 George Anton Kiraz, Ph.D.
President George is the President and co-founder of Gorgias Press. Born in Bethlehem, he immigrated to the United States and attended California State University, Northridge, where he obtained a degree in Engineering in 1990. He then became the first student to obtain the M.St. degree in Syriac Studies at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford in 1991. Wishing to combine his technical background with his passion for Syriac and Semitic languages, he joined the University of Cambridge where he obtained an M.Phil. in Computational Linguistics and a Ph.D. in the same. He wrote his thesis on computing the morphology of Arabic and Syriac.
In 1996, George became a research scientist at Bell Laboratories, NJ, where he worked on speech technology. In 2000, he was hired by Nuance Communications, a speech technology startup, to help establish and lead a New York branch of the company. This gave George tremendous experience in management, but was short lived due to the stock market crash of 2001.
Already a published author, George co-founded Gorgias Press along with his wife Christine in 2001. The press was announced to the public in the summer of 2001 at the Leiden Peshitta conference, and later to a larger public in November 2001 with 10 books in the Press’s catalog. Within a short period of time, the press grew at a rate of publishing 70 titles per year.
George is married to Christine and together they have two children, Tabetha Gabriella and Sebastian Kenoro. In his free time (whatever is left of it), George directs Beth Mardutho, The Syriac Institute. His hobbies include collecting printed types, reading, and writing.
 Christine Kiraz, Ph.D.
Vice President Christine is the Vice President and co-founder of Gorgias Press. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from UCLA. Later, Christine worked in the pharmaceutical industry to return to graduate school where she obtained her M.S. in Chemistry from UCLA and then a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.
At Gorgias Press, Christine wears many hats. She is the Director of Marketing and in charge of Human Resources, as well as Customer Service. During the first year of the press, she designed book covers for over 100 books. She would love to go back to designing covers at some point but still remains involved in the design process.
Christine has always loved literature and read most of the European classics since an early age, first in Turkish then in English. She never quite fit in with the chemists as she used to read Shakespeare in between HPLC or NMR runs. She still likes to think that she has time to read and continues to collect books in various areas of literature, fiction and history of science especially alchemy. She loves to listen and dance to Syriac and Turkish folk music and is very happy that she finally got an iPod. She claims to have a reading knowledge of Syriac and was quite impressed with her ability to speak Syriac at a level of a three year old during her trip to Tur Abdin in her conversations with the angelic nuns of the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Turkey.
Christine is married to George and together they have Tabetha Gabriella and Sebastian Kenoro.
 Steve A. Wiggins, Ph.D.
Acquisitions Editor As the Acquisitions Editor at Gorgias Press, Steve sits at the curatorial chair to shape the Gorgias catalog into a collection of new titles and reprints that prod our inquisitve minds to life. In addition, he combines his deft summation skills into the craft of the blurb, effortlessly guiding both scholar and layperson through the aisles of the Gorgias library with the illuminating candle that is his pen.
Steve skulked around church during a misspent youth, which eventually evolved into a Ph.D. in ancient Semitic languages and religions at the University of Edinburgh. After a twelve year detour as a seminary professor in Wisconsin, Steve was cast out into the wilderness. Remaining sane by a daily quota of sudoku, he taught as an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Because of his inordinate love of books he decided to move into publishing. He recently immigrated to his ancestral New Jersey to join Gorgias Press.
In his free time he geocaches with Kay and Kietra, travels as much as he can afford, collects rocks, and wonders if the truth is really out there.
 Katie Stott, Ph.D
Production Editor Katie is the Production Editor at Gorgias Press and dabbles in Acquisitions as well. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta. Though she now lives in Canada, she obtained a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Queensland in Australia, where she was born and grew up. Her primary area of research interest is Hebrew Bible and comparative ancient historiography. She also has a background in several ancient languages, including biblical Hebrew and Koiné Greek.
At the University of Alberta, she has been involved with the editing and publication of articles for the online open access Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, now available in print from Gorgias Press.
Beyond her pursuits in publishing and academia, Katie is a passionate foodie and intends one day to combine her interests in food and books and publish a cookbook of her own.
 Robert Morehouse, Ph.D. Candidate
Editor Robert Morehouse currently lives in Washington, DC where he is a graduate student at The Catholic University of America. In addition to his role as a general editor for Gorgias Press, he is working on a PhD in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. He completed his MA in Theological Studies at Lee University in Cleveland, TN: his undergraduate work is in Religion and History. Robert divides his leisure time between playing soccer and performing on the guitar, composing, and singing with his wife.
Robert was born and raised in Brewster, NY, the birthplace of the American circus, which may explain his affinity for verbal acrobatics. Fortunately for Gorgias Press and our customers, Robert will have to channel his energy into forthcoming Gorgias books, as our office has not yet erected a safety net for his unorthodox pleasures.
