1978, tenure in 1973. He was Secretary of the Classical Association of Canada between 1977 and 1979. He was Review Editor of the Phoenix journal between 1978 and Associate Editor between 1982 and 1986. His current research interests are Mithraism and religion in the Roman Empire; ancient astrology and astronomy, Petronius and the ancient novel.
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| Erin Evans, Visiting International Guest Student |
| The University of Edinburgh, PhD Candidate
Project Abstract:
The primary objective is to shed light on a hitherto largely unrecognized religious school of thought emerging from the dynamic religious climate of the first four centuries C.E. Despite the recent upsurge in interest surrounding so-called, "Gnostic" groups arising around the dawn of Christianity, the Books of Jeu, the Pistis Sophia, and the other fragmentary writings of the Bruce Codex have remained largely untouched by scholarly inquiry. In particular, the idea of a theological system connecting them poses an intriguing historical possibly. These texts would present literary evidence that a number of people were significantly involved in the ideas they propound, and that the ideas remained in circulation over a period of some time. Through analysis of the theogonic ideas, ritual practices and the system of symbolism used in the texts, I hope to shed greater light on the historical and cultural context of the group developing them.
Working with texts such as the Books of Jeu, when even the location of their discovery is unknown, determining their precise provenance or relationship to surrounding religious groups is nigh impossible. However, using a historical-critical approach to the texts' contents, it becomes possible to begin to relate them to the teachings and practices of other Jewish, Christian, "Gnostic," and other Western mystery religions of the first few centuries of the Common Era.
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