Michael B. Cosmopoulos, Ph.D., FRSC

Professor Cosmopoulos specializes in Greek history, archaeology, and culture, with particular emphasis on state formation, social memory, and religion (Mystery Cults).  He has studied Archaeology, 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. 1991). He also holds a Diploma in Underwater Archaeology from the Council of Europe (1984).

His  research interests are the social, political, and cultural history of Greece, about which he has published seventeen books and more than one hundred articles and scholarly papers in international journals. He has excavated at several ancient sites in Greece and Ukraine, including Eleusis, Mycenae, Pylos, Epidauros, Ancient Corinth, Ithaca, Oropos, Olbia. Currently, he directs the excavations at Iklaina, in the region of Pylos.  The Iklaina site has been included in the top ten archaeological discoveries in Greece and was covered extensively by the national and international press.  For his research has been awarded the Canada Rh Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Humanities and the Trustees Award from the Academy of Science (St. Louis).

At UMSL Professor Cosmopoulos teaches courses on Greek history, mythology, archaeology, and culture.   His teaching extends beyond the classroom and into the field, where he has trained over one thousand undergraduate and tens of graduate students. In recognition of his teaching, the University of Manitoba has awarded him a Merit Award for Teaching (1991) and the prestigious Olive Beatrice Stanton Award for Excellence in Teaching (1999). In 2001, right before he left Canada to come to UMSL, he was nominated for the national “Canadian Professor of the Year Award” and in 2003 he was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Cosmopoulos serves or has served as an Academic Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America; Chairman of the Gennadeion Library Committee and member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; and a life member of the Archaeological Society of Athens. At the University of Manitoba he served as Vice-Provost of University College and founding Director of the Centre for Hellenic Civilization. Also he has served as President of the Winnipeg Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and of the Classical Association of Manitoba, and Vice-President of the Archaeological Institute of Canada.

Dr. Cosmopoulos has worked intensely for the promotion of Greek Studies in North America. In 1993, in close cooperation with the Consulate General of Greece in Toronto and the Pan-Macedonian Association of Ontario he founded the Pan-Macedonian Association of Manitoba, of which he served as first president. In 1995 he founded the Centre for Hellenic Civilization of the University of Manitoba, the only university center in Canada, dedicated to the study of ancient, medieval, and modern Greece. In 1998, he established the Canadian Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles.  At UMSL, he established the “Nicholas and Theodora Matsakis Greek Culture Center”, instituted a Certificate in Greek Studies, established two Study-in-Greece programs, the Archives of the St. Louis Greek community including the Oral History Project, and a variety of other activities aiming at preserving and promoting Hellenic Studies and the local Greek Community.

Professor Cosmopoulos is a Fellow of the Academy of Science, St. Louis; an elected member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; a Corresponding Member of the Athens Academy of Arts and Sciences; and  a National Geographic Society Explorer.