Academic and Artistic Biography

Scott Bryon Noegel was born in Richfield, Wisconsin. Until he was six he was raised in the home built by his great grandparents, immigrants from Bavaria. He received his elementary and high school education in Port Washington. After receiving scholarships in the arts, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee intending to major in drawing, painting, and film. But he soon found his career calling elsewhere, and instead, he obtained BA degrees in Hebrew Studies, Medieval History, and Modern European Intellectual History in 1989. He then received his MA and PhD degrees in ancient Near Eastern languages and cultures from Cornell University (1991, 1994). Currently, Scott Noegel is Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle, a department for which he served as chair 2006-2015. In addition to English, he knows eleven languages, some ancient, others modern.

To date Scott Noegel has given more than one hundred and thirty public and scholarly lectures. He has authored, co-authored, and edited ten books and more than one-hundred articles on diverse topics related to the ancient world. He also has written a historical portrait of the main immigrant families that comprise his ancestry. His most recent book is open access and is entitled "Wordplay" in Ancient Near Eastern Texts (click here for the book.)

Currently he is working on three monographs. The first is Ambiguity and Empire: A Literary Appreciation and Commentary for the Book of Daniel. The second, explores the varying and complex relationship between image and text in the ancient Near East. The third examines relics in the ancient Near East.

Though active in his academic career, Scott Noegel never ceased his involvement in the arts. Since the 1980s he has been active as a musician in a number of art band projects, and as a filmmaker and visual artist. He also has worked as an arts organizer creating music and film collectives. Scott has served on the Mayor's Arts Task Force in Seattle and has held two terms on the Seattle Arts Commission. He has received a number of grants for his digital and film work and has been a nominee for the Rockefeller Foundation National Film/Video Fellowship as well as National Endowment for the Arts. In 2002, he was awarded the City of Seattle Distinguished Citizen Medal for service in the arts. In 2016, he gave the commencement address for his alma mater, UW-Milwaukee, after he was awarded an Honorary Ph.D. in Letters for "significant contributions in the field of Ancient and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures” and for an “extraordinary reputation as a highly distinguished scholar, a respected artist, and community supporter."

This web site brings together the diverse artistic, historical, and academic activities of Scott Noegel.