We welcome the wonderful Jay Samons to the podcast! Jay is Professor of Classical Studies at Boston University and Chief Academic Advisor and Executive Director of the Institute for Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts at The American College of Greece in Athens.

Born in Arkansas and educated at Baylor University and Brown University, Samons has taught ancient history and classical languages at Boston University for 31 years, winning many teaching awards including the university’s highest honor, the Metcalf Award for Excellence. He has published numerous works on classical Greece, focusing in particular on the relationship between Athenian democracy and imperialism, the issue of national character, the relevance of ancient history for the modern world. His books include Empire of the Owl: Athenian Imperial Finance (2000), What’s Wrong with Democracy? From Athenian Practice to American Worship (2004), and Pericles and the Conquest of History (2016), as well as the edited volumes The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (2007) and Athenian Democracy and Imperialism (1997).

Professor Samons has lectured at many institutions including Oxford University, The University of Edinburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Duke University, Pomona College, and the Getty Villa. Among other named lectures, Samons delivered the annual Bancroft Memorial Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy in 2020. In 2018 Professor Samons was a Visiting Scholar at St John’s College, Oxford, where he continued work on a book-length study on the rise of classical Athens.

Professor Samons’ outreach efforts have included lectures at many elementary and secondary schools, often in support of the Marathon Education Committee, as well as talks and seminars for teachers (including The Examined Life) and collaborations with the Greek Consulate in Boston, especially in conjunction with the Boston University Philhellenes.

In various roles at The American College of Greece, Professor Samons has helped to implement the college’s strategic plan by creating new institutes and centers of excellence designed to foster research, international collaboration, and economic growth. Most recently he has focused on expanding undergraduate and graduate programming, especially in ways that emphasize Greece’s important historical and contemporary role as an intellectual and cultural leader.

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Professor / Author Loren J. Samons