 Robert Duggan
Technical Editor As Technical Editor, Robert works to make both rare reprints and new titles accessible to an ever-increasing audience while seeking to realize new standards in the quality that Gorgias Press embodies. He also brings with him a love of language, history, and German cinema. Robert has a knack for making computers do strange and unusual things, although such results pale in comparison to the confounded looks from Mandarin speakers when he attempts to communicate in their tongue with a guttural New Jersey brogue. Robert's degree in Technical Communications has prepared him for a lifelong journey to discover and read the ten most boring works in Western literature, computer textbooks excluded. For now, he looks forward to having a small part in shaping the contribution that Gorgias Press makes to the written word, from which he has gained so much.
 Lisa Noriega
Customer Service Lisa is a full-time student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. She is majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology, so she’s well-equipped to solve customer services problems. Lisa expects to go to law school after graduation, but not immediately since she would like to devote more time to enhancing her considerable customer service skills. Lisa was born and raised in New Jersey and expects to stay here. As a child her parents noticed a strong tendency toward making others happy and repeatedly suggested a career in customer service. Trying not to disappoint them with a career trajectory into law, she was overjoyed to find an opening in customer service at the Press, thus ensuring peace and tranquility at home. She comes to Gorgias Press from a very diverse and multicultural background spanning three continents and two language groups.
 Jack Tannous, Ph.D. Candidate
Acquisitions Specialist Jack Tannous was born and raised in Houston, Texas. For his BA, he attended the University of Texas, at Austin, where he majored in Philosophy, Arabic, Middle Eastern Studies and History. After UT, Jack attended Oxford, where he recieved an MPhil in Eastern Christian Studies and represented Gorgias Press at academic conferences in the UK. He is currently a graduate student at Princeton, working on a PhD in history, where he focuses on Late Antique, early Islamic, and Byzantine history in the Near East. Jack lives in Princeton, New Jersey and likes it there, though Texas will always be home. He is a graduate student and by definition does not have any free time, but he has been known to enjoy reading, going for walks, listening to music, just hanging out and talking with friends, and even dancing. Once upon a time, he used to play sports and lift weights as well.
 Gene Fojtik, Ph.D. Candidate
Midwest Conference Representative
Gene Fojtik was born in Houston, TX and raised in Austin. He received his BA in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also studied Classical Greek, Hebrew, and Tajik. He worked for seven years as a house painter and after graduation he spent a year as a middle school Spanish teacher. He subsequently received his MA in Theological Studies from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Currently he is a PhD student in Biblical Studies at the University of Chicago where he focuses on the role of Greek paideia in the Early Church. He enjoys drawing (mainly during lectures), cooking, and listening to Portuguese or Spanish music. He is married to Nissy Abraham who studies Sanskrit and Greek at Chicago as well. Pictured here at the Chicago Tribune, Gene communes with his beloved Texas through a hallowed stone from the Alamo imbedded in the tower.
 Jeff Volkmer, Ph.D. Candidate
West Coast Conference Representative Jeff Volkmer was born and raised in Rochester, NY before he moved to Honolulu to play volleyball for the University of Hawai’i where he received his B.A. in English. After Hawai’i, Jeff moved to Texas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where he received his Th.M. and found a love for Syriac studies, Syriac Bible versions, and Old Testament text criticism. He is now pursuing a D.Phil. at Oxford studying the Pehitta Psalter under the supervision of Dr. David G. K. Taylor, and hopes to make a living through his passion of teaching one day. Jeff is married to Jessica and they have two children, Grace, age 5, and John, age 2. When not practicing verbal paradigms, Jeff’s favorite two favorite activities are playing with his kids and having evening tea with Jessica.
 Katherine Southwood, Ph.D. Candidate
European Conference Representative
I am currently completing doctoral studies at Wolfson College, Oxford. My principle interests gravitate around the post-exilic literature within the Hebrew Bible and social-scientific methodologies. My growing fascination with this field of research germinated during former study, at Durham and Oxford University, as a consequence of pursuing interests in the Hebrew language itself. Attending conferences is one of the most effective ways of learning more about how research operates through meeting graduate researchers and academics. Working with Gorgias Press provides me with an excellent opportunity to understand more about how the publishing world operates.
 Tabetha and Sebastian Kenoro
CEO and CFO of Harp of the Gazelle Imprint Harp of the Gazelle Children Books is an imprint of Gorgias Press LLC. The name derives from its two cofounders: five-year old Tabetha (Aramaic for gazelle), CEO, and two-year old Kenoro (Syriac for harp), CFO. The publications of Harp of the Gazelle Children Books introduce children to the fascinating world of antiquity.
Tabetha, CEO, is a trilingual. She speaks Classical Syriac with her father, Turkish with her mother and English elsewhere. She loves to read books and to make books. Her favorite book manufacturing project is to get her father to print clip art images which she then cuts and pastes in books.
Sebastian Kenoro, CFO, is also growing in a multilingual environment. His favorite activity is to put coins in a piggy bank, only to take them out later—not too dissimilar from the press’s cash flow. He loves to flip books at a high speed making you think he reads them. He loves puzzles, trains, running and singing.
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