About
William Soergel is an historian of ancient religion who researches sanctuary and refuge in Roman religion. Their research focuses on the practicalities, cultural meanings, and social attitudes toward refuge in the distant Roman past with a mirrored view on the contemporary politics of sanctuary and refuge. As a scholar of religion, an ordained religious, and a spiritual caregiver in training, they bring their manifold experiences and knowledge about the past and about religion into their work as a university lecturer and classroom educator. In 2025, they completed their dissertation, "Roman Sanctuary (400 B.C.E. – 200 C.E.)," under their advisor Celia E. Schultz, Anna Bonnell Freidin, Sara Forsdyke, and Ian Moyer.
William's interests are broad and eclectic as an educator in both the Classical Studies and History departments. They have taught courses on college and professional writing, ancient medicine and pharmacology, ancient sport, Latin language and literature, history as an intellectual discipline, masculinity and gender, and war and violence.
William also teaches outside of the university as both a public scholar of ancient religion and as a religious practitioner in their faith tradition. They serve on the boards of two local Buddhist centers in Ann Arbor, including as the president of Ann Arbor Karma Thegsum Choling on the city's historic Water Hill. In 2023, they were ordained as an upasaka, or lay householder minister, in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism and undertook four of the five root prātimokṣa vows.
They plan to begin clinical pastoral education in the near future to become a board certified chaplain.
