Center for Ancient Studies

History

The Center for Ancient Studies (CAS) was founded in 1974 as the first of a series of interdisciplinary centers in the UMN Graduate School. Many of the core founders were involved in the Minnesota Messenia Expedition in Southwest Greece, which applied a multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing the Bronze Age environment of the region. At this time, the University of Minnesota had a wealth of scholars interested in ancient studies, many of whom also were actively collaborating on archaeological research projects in Israel, Mexico, the United States, and what was then Yugoslavia. 

The center’s two-fold mission was the administration of a multidisciplinary program of graduate study and the sharing of information and support of collaborative research projects among its members. They also advocated for the creation of an anthropology museum on campus which was never realized. The founding director was William (Bill) McDonald (Department of Classics).

The creation of the graduate program resulted from several core arguments:

  • Multidisciplinary collaboration was central to new scholarship in ancient studies
  • Flexible and cross-departmental training would result in a new generation of innovative scholars 
  • The University of Minnesota had the resources necessary to implement such a program

The graduate program in ancient studies was notable for its relative capaciousness including a reasonable flexibility in delimiting the upper chronological limit for “ancient” and an openness to student programs of study for any geographic area and any combination of subject matter if supportable with available University expertise. The first cohort of graduate students was admitted in fall 1974. 

In 1986, Peter Wells of the Department of Anthropology was named the center’s director for a five-year term and launched new research projects in Maine and Germany. The CAS dissolved in the mid-1990s due to underfunding, a lack of structural and administrative support for multidisciplinary ventures, shifting faculty compositions and interests, and better integration of interdisciplinary opportunities within departmental structures that made the existing graduate program less necessary. 

The Center for Ancient Studies was an early and influential leader in multidisciplinary centers and graduate education at the University of Minnesota. Its leaders were advocates for the creation of interdisciplinary training programs in museum studies and public history which were not realized at the University until many years later. The center’s openness to scholarly pursuits of the past regardless of chronology, geography, and discipline demonstrates the long history of these values and the desire for intellectual community building in premodern studies at the University of Minnesota.

Key Innovations

  • Leader and early innovator in multidisciplinary centers and graduate education at UMN
  • Supported and pursued innovative multidisciplinary research projects particularly in the field of archaeology
  • Actively engaged scholars at regional institutions and colleges and universities
  • Welcomed a broad community of scholars with different geographic, temporal, and disciplinary interests

Leadership

Directors and Acting Directors

  • William McDonald, Department of Classics (director 1973-1978, interim director 1985-1986)
  • Fred Luckermann, Department of Geography (director 1978)
  • Peter Patton, director of the University Computer Center (acting director 1975-1978, associate director 1979-1981)
  • Frederick Asher, Department of Art History (acting director, spring-summer 1976)
  • Guy Gibbon, Department of Anthropology, (acting director/interim director 1981-1984)
  • Peter Wells, Department of Anthropology (director 1986-1992)

Founders and Key Collaborators

  • Fredrick Asher, Department of Art History
  • Bernard Bachrach, Department of History 
  • Guy Gibbon, Department of Anthropology 
  • Leonid Hurwicz, Department of Economics 
  • Elden Johnson, Department of Anthropology 
  • Thomas B. Jones, Department of History 
  • Thomas A. Kraabel, Department of Classics 
  • Fred Lukermann, Department of Geography 
  • William Malandra, Department of South Asian Studies 
  • William McDonald, Department of Classics 
  • Sheila McNally, Department of Art History 
  • Oliver Nicholson, Department of Classics
  • Peter Patton, Director of University Computer Center 
  • Robert Poor, Department of Art History 
  • George Rapp, Jr., Department of Geology, director of the Archaeometry Lab, UMN Duluth 
  • Orrin Shane, Science Museum of Minnesota 
  • Janet Spector, Department of Anthropology 
  • Robert Spencer, Department of Anthropology 
  • Peter Wells, Department of Anthropology 
  • Herbert Wright, Department of Geology