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Dr. Zef Segal

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies 1 University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:09-7781354 Email:zefse@openu.ac.il

Areas of Interest
  • Historical cartography
  • History of Hebrew journalism
  • History of mobility
  • Historical networks
  • Spatiality
  • Digital humanities

Zef Segal, a lecturer of history, digital humanities and mathematics and a specialist on European mobility, communication and space during the Long 19th century. His research focuses on journalism history, transportation infrastructures and historical cartography, as well as the interrelations between these fields. His work combines “traditional” methodologies with computational and quantitative ones, ranging from OCR improvement and topic modeling to GIS mapmaking and network analysis.

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2013
Ph.D., History, Tel Aviv University. Dissertation: " Practices and Representations of the State Space: The Medium Sized German States in the Years 1815-1866"
2008
MSc. (magna cum laude), Mathematics, Tel Aviv University. Thesis: "Variation of the Game Chromatic Number"
2005
MA. (magna cum laude), Philosophy, Tel Aviv University. Thesis: "The Aesthetic Ethics and its Realization in 'On the Aesthetic Education of Man' by Friedrich Schiller"
2005

 BSc. (magna cum laude), Mathematics, Tel Aviv University.
2003
BA. (magna cum laude), Humanities, The Open University.
2021
Hiob-Ludolf-Fellow, the University of Erfurt, Germany.
2020
Principal Reasearcher in Historical Journalism and Digital Methodologies, Open Media and Information Lab, The Open University of Israel.
2018-2019
Research Fellow in Historical Journalism and Digital Methodologies, Open Media and Information Lab, The Open University of Israel.
2016
Research Fellow in the History of Race and Ethnicity ,German Historical Institute, Washington DC.
2014-2016
Post-doctoral Fellow, Government and Politics Department, Ben Gurion University.
2014-2015
Research Fellow, Haifa Center for German & European Studies, Haifa University.
2013-2014
Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of General History and Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society, Haifa University
2013-2016
Post-doctoral Fellow, Da'at Hamakom, Center for the Study of Cultures of Place in the Modern Jewish World,  Hebrew University
2013-2015
Post-doctoral Fellow, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University.
2009
Short-term Fellow, Neueste Geschichte und Zeitgeschichte, LMU, Munich Germany.
2005-2021
Various Teaching positions (Instructor, Adjunct Lecturer), The Open University, Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, The Hebrew University, Haifa University and Tel Aviv University.
2017-2020
Member of the Board of Governors, Tel Aviv Jaffa Academic College.
2020-present
Academic Consultant, the Department of Humanities, The Open University.
2019-present
Member, the Academic Committee of Teaching Analytics, The Open University.
2018-present
Member, the Academic Sub-committee, the Department of Humanities, The Open University.
2018-2020
Member, the Academic Sub-committee, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, The Open University.
2021
Research grant from the University of Erfurt.
2020
Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize Shortlist for 2019.
2020
Research grant from the Open University (with Prof. Oren Soffer).
2020
Research grant from Tel-Aviv Jaffa College (with Prof. Arye Lev).
2020
Personal research grant from Tel-Aviv Jaffa College.
2020
Award of Research Excellence from the Open University
2019
Laboratory grant from the Open University of Israel (with Prof.  Oren Soffer).
2017
The state of Minas and Gerais, Brazil, travel grant.
2016
Research grant from the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.
2015
Research grant from the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.
2015
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich travel grant.
2014
Cusanuswerk, travel grant to Berlin.
2013
Haifa University, Presidential fellowship award.
2009-2012
Gotesmann scholarship for doctoral students of the school of history at TAU.
2009
DAAD scholarship for further academic study and training in Germany.
2007
DAAD scholarship for further academic study and training in Germany.
2005
The "Posis" Grant for philosophical research on a literary topic.
2004
Dean Certificate for outstanding results in Mathematical studies, Tel Aviv University.
2002
Dean Certificate for outstanding results in Humanities studies, Open University.
1998
Grant of "Inbar fund for the research on Terror".
1997
Dean Certificate for outstanding results in Humanities studies, Open University.

