Visiting Professorship

The Annual AAIA Visiting Professorship

Each year, the Institute brings to Australia a distinguished academic who undertakes a lecture tour to all Institutional members across the country.

From its foundation in 1987 until 2000, our Visiting Professorship was generously sponsored by Mr Sidney Londish. Subsequently Mr Peter Burrows, the current Chair of the Institute’s Executive Board, agreed to become sole sponsor and funded the 2001-2004 Visiting Professors.

Between 2005 and 2011, the program was sponsored by a group of Governors of the Institute including Mr Peter Burrows, Professor John Chalmers, Mr Michael Diamond, Mr Timothy Harding, Mrs Pauline Harding, Dr Robert Harper, Dr Monica Jackson and the late Professor J.A. Young. In addition, money has also been committed to the Visiting Professorship by the Thyne Reid Foundation. We thank our sponsors for their generosity, commitment and support.

Announcing the Gale Visiting Professorship

It is with great pleasure that we announce the establishment of the Gale Visiting Professorship. As our supporters know, the Institute’s Visiting Professorship has been its flagship annual event since its establishment in 1987. The program brings a leading international classical archaeologist to Australia each year, to visit all our institutional members and deliver public lectures and research seminars.

The program has allowed Australian audiences to benefit from the knowledge and insight of luminaries in the field and, importantly, has given our students direct access to these experts.

Over the years the program has received support from individuals, including Peter Burrows and the late Sid Londish. I am pleased this tradition of benefaction continues. Janet Gale, a foundation supporter of the Institute and one of our first Governors, has very generously made a six-figure donation which will, (it is estimated), cover most of the costs of the Professorship for five years. For this duration the program will be known as the Gale Visiting Professorship in gratitude for Janet’s great gift.

From the beginning of her association with the Institute she actively translated her interests in the ancient Mediterranean into practice by volunteering as an aide to Professor Alexander Alexander Cambitoglou. Her interests in the Greek world have remained steady ever since. Alongside her late husband, Bill, she has made very significant contributions to institutions that have radically changed the landscape of classical studies in Australia. We are truly grateful. Janet and Bill are major benefactors who have left their imprint on academic pursuits in Australia.

Unfortunately, for the moment, the Visiting Professorship has been suspended until travel can resume on a regular and predictable basis, and we can congregate safely. Janet Gale’s donation, though, ensures that once these conditions are met the Institute will be able to immediately reinstate the program. We are more than grateful to Janet for her foresight in adding her support to a major Institute program and, more generally, for her recognition of the Institute’s past and continuing contribution to the promotion of classical studies in Australia.

Past visiting Professors

2019
Professor Clemente Marconi, James R. McCredie Professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Università degli Studi in Milan. He is also Director of the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU’s Excavations at Selinunte in Sicily.

2018
Professor Antonas Kotsonas, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (formerly based at the University of Cincinnati)

2017
Professor James C. Wright, American School of Classical Studies at Athens/Bryn Mawr College

2016
Professor Katja Sporn, German Archaeological Institute at Athens

2015
Professor John H. Oakley, The College of William and Mary, Virginia, USA

2014
Professor W. Jeffrey Tatum & Dr Diana Burton, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Professor Alastair Blanshard, University of Queensland

2013
Professor Angelos Chaniotis, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton