The American School of Classical Studies at Athens has appointed Brendan Burke to the three-year appointment as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Classical Studies.
Founded in 1881, the ASCSA is the oldest and largest American overseas research centre in the world. Comprised of a consortium of nearly 190 affiliated North American colleges and universities, the ASCSA provides graduate students and scholars a base for the advanced study of all aspects of Greek culture, from antiquity to the present day.
Burke will lead the School’s Academic Program, which offers graduate students an unparalleled immersion into the sites and monuments of Greek civilization. As Mellon Professor, Burke will organize and lead multiple field trips for the students throughout Greece in the fall as well as an intensive study of the sites and museums of Athens and Attica in the spring.
In addition, he will help coordinate the other components of the Academic Program, including seminars from visiting scholars, workshops and lectures (in-person and online), and assist in advising graduate students performing research at the School.
Burke said, “This is a great opportunity, and I am grateful to the School for entrusting me with the Mellon Professor position. I very much look forward to working with many of the brightest students and scholars in North America. The School’s academic program is truly unique among the foreign schools in Athens, and I hope to continue many of our great traditions while also incorporating new approaches to the study of the Greek world.”
Brendan Burke is Professor of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2007, he has co-directed the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project, a collaboration of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia and the Canadian Institute in Greece, excavating at the ancient Eleon site, an ancient town mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as one among those whose armies sailed for Troy.
Burke holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (M.A. and Ph.D.) and the University of Florida (B.A.). His areas of specialization are the Aegean Bronze Age, the archaeology and economy of cloth production, and Anatolian archaeology.
The Mellon Professorship has a long and storied history at the American School, dating back more than a century, with some of the world’s top scholars occupying the chair. A video produced by the school shows its rich history and significance.
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