Michael Gottsegen
Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and Hirschfeld Presidential Fellow in Comparative Studies:
Judaic Studies, Program In
Phone: +1 917 374 6614
Phone 2: +1 401 863 3925
Michael_Gottsegen@brown.edu
Michael Gottsegen studies the relation between religion and public/political life, mainly in the modern period, and how Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers conceive this relation in theological, philosophical and political terms. He also writes about ideas of collective and political responsibility, and about the role of religions in ongoing struggles for economic and social justice in a time of globalization. These themes come together in his current work on French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.
Biography
Trained as a political theorist at Columbia University and in Religious Studies at Harvard, Michael Gottsegen (Ph.D., 1989) has worked in and out of academia since the early 1990s, having taught at Columbia and Brandeis before coming to Brown. A book based on his thesis, "The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt," was published in 1994. Pursuing a primary research interest at the nexus between contemporary Jewish and Christian theology, religious ethics, and political theory, he is presently completing a manuscript on the tension between ethics and politics in the thought of the French Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas. Bringing these same interests together in a practical way, Michael Gottsegen also works with the Association of Religious NGOs at the United Nations on behalf of the achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. At Brown he teaches courses in Jewish thought and ethics with a focus on modern and contemporary developments.
Interests
Michael Gottsegen has a continuing research interest in the relation between religion and public/political life, especially in the modern period, and in how this relation has been conceptualized theologically, philosophically and politically by Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers. He is presently in the midst of a writing project which explores the ethical, religious and political thought of Emmanuel Levinas and reflects his broader research interest in contemporary religious and secular conceptualizations of transcendence, and in the place of transcendence in contemporary political theologies. Another of his current research projects focuses on modern notions of collective and political responsibility, as these have been construed by secular and religious thinkers, and on the practical and political implications of these ideas for how the West ought to approach the challenges of achieving economic and social justice on a global scale in an era of globalization.
Awards
1983-1985. Columbia University Fellow
1982-1983. Columbia University Presidential Fellow
Affiliations
American Academy of Religion
American Political Science Association
Association for Jewish Studies
Teaching
Michael Gottsegen teaches courses in medieval, modern and contemporary Jewish thought; religious ethics; and 19th-20th century Jewish utopianism and secular Messianism. He offers seminars in interwar German Jewish and Christian religious thought; the thought of Emmanuel Levinas; and the thought of Heidegger's Jewish students including Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, Emmanuel Levinas, Karl Lowith and Herbert Marcuse.
Funded Research
N/A
Curriculum Vitae
