In the Shadow of the Acropolis: A Profile of Archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos

ichael Cosmopoulos's passion for urchaeology Currently Professor of and Greek M began early in life. As a child growing up in Athens, Studies Chair at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, he was surrounded by some of the most inspiring ancient Cosmopoulos has taught courses from archaeological monuments and antiquities in . Archaeology theory to ancient languages. Some of his students became not just a catalogue of dusty artifacts, but the focus have gone on to pursue advanced degrees in archae­ of both his professional and personal life. ology, while others have gone into related fields He was taught about archaeology from a very early like architecture. age, both in Athens and at , where his parents In the field, students excavating with Cosmopoulos owned a cottage. He fondly remembers many summers are given an interdisciplinary , as they are playing around the ancient ruins of the sanctuary of exposed to a variety of techniques and related fields, Amphiareion. "It is very easy to fall in love with the such as geophysics, GPS, GIS, ceramics, lithics, etc. ancients in such an environment," he says nostalgically. Moreover. students attend evening lectures and seminars Professor Cosmopoulos graduated summa cum laude and accompany Cosmopoulos on visits to major sites from the University of Athens in 1985 and, after earning and museums. Students have responded to his teaching a degree in French literature from the Sorbonne, he was philosophy very positively. This year he was awarded awarded both his master's and his doctoral degrees from the AlA's prestigious Undergro~duate Teaching Award at Washington University in Saint Louis. Missouri. the 2004 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. "Teaching is a very important Like most field archaeologists, Cosmopoulos is part of my job, both in the univer­ often faced with funding and bureaucratic obstacles. sity environment and in the wider, In general, funding is one of the most difficult hurdles public community. I believe that for urchaeological projects. Governments and private archaeology has a tremendous donors vary in terms of how much funding will be pro­ potential. not only in educating us vided to archaeological endeavors. Cosmopoulos feels about the past, but also in helping very fortunate that Aegean Bronze Age research-his us to understand our world; this is main field-is supported by the Institute for Aegean why in my teaching and research Prehistory, which greatly helps in ensuring that his proj­ I try to strike a balance between ects and field school for students can continue. addressing the specialists and the Having served as an Academic Trustee of the public," Cosmopoulos says. AlA, Vice President of AlA-, President of the /\fie/tad Cr~smopmtlr~s digging at til~ ancitm site r~f El~ttsis. Teaching students is a year- Winnipeg Society, a.'i well as lecturing on the AlA long practice for Cosmopoulos. National Lecture Program for years, Cosmopoulos has During the school year he teaches in the classroom, been deeply involved in the AlA. He is currently a mem­ while in the summer he continues to teach at his ber of the St. Louis Society, an active member of sev­ field schools in Greece. His current projects at eral AlA committees, and the coordinator of the AlA's lklaina (), Eleusis, and Oropos focus on the Response Task Force for the Olympic Games, a group culture, religion, and politics of early Greek society. formed to answer press queries about archaeology and At Eleusis, he studies the origins of ancient Greek the Olympic construction. 'The AlA has helped me to mystery cults; at , the origins of statehood in place my reseurch. teaching, and overall work into per­ (www.iklajna.or~); and at Oropos, spective," he says, "by bringing me in touch with a large the rural of ancient Greek city-states. number of colleagues and the wider public." •