Courses Developed

Culture at the Age of the Enlightenment: Private Sphere (The Open University, BA)

Who's Afraid of Numbers: Mathematics and Computation for the Humanities (The Open University, BA)

Mobility, Communication and Space in the 19th Century, Classic and Digital Approaches to Historical Research (The Open University, MA)

Visualization in Digital Humanities: Representations of Space, Time and Networks (Haifa University, BA)

Digital Humanities, with an emphasis on Social Network Analysis and Geographic Information Systems (The Hebrew University, MA)

State Construction in the German Space from the Mid-19th Century to the End of the Weimar Republic (Haifa University, MA)

Courses Taught (since 2011)

History
  • Culture at the Age of the Enlightenment: Private Sphere. (2022-present, BA)
  • History, Society, and Social Sciences (2020-2022, MA)
  • Chapters in the History of Science (2021-present, BA)
  • The History of Mathematics: From ancient Greece until the Time of Euler. (2015- present, BA)
  • Culture at the Age of the Enlightenment: the 18th Century in France, Great Britain and Germany. (2016- 2021, BA)
  • Mobility, Communication and Space in the 19th Century, Classic and Digital Approaches to Historical Research (2020, MA)
  • Dissertation workshop for the History Department (2020, MA)
  • State Construction in the German Space from the mid-19th century to the end of the Weimar Republic. (2014-2015, MA)

Digital Humanities
  • Who's Afraid of Numbers: Mathematics and Computation for the Humanities. (2022-present, BA)
  • Visualization in Digital Humanities: Representations of Space, Time and Networks (2018-2020, BA)
  • Digital Humanities, with an emphasis on Social Network Analysis and Geographic Information Systems. (2015-2016, 2017-2019, MA).

Mathematics
  • Discrete Mathematics (2006- present, BA)
  • Introduction to Probability (2006-present, BA)
  • Introduction to Logic and Set Theory (2006-present, BA)
  • Linear Algebra 1 and 2 (2006- present, BA)
  • Calculus 1 and 2 (2005- present. BA)
  • Mathematical Reasoning (2015-present, BA)
  • Mathematical Methods for Economists (2020- 2021, BA)
  • Mathematical Concepts for Social Sciences (2012-2014, BA)

Python programming

GIS (ArcGIS and QGIS)

Network Analysis (Gephi and Cytoscape)

Corpus Analysis (topic modeling, word embeddings, textual reuse, stylometric analysis, keyness)

Text recognition (Transkribus)

Algorithms and mathematical concepts

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Zef Segal, Practices and Representations of the State Space: The Medium Sized German States in the Years 1815-1866 (Tel Aviv University: PhD. Dissertation, 2013). 

Zef Segal, Variation of the Game Chromatic Number (M.Sc.a Dissertation, Tel Aviv University, 2008).

Zef Segal, The Aesthetic Ethics and its Realization in "On the Aesthetic Education of Man" by Friedrich Schiller (M.A. Dissertation, Tel Aviv University, 2005). (Hebrew)​

Zef Segal, The Political Fragmentation of Germany: Formation of German States by Infrastructures, Maps, and Movement, 1815-1866 (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). WCGS Book Prize Shortlist for 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19827-5​

Zef Segal and Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, Motion in Maps, Maps in Motion: Mapping Stories and Movement through the Time. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048542956​

Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Ra'anana: The Open University of Israel, 2022).

Zef Segal and Nurit Melnik, Who's Afraid of Numbers: Math and Computation for the Humanities (Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2022) (Hebrew).

Zef Segal, Culture in the Age of the Enlightenment: Reshaping the Private Sphere (Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2022) (Hebrew).

Zef Segal (ed.), Mobility, Communication, and Space in the 19th Century: “Classic" and “Digital" Approaches to History (Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2019) (Hebrew).

Zef Segal, Culture in the Age of the Enlightenment, Introductory Unit (Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2017) (Hebrew).

Zef Segal, “Introduction to the Israeli edition,” in Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2021), 15-22 (Hebrew).

Zef Segal & Menahem Blondheim, “Responsa Between Two Worlds: America, Eastern Europe, & the Connection Between Distance and Authority at the Turn of the 19th Century," in Menahem Blondheim and Hananel Rosenberg (eds.), Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: Two Thousand Years of Saying Goodbye without Leaving (New York: Israel Academic Press, 2020), 330-348.

Zef Segal, Jörn Seemann, & Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, "Introduction," in Zef Segal and Bram Vannieuwenhuyze (eds.), Motion in Maps, Maps in Motion: Mapping Stories and Movement through the Time (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020), 13-32. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048542956-003

Zef Segal, “Flow Mapping through the Times: The Transition from Harness to Nazi Propoganda," in Zef Segal and Bram Vannieuwenhuyze (eds.), Motion in Maps, Maps in Motion: Mapping Stories and Movement through the Time (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020), 81-104. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048542956-006

Zef Segal, “Post and Railway 'Right of Way': Infrastructures as Delimitators of Voluntary Territorial Identities in Mid-Nineteenth Century Germany," in Andreas Marklund and Mogens Rüdiger (eds.), Historicizing Infrastructure: History, Materiality and Human Agency in the Study of Infrastructure (Copenhagen: Aalborg University Press, 2017), 51-82.

