Hal W. French is currently a PEP (Preston Emeritus Professor) with an office in Preston College, room 107, where he is available as a resource person and counselor, and was selected by students as the Outstanding Faculty Associate in 2000, 2002, and 2004. He continues to teach one or two classes per semester for the Department of Religious Studies and for the Honors College .

French has taught at the University of South Carolina since 1972, serving as Chair of the Department from 1989-1995, and is currently dividing his time (in semi-retirement) between teaching part-time and several other activities. When he first went out to pasture in 1995, he immediately went far afield, around the world, in fact, teaching the religion courses for the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea program, with field experiences in eleven Asian and Mediterranean countries. Since then he's also taught workshops at the Esalen Institute in California, the Chautauqua Institution in New York, and the Ammerdown Retreat Center near Bath, England.

In the fall of 2008 he is teaching an Honors course, "Zen and the Art of Anything," and "The Psychology of Religion." In the Spring of 2009 he will teach an Introduction to Religious Studies course and a Maymester Honors course, Castles, Cathedrals and Colleges in England."

Hal is also involved in a major research project, the production of an Encyclopedia of Hinduism, as a member of the Board of Editors. This project, underway since 1988, now has its central offices at the University of South Carolina, and should be published in eighteen volumes in the next few years.

He's been engaged in interfaith work since 1975, when he first joined the World Congress of Faiths. He is currently on the Steering Committee of Partners in Dialogue in Columbia, on the Advisory Board of the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford, England, and has served on the Board of Directors for the North American Interfaith Network, which he hosted here at USC in August, 1997. He was Program Chair for the 2002 - 2004 NAIN meetings in Wichita, Kansas, Columbus, Ohio, and New York city.

Hal's published works include several books and numerous articles, mostly on Asian religion, and he has won a number of teaching awards, including the AMOCO award, Mortar Board awards, and three from the Honors College. He's been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Kent in Canterbury, has received NEH, Fulbright and Smithsonian grants, and has lectured widely in North America, Asia and Europe.

He has taught the following courses at the University of South Carolina: