Professor Stuart Charmé received his B.A. in religion from Columbia University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in “Religion and Psychological Studies” from the University of Chicago. He is an internationally recognized expert on the work of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, the focus of two books (Meaning and Myth in the Study of Lives: A Sartrean Approach and Vulgarity and Authenticity: Dimensions of Otherness in the World of Sartre) and many articles he has written.  In addition, he has published articles and directed a documentary film about the religious ideas of children.  Professor Charmé’s latest book is Authentically Jewish:  Identity, Culture and the Struggle for Recognition, which focuses on questions of authenticity in relationship to modern and post-modern Jewish identities.

Among the courses that Professor Charmé teaches regularly are: Religion and Psychology; Antisemitism–Ancient and Modern; Gender, Sexuality and Religion; Religion and Film, The End of the World, and Jews, Christians, Muslims.  Professor Charmé is especially interested in anthropological, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of religious and ethnic identity.