Hans van Wees to serve as the 114th Sather Professor at UC Berkeley for 2029–30

The History Department is delighted to share the news that our colleague Hans van Wees, Grote Professor of Ancient History, has been invited to serve as the 114th Sather Professor of Classical Literature at the University of California, Berkeley for the academic year 2029–30.

The Sather Professorship is one of the most distinguished honours in the study of the ancient world. Established in the early twentieth century, it has been held by a succession of leading ancient historians, archaeologists and classicists whose work has shaped the field in enduring ways. To be invited as holder of this chair is both a clear mark of international recognition and an acknowledgement of intellectual leadership at the highest level.

During his residency, Professor van Wees will deliver a series of six public lectures and teach a course. The lectures are subsequently revised for publication by the University of California Press in the celebrated Sather Classical Lectures series, which includes such landmark works as E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) and M.I. Finley, The Ancient Economy (1973). The invitation thus carries not only immediate distinction, but also the prospect of a lasting contribution to one of the most influential scholarly series in Classics.

It is also a particular pleasure for us to note the place of this appointment within UCL’s own history. Hans will be only the second UCL Professor of Ancient History to hold the Sather Professorship, following Arnaldo Momigliano in 1961–62, whose lectures were later published as The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography. While Fergus Millar also held the Sather Chair in 2002–03, by that time he had long since moved to Oxford. This lineage underscores the exceptional standing of the award and its resonance within our own scholarly community.

This invitation is a powerful testament to Hans’ work, in particular his distinctive ability to bring into dialogue different forms of ancient evidence in order to illuminate fundamental questions in Greek social and economic history. It reflects not only the originality and depth of his scholarship, but also its wider resonance across disciplines.

We offer our warmest congratulations to Hans on this exceptional achievement, which brings great distinction to the Department and to the wider community of scholars at UCL.

Antonio Sