Institute Staff
Michael Zank, Institute Director
Michael Zank, Director of the Institute for Philosophy & Religion, is Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies, and Medieval Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. His research ranges from biblical reception and the history of Jerusalem to German Jewish intellectual history and the philosophy of religion. He has published on Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), Martin Buber (1878-1965), Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), and Leo Strauss (1899-1973). His current research project traces the reception of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed in modern Jewish thinkers, including Spinoza, Cohen, and Strauss.
Previously, Michael Zank served as Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies (2013-2022) where he instituted the annual Elie Wiesel Memorial Lectures, inaugurated the Leo Trepp Memorial Lectures, and relaunched the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lectures. Zank, a native of Germany, holds advanced degrees in Protestant Theology (Speyer am Rhein 1986) and in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (Brandeis 1994).
For more information: https://blogs.bu.edu/mzank/