Fordyce W. Mitchel Memorial Lecture Series in Ancient History

The Fordyce W. Mitchel Memorial Lecture Series, sponsored by the Department of History, provides lectures every two years from a well-known international scholar on original aspects of ancient history and society. Some lectures are also edited and published into scholarly books. The series began officially in 2000 and continues to this day. All are free and open to the public.

Fordyce Wood Mitchel (1922-1986) was a professor at the University of Missouri from 1965 until his death in 1986. He became Middlebush Chair of Mizzou in the fall of 1985, after joining the history department in 1968.  Specializing in fourth-century Greek history, as well as epigraphy – the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions -- Mitchel helped grow the ancient history program at Mizzou, as well as created extensive library resources in that field.

Mitchel was born in Shelby County Tennessee, received his BA from Yale in 1943; and an MA from Yale in 1944. He taught Classics at Vanderbilt University from 1948-1953, and in 1954 he received his PhD, also from Yale. He taught at several other universities before landing his position at the University of Missouri. 

Speaker Series for April 2022 is as follows: 

2022 – (April 11-14) John Lee (University of California – Santa Barbara). Public lecture:
The First Black Archaeologist and Beyond:Exploring the Life and Work of John Wesley
Gilbert (1863-1923); Seminar 1: John Wesley Gilbert, the Demes of Athens, and the Athenaiôn Politela; Seminar 2: "That First Trip in Central Greece": Missouri Professor John Pickard's Handwritten Account of Pholis, Lokris, and Boeotia in Nov. 1890; Seminar 3: John Wesley Gilbert, Ancient Eretria, and the Early History of U.S. Archaeology.