Michael Cosmopoulos


Michael Basil Cosmopoulos is Professor of Greek History and Archaeology with the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology; and Holder of the Endowed Professorship in Greek Studies at University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Science in St. Louis, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Corresponding Member of the Athens Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Biography

He was born in Athens in 1963 and graduated from the Anavryta Magnet High School. He studied Archaeology, Ancient History, Anthropology, and Classical Languages at the University of Athens, the University of Sorbonne-Paris IV, and Washington University in St. Louis. He also holds a Diploma in Underwater Archaeology from the Council of Europe.

University Career

In 1989, at the age of 26, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, where he taught a wide range of subjects and received two teaching awards. At the University of Manitoba he founded the Center for Hellenic Civilization.
In August 2001 he moved to St. Louis to take up the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Endowed Professorship of Greek Studies as Professor of History and Archaeology with the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Archaeological work

He has excavated at various archaeological sites in Greece and Ukraine, including Mycenae, Epidavros, Ancient Corinth, Naxos, Ithaca, Oropos and Olbia in the Black Sea. He is the director of Archaeological Research in Eleusis and since 1999 he directs the excavations of the Archaeological Society of Athens at Iklaina Messenia near Pylos. His excavations in Iklaina brought to light an important center of Mycenaean civilization with Cyclopean walls, frescoes, paved streets, and the oldest record of Linear B of Mainland Greece.

Greek Studies

He has been actively involved in the dissemination of Greek Studies in North America. In Canada, in addition to the Hellenic Center at the University of Manitoba, he founded the Pan-Macedonian Association of Manitoba, and the Canadian Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles ).
In the United States, he created the University of Missouri St. Louis Greek Studies Program, with annual enrollments of 300 students and one of the few Degrees of Greek Studies in North America. He also founded the Nicholas and Theodora Matsakis Center for Hellenic Culture. He has organized many international conferences, public lectures, and events to inform the Canadian and US public on issues of Greek culture. He has given hundreds of lectures on Greek archaeology issues in Canada, United States, Greece, Germany, and the UK.
He has published 16 books and more than 100 articles and scholarly papers on the archaeology, culture, and socio-political history of ancient Greece. Some of his books are listed below:
2018: Iklaina. The Monumental Buildings..
2016: The Political Geography of a Mycenaean District. The Archaeological Survey at Iklaina. .
2015: Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge..
2014: The Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis. The Bronze Age, Vols. I-II. Library of the Athens Archaeological Society 295-296, Athens..
2007 : Experiencing War: Trauma and Society in Ancient Greece and Today. Ares Publishers, Chicago..
2004 : The Parthenon and Its Sculptures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge .
2004 : Η Νάξος και το Κρητομυκηναϊκό Αιγαίο. Στρωματογραφία, Κεραμική και Οικονομική Οργάνωση του Υστεροελλαδικού Οικισμού στη Γρόττα. Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, Δημοσιεύματα Περιοδικού Αρχαιογνωσία, Αρ. 3
2003 : Greek Mysteries. The Archaeology and Ritual of Greek Secret Cults. Routledge, London and New York. Greek translation: Ελληνικά Μυστήρια. Αρχαιολογία και Τελετουργικό των Αρχαίων Ελληνικών Μυστηριακών Λατρειών, Eκδόσεις Ενάλιος, Αθήνα 2007
2001 : The Rural History of Ancient Greek City-States: the Oropos Survey Project. British Archaeological Reports-International Series 1001, Oxford
2001-2008 : Journal of Modern Hellenism
1992 : Macedonia. An Introduction to its Political History. Manitoba Studies in Classical Civilization. Winnipeg .
1991 : The Early Bronze 2 in the Aegean. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology XCVIII. Jonsered..
1984 : Νεολιθική Μικρά Ασία. Αθήνα
1982 : Αρχαικα Εργαστήρια Γλυπτικής. Η Σάμος. Αθήνα
1981 : Υστεροελλαδικοί Θαλαμωτοί Τάφοι. Αθήνα
1979 : Περικλής. Εκδόσεις Παπαδήμα. Αθήνα.
For his research accomplishments he has been awarded the Canada Rh Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Humanities. He has also received numerous teaching awards, including the .