Thomas G. Palaima is a Mycenologist, the Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor and the founding director of the University's Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Biography
Palaima was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his B.A. in mathematics and classics from Boston College and a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. On May 27, 1994, Palaima received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Humanities at Uppsala University, Sweden Palaima received a five-year MacArthur fellowship in 1985 for work on Aegean scripts. In this area of research, he has focused on paleography, scribal systems, and the use of the Linear B tablets to answer questions about many aspects of life in Greek prehistory. His other interests include writing public intellectual commentaries, reviewing books on a broad range of subjects ancient and modern, and researching, writing, teaching, and lecturing about how humans, in groups or as individuals, respond to war and violence. He has served as academic co-director of the NEH Aquila Warrior Chorus Project in Austin for now three iterations 2016 into 2020. He also has provided impoverished adults the opportunity to return to higher education through an innovative program that focuses on the humanities. He has written extensively about music, especially about Bob Dylan and his cultural influence. He has also studied and written about problems with NCAA athletics within American institutions of higher education. From 2008 through 2011, he was the representative of the University of Texas at Austin on the national Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics. He also has written about problems in higher education.
Books and on-line lectures
The Triple Invention of Writing in Cyprus and Written Sources for Cypriote History.
Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing: The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Scheele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing, Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, March 9–August 1, 2000.
edited Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administrations, Proceedings of the NEH-Dickson Conference of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory of the Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin January 11–13, 1989, Aegaeum 5.
edited Studia Mycenaea, Ziva Antika Monographies No. 7.
