Michael Cosmopoulos
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Cosmopoulos, Michael Basil (b. 1963). Professor of Archaeology and Chair of Greek Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis.
As of August 2001, Dr. Michael Cosmopoulos is the Hellenic Government-Karakas Foundation Endowed Professor of Greek Studies [1] and Professor of Archaeology with the Department of Anthropology at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Before that, he was Professor of Classics and Director of the Centre for Hellenic Civilization of the University of Manitoba [2], in Winnipeg, Canada.
He has studied Greek Archaeology, Ancient History, and Classical Languages at the University of Athens (B.A., summa cum laude, 1981), the University of Sorbonne-Paris IV (D.E.U.G., 1983), and Washington University in St. Louis (M.A. 1986, Ph.D. 1989). He also holds a Diploma in Underwater Archaeology from the Council of Europe (1984).
He was published 12 books and more than 80 articles and scholarly papers on the social, political, and cultural history of ancient Greece. He has excavated at several ancient sites, including Eleusis, Mycenae, Epidauros, Ancient Corinth, Ithaca, and Oropos. Since 1999 he directs the Iklena Archaeological Project.
He has also been a major player in the promotion of Greek Studies in North America. In Canada he has founded the Pan-Macedonian Association of Manitoba, the interdisciplinary Centre for Hellenic Civilization of the University of Manitoba, and the Canadian Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. In the US he built the Greek Studies Program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, established the Nicholas and Theodora Matsakis Greek Culture Center, and organized several international conferences and events promoting Greek culture.
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 Archaeological Institute of America Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been recommended by the Greek Embassy in Ottawa to receive the Order of the Phoenix Decoration by the President of Greece.
