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WIU History Professor Lee L. Brice
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WIU History Professor Receives Two Prestigious Academic Honors

September 18, 2018

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MACOMB, IL – Western Illinois University History Professor Lee L. Brice has been chosen for two prestigious academic opportunities based on his research interest in the coins of ancient Corinth.

Brice has been named the W. L. Gale Lecturer in Numismatics for 2018 and has been selected as the 2018 Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Center for Ancient Numismatics (ACANS) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

The honors are based on Brice's research that recently culminated in an Elizabeth A. Whitehead Visiting Professorship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA), Greece. The Whitehead Professorship is a research and teaching fellowship for scholars working on Greek history. During his time out of the country, Brice focused his research on the coins of ancient Corinth and taught a seminar in ancient numismatics, the study of coins. He was also previously awarded a Gertrude Smith Professorship at ASCSA, during which Brice co-directed a summer field seminar in Greece.

"It is a great honor being selected to this prestigious, competitive fellowship," said Brice. "The Australian Center for Ancient Numismatics (ACANS) is the foremost center in the southern hemisphere for research on ancient coins from Greece, Rome and Persia. In addition to its own large collection of coins, which includes coins of Corinth, the team of scholars associated with the center is top notch. I was selected for the senior fellowship based on my research into the silver coins minted by the ancient Greek city of Corinth."

During the senior fellowship, Brice will analyze the ACANS collection of Corinthian coins, which are part of his ongoing study.

"My work is a detailed die study of the coins, with the goal of establishing the order in which the different series of fourth and third-century coins were struck and also establishing a better understanding of the dating of the mint operations," said Brice. "It has been an ongoing puzzle for numismatists and for scholars working on Corinth. The solution matters because knowing the chronology will help us date other coin series and archaeological contexts, but we can also use the data to better understand the way the mint operated and how it may have reflected the local and regional economies. During my research fellowship in Athens, I was able to establish chronologies for Corinth's mint. The next phase of the research focuses on establishing the volume of mint production and examining whether the volume reflects the local economy."

During Brice's residence in ACANS, he will continue with his research, including delivering a seminar on numismatic methodology for students and delivering a talk on ancient Rome in addition to the Gale Lecture.

The Gale Lecture is the capstone of the research calendar at the center. It is named in honor of Dr. William L. Gale, a local collector and early supporter of ACANS. Brice will deliver the lecture, titled "Wealthy Corinth Revisited: Results of a Die-Study" this week. It will present the results of his recent research work.

For more information about the WIU Department of History, visit wiu.edu/history.

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