Department Faculty

“I study the classical Greek world through its literary and its material culture and in its broader Mediterranean context. Classical Athens and its political and intellectual history is my central interest, represented in my book, The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (University of California Press, 2000). More generally, I study and teach aspects of the Greek world from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic periods. Among my special interests are the history of ancient Mediterranean religions, connections between Anatolia and Greece (topics represented in my current book: The Mother of the Gods, Athen, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion, appearing from the University of California Press in 2006), Greek historiography (especially Thucydides), warfare and fortifications, epigraphy, survey archaeology and topography. My next major project is a collaborative volume on the post-Geometric pottery from the Southern Argolid survey in Greece. I am director of excavations at the fortress of Panakton in Greece (currently not an active field project). I am committed to helping students develop new perspectives on the ancient Greek and Mediterranean world by crossing traditional boundaries of disciplines and genres.”