A Conversation with Dr. Michael Hasel and wife Giselle

Michael G. Hasel, PhD, has taught Near Eastern studies and archaeology at Southern since 1998. In the 1995-96 academic year, he was the Samuel H. Kress Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. In 2005, he served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Cyprus-American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia, Cyprus, funded by the U.S. Department of State. He is a named fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research.
The Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum was inaugurated on the campus of Southern Adventist University in 2004. As curator of the museum, Hasel was responsible for planning and displaying art and objects from the ancient Near East in a state-of-the-art exhibit entitled “Vessels in Time: A Journey Into the Biblical World.” The museum has won several awards from the Tennessee Association of Museums.
Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on 10 different excavation projects in the Middle East, including Gezer, Ashkelon, Dor, Miqne-Ekron, Masada, Hazor, and Khirbet Qeiyafa in Israel; and at Idalion, Cyprus, and Jalul in Jordan. Recently, the Institute of Archaeology at Southern Adventist University co-sponsored Fourth Expedition to Lachish with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Hasel served as Co-Director of the Lachish excavations.
Michael G. Hasel, PhD, has taught Near Eastern studies and archaeology at Southern since 1998. He is married to Giselle Sarli Hasel, a professor of art history in the School of Visual Art and Design at Southern. Dr. Hasel is curator of the award winning, … Read More

Giselle Sarli Hasel has a passion for exploring philosophical and religious movements in the history of art. She approaches art history as a practitioner with 15 years of art illustration experience, a designer of a major museum of ancient art and archaeology, and a researcher focused on the impact of art in the biblical world and ancient Near East.
She worked as a technical illustrator at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Israel, and the Horn Archaeological Museum. Her illustrations in the field of archaeology and art history have been published in numerous dictionaries and references works, including Mediterranean Peoples in Transition (Israel Exploration Society, 1998); Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, 2000); Sacred Time, Sacred Place: Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Eisenbrauns, 2002); and Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR, 2004). In 2007 she completed 180 illustrations for a volume to be published by Harvard University Press.
Professor Hasel has been involved in archaeological excavations at Masada, the Greco-Roman fortress of Herod the Great; the major Philistine site of Tel Miqne-Ekron; and Hazor (the largest Old Testament site in Israel). These experiences reaffirmed the importance of artistic expression in the study of ceramics and architecture as influenced by both ideology and culture.
From 2002 to 2004, she served as the design director and art coordinator for the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University. The museum, which opened in 2004, … Read More