Jérôme Segal (born 26 December 1970)[1] is a French-Austrian essayist and historian, lecturer atSorbonne University and a researcher and journalist inVienna. He is also known for his contributions in the field ofanimal law. He is the author of several articles and books, in particular onJewishness andanimal advocacy.
Segal was born in France in 1970.[2] He began his graduate studies by obtaining an engineering degree from theÉcole centrale de Lyon in 1993. More interested in thehuman sciences than in engineering, he reconciled his career and his ambitions by orienting himself towards thehistory of science and completed a DEA, then a doctorate between Lyon and Berlin from 1993 to 1998,[3] on thehistory of information theory in the second half of the 20th century. He then continued this post-doctoral work at theMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, before returning to France, to Paris, during the summer of 2000 to work as a lecturer in the history of science and epistemology atIUFM in Paris and in parallel as a researcher at the Cavaillès Center of theÉcole normale supérieure.[citation needed]
Segal moved to Austria in 2004 as an academic and scientific cooperation attaché at the French Embassy in Vienna. He continued in Vienna, from 2008, a career as a researcher in social sciences at the Interdisciplinary Center for Comparative Research in Social Sciences (ICCR) (2008 to 2011), as coordinator of the doctoral college of history and philosophy of sciences ofUniversity of Vienna (2011 to 2014)[4] and associate researcher at theLudwig Boltzmann Institute for Social History (2014 to 2016). Since 2016, Segal has resumed his post as a lecturer at Sorbonne University (within INSPE Paris).[5]
Segal defines himself as an "interventionist" and "pathological writer". He seeks to discuss with the public issues that he considers important.[2] Since 2008, he has maintained a blog entitledLe petit flambeau – L'Autriche vue par un universitaire français ("The Little Torch– Austria as Seen by a French Academic"), dealing among other things with Austrian politics, racism and secularism. Since 2008, he has been the author of more than 70 news articles, literary and cinematographic reviews and reviews published onNonfiction.fr addressing the previously mentioned themes, as well asanimal rights, or even preparation for running a marathon.[5] He is also a writer for theantispeciesism journalL'Amorce ("The Primer").[6] Segal is also a journalist, working as a French media correspondent in Austria and has authored dozens of articles since 2002.[7]
Jérôme Segal opposes racism and advocates helping refugees in Austria.[8] Since his discovery in Montreuil, in 2001, of the situation of theRoma in Europe, he has been involved in the community, as an activist and intellectual, notably with two articles published in the reviewLes Temps modernes.[9][10]
An advocate of animal rights, he practicesveganism and is committed toantispeciesism. Several of his books and articles advocate animal rights. He is also a member in Austria of the Team Vegan sports association.[11] In France, he was a candidate of theAnimalist Party in the2019 European election.[12]
Segal also speaks against thesexual mutilation of minors, more precisely the subject ofcircumcision, which he condemns in the name of the right of children to their physical integrity. He tackles this subject from a historical point of view in his bookAthée et Juif,[13] as well as in newspaper articles[14] and journals.[15]
Segal's paternal grandfather fled Austria in May 1938 for France, before entering theForeign Legion and then theResistance where he met the Segal's grandmother.[2] Segal is very interested in the question of Jewishness and defines himself as an "atheist Jew".[13] From 2006 to 2011, he collaborated on the organization of the Vienna International Jewish Film Festival, while working on the Euro-Festival project, aimed at studying festivals as places of debate and identity construction.[2]
InLe zéro et le un ("Zero and one"), Segal shows how information theory was constituted, taking into account the particular context of theCold War, where the industrial sector, military research and university research were working to establish the first computer networks. He remarks "how much the theory of information could have been the object of ideological, political and social stakes" in its first years.[17]
Animal radical, is an essay on the history and sociology of antispeciesism. This work presents the construction of this ideology fromancient Greece to Israel, includinganarchism. Although himself a vegan and antispeciesist, Segal also presents the excesses ofneo-pagan sects or towardspolitical violence.[18][19]
Pourquoi courir ? 20 raisons de pratiquer la course à pied, Les Perséides, 2024.
Veganwashing. L’instrumentalisation politique du véganisme, Lux, 2024.
Radikales Tierrecht. Zehn Fragen zum Antispeziesismus (translated into German by Brita Pohl), turia & kant, 2024.
C'est à ce prix qu'ils comprirent (novel in French), Les Perséïdes, 2023.
Tous véganes ? Manifeste pour un véganisme éclairé (in French), Yves Michel, 2021.
Dix questions sur l'antispécisme. Comprendre la cause animale (in French), Libertalia, 2021.
L'armoire ("The Wardrobe"; in French), Valensin – David Reinharc, 2020.
Animal radical: Histoire et sociologie de l’antispécisme ("Radical animal: The History and Sociology of Antispeciesism"; in French), Lux, 2020.
Vegan: Mehr denn je! ("Vegan: More Than Ever!"; in German),Konturen, 2020.
Wie ein roter Faden ("Like a Common Thread"; in German), Konturen, 2019.
Judentum: über die Religion hinaus ("Judaism: Beyond religion"; in German), Konturen, 2017.
Athée et Juif: Fécondité d’un paradoxe apparent ("Atheist and Jew: Fertility of an Apparent Paradox"; in French), Editions Matériologiques, 2016.
Le Zéro et le Un, Histoire de la notion scientifique d’information au XXe siècle ("The Zero and the One, History of the scientific notion of information in the 20th century"; in French), Editions Matériologiques, 2011.
La pensée végane: 50 regards sur la question animale (articles: "Gastronomie végétalienne" and "Action directe"; in French), edited byRenan Larue, Presses Universitaires de France, 2020.
Les Nationalistes à l'assaut de l'Europe (article: "Autriche: Quand le nationalisme issu de l’extrême droite devient majoritaire"; in French), edited by Dominique Vidal, Demopolis, 2020.
Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere (article: "Cannes: 'A French International Festival'"), edited byGerard Delanty, Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli, London/New York: Routledge, 2011 (written with C. Blumauer,PDF).
La Galicie au temps des Habsbourg (1772–1918) Histoire, société, cultures en contact (article: "L'or noir contre l'étoile jaune, mobilités particulières des Juifs de Galicie ayant investi dans le pétrole"; in French), edited by Jacques Le Rider and Heinz Raschel, Presses Universitaires François Rabelais, 2010 (translation: "Black Gold and Yellow StarForms of mobility of Galician Jews investing in the oil business").
