People

William Murray

Mary and Gus Stathis Professor of Greek History

CONTACT information and cv

Office: SOC 267 and 250 (Ancient Studies Center)
Phone: 813/974-2807
Fax: 813/974-6228
Email: murray@usf.edu
Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania, 1982

TEACHING

Professor Murray teaches a variety of courses that explore aspects of ancient Greek history and warfare: “Classical Greece,” “Age of Alexander,” “Greek Warfare," and “Ancient Warfare.” Recent seminar topics include: "Herodotus," "Thucydides," "Archaic Greece," and "Naval Power in Antiquity."

RESEARCH

William Murray is the Mary and Gus Stathis Professor of Greek History at the University of South Florida. He was the founding director of the University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies, served two terms as chair of History (2001-2006), and currently serves as director of the department's Ancient Studies Center. He has taught as a visiting scholar at the University of Haifa (in 1997), the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1986; 1996-96), and was selected a National Lecturer by the Archaeological Institute of America annually between 1989 and 2007, when he held the Institute’s Charles Elliott Norton Lectureship. In 2008, he was selected by the Onassis Foundation, USA, to write the first volume for their series "Studies in Hellenic Culture" and participate in their University Seminar Program as a distinguished lecturer. His scholarly interests embrace all aspects of ancient seafaring, from ships and sailing routes to trade and ancient harbors, to naval warfare and weaponry. In pursuit of these interests over the past 30 years, he has been involved in numerous archaeological projects in Greece, Israel and Turkey, both on land and under water. He is author of The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies, Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture (Oxford University Press, 2011) and is currently working with Konstantinos Zachos (Greek Ministry of Culture) to recreate full-sized warship rams from the Battle of Actium. The last project relies on analyzing Augustus' Victory Monument for the Actian War with 3-D laser scans and computer modeling techniques. He is an affiliated faculty member with Classics in the Department of World Languages and with USF's Alliance for Integrated Spatial Technologies.