Zef Segal, “Infrastructure, cartographie et circulation: ouverture et fermeture des frontières du royaume de Bavière au 19 ème siècle", in Sylvie Considère and Thomas Perrin (eds.), Frontières et représentations sociales: questions et perspectives méthodologiques (Louvain-la-Neuve: Harmattan-Academia, 2017), 297-320. (French)

Zef Segal, “Real, Actual and Imagined Borders – State Construction in the »Third Germany«" in Jose Brunner and Iris Nachum (eds.), Die Deutschen als die Anderen: Deutschland in der imagination seiner Nachbarn (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2012), 21-43.

Zef Segal, “'From One End of the Earth to the Other End of the Earth': Changing Perceptions of the World in Late-Nineteenth-Century Hebrew Journalism," Jewish Studies Quarterly (forthcoming).

Zef Segal, “'I Can Smell the German Linden Trees… Against my Door': Natural Railways in German Landscape Pictures and Postcards," Zemanim (forthcoming). (Hebrew)

Zef Segal, “The ‘Naturalization’ of Railways: The Visual Representations of Nineteenth Century German Trains,” The Journal of Transport History 43.2 (2022).

Zef Segal, “From a Local Periodical to a Global Enterprise: Ha-Me'asef, 1896- 1914", Journal of Historical Network Research 6 (2022), 121-149.

Zef Segal & Oren Soffer, “One Journal, One Decade, 3,797,592 Words: Computational Analysis of HaTzfira's Discourse (1874–1883)," Journal of Jewish Studies 72.2 (2021), 369-396. https://doi.org/10.18647/3508/jjs-2021

Zef Segal & Oren Soffer, “From Weekly to Daily: Computational Analysis of Periodical Time Cycles," Journalism Studies 21.14 (2020), 1952-1972. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1807394.

Oren Soffer, Zef Segal, Nurit Greidinger, Sinai Rusinek, & Vered Silber-Varod, “Computational Analysis of Historical Hebrew Newspapers: Proof of Concept," Zutot - Perspectives on Jewish Culture 17 (2020), 97-110. https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-12171087

Zef Segal, "'A Letter to our Authors: The Problem of False News in Hatsfira, 1874," Kesher 52 (2019), 15-20. (Hebrew) https://www.jstor.org/stable/26948858

Zef Segal, "The Two Edged Sword: German Capital Cities Empowerment and State Construction during the Nineteenth Century, 1815- 1866," The Journal of Historical Geography 60 (2018), 52-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2017.12.005

Zef Segal & Menahem Blondheim, “America on the Responsa Map: Hasidim, Mitnagdim and the Trans-Atlantic Social Network of Religious Authority," American Jewish History 102 (2017), 133-153. doi:10.1353/ajh.2018.0007

Zef Segal & Menahem Blondheim, “The Evolution of an International Social Network: Ha-Me'asef Periodical in the years 1896-1904", Kesher 50 (2017), 150-156. (Hebrew) https://www.jstor.org/stable/26936864

Zef Segal, "Comunicazioni eformazione dello Stato. Il servizio postalenegli Stati tedeschi, 1815-1866," Archivio per la Storia Postale 9 (2017), 59-80. (Italian)

Zef Segal, “Regionalism and Nationalism in German Railway Cartography during the mid-Nineteenth Century," Imago Mundi 68.1 (2016), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085694.2016.1107374.

Zef Segal, “Nationalizing the Global and the Local: Demarcating Church Authority in German States following the End of the Holy Roman Empire," Wichmann-Jahrbuch des Diözesangeschichtsvereins Berlin 54-55 (2015), 40-56.

Zef Segal, “Communication and State Construction: The Postal Service in the Medium sized German States, 1815-1866," The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 44.4 (2013), 453-473. 

Zef Segal, “An Analog Language in a Digital World", Askola 6 (2021), 28-31 (Hebrew).

Saeed Amal, Mustafa Adam, Peter Brusilovsky, Einat Minkov, Zef Segal and Tsvi Kuflik, “Visualizing Personalized Multifaceted ad-hoc Social Network," UMAP '20 Adjunct: Adjunct Publication of the 28th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (Genoa, 2020), 101-102. https://doi.org/10.1145/3386392.3397606

Saeed Amal, Mustafa Adam, Peter Brusilovsky, Einat Minkov, Zef Segal and Tsvi Kuflik, “Demonstrating Personalized Multifaceted Visualization of People Recommendation to Conference Participants," IUI '20: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces Companion (New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2020), 49-50. https://doi.org/10.1145/3379336.3381455

Zef Segal, Conference Report “International Affairs and the Politics of Memory: German-Jewish-Israeli Relations after the Holocaust," Haifa, 12.01.2014-14.01.2014, in H-Soz-u-Kult (May 2014). https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-5381

Zef Segal, "The PLO, from a Military Struggle to a Diplomatic Struggle". (Ramat Hasharon: Library of the Center for the Intelligence Heritage, 1998). (Hebrew)