EAJS Chief Administrative Officer
Simon’s first career was in business systems. After earning a BSc in Computation at UMIST and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Essex in the 1990s, Simon spent over a decade as a business intelligence consultant, working on projects for several large multinational companies, including Nestlé and Linklaters.
Driven by a deep-rooted interest in philosophy, religion, myth and fantasy, Simon then left his corporate career to pursue a scholarly vocation, first studying theology and philosophy at Heythrop College (University of London), followed by an MA in Jewish Studies and a PhD in Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester, which he completed in 2012. Simon’s PhD, funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant, examined how Jews were stereotyped and mythicized in a variety of English Catholic discourses during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His main research interests include the history of grim stereotypes and dark mythical characters in modern religious discourses.
In 2016, Simon took on the job of managing the day-to-day operations of the EAJS. Combining business and academic experience, Simon brings a practical analytical approach, tempered with knowledge and empathy for the challenges faced by scholars in the field of Jewish Studies, to his role as the EAJS’s chief administrator. His duties include overseeing a talented team of consultants and assistant administrators; managing EAJS finances, ledgers and operating budgets; liaising with accountants, solicitors, banks and payment partners; helping to prepare annual submissions to the charity commission; helping to prepare funding applications and reports; administering various grant programmes; assisting EAJS members; handling membership administration; managing the association’s IT systems; and many other tasks essential for the efficient running of the charity.