It is with great excitement that we announce that Classics' Visiting Scholar, Dimitri Nakassis, has been selected as a MacArthur Fellow!
Ìý
Widely known as the "Genius" grants, the MacArthur fellowships are awarded to only a very select few people chosen for their extraordinary creativity and achievements, talent and dedication, and "a marked capacity for self-direction."
For the official description of Nakassis' work and the overwhelming reasons for his selection, see:/
Ìý
And for a brief description of his work while with us last year as a Visiting Associate Professor, in the 2015 Newsletter
Ìý
Congratulations Dimitri!
Ìý
Dimitri Nakassis (Ph.D. Texas 2006) studiesÌýthe material and textualÌýproduction of early Greek communities, especially of the Mycenaean societies of Late Bronze Age Greece. HisÌýbook,ÌýIndividuals and Society in Mycenaean PylosÌý(Brill 2013), developed new methodsÌýfor investigating individuals named in the administrative Linear B textsÌýand arguedÌýfrom thisÌýevidence that Mycenaean society was far less hierarchical and much more dynamic than it had been considered in the past.ÌýHe has published articles and book chaptersÌýon Homer and Hesiod, Greek religion and history, archaeological survey,ÌýLinearÌýA,Ìýand theÌýeconomy, society and prosopography of the Mycenaean world.ÌýHe is currently writing a second book on political authority in Mycenaean Greece. He isÌýco-director (with Sarah James and Scott Gallimore)ÌýofÌýthe Western Argolid Regional Project (WARP), a diachronic archaeological survey in southern Greece, and co-director (with Kevin Pluta)Ìýof the "Digital Nestor" project, which involves the digital documentation of all the administrative documents from the "Palace of Nestor" at Pylos. In 2015 he was named a MacArthur fellow.