Classical Studies

Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Rector Scholar and Fulbright Director, and First-Year Seminar Director

Michael Seaman earned his MA and PhD in Ancient History from UCLA. He has taught ancient history and classical civilization courses at DePauw since 2004. Recent courses include Ancient Warfare, Ancient Athletics, Ancient Greek Civilization, Roman Civilization, the Ancient World in Film, Greek Mythology, and Tales of Heroes: Ancient Epic. He has taught in the First-Year seminar program as well as the Honor Scholar Program where he regularly teaches an upper division class entitled Democracy and Imperialism in Ancient Greece. Michael has taken over 300 DePauw students abroad to study in Italy and Greece and has also taught Italian for the Modern Languages Department and courses on the History of the Italian Renaissance for the History Department. He has taught courses in Film Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Italian Studies, and World Literature.

Michael’s research focuses on ancient Greek and Roman history, in particular Archaic and Classical Greek history, Greek epigraphy, ancient historiography, and ancient military history. His studies of ancient warfare have appeared in the journal Historia, as well as in edited volumes published by Oxford University Press and Wiley-Blackwell. He is currently finishing a book entitled Ancient Greek Siege Warfare from Homer to Alexander and is editing a book forthcoming by Brill on asymmetric warfare in the ancient world.

Michael has presented his research at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, the Society for Classical Studies, the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, the Association of Ancient Historians, as well as at international conferences. He was recently the recipient of the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant from the American Historical Association for epigraphical research in Athens and Sparta.

Michael serves as DePauw's Director of Advising and as Director of the First Year Seminar Program. He currently serves on the Writing Curriculum Committee, the Advising Committee, the Management Fellows Steering Committee, the Honorary Degrees and University Occasions Committee, the Fulbright Review Committee, and currently serves as Advisor to the Rector Scholars, students awarded DePauw’s preeminent academic scholarship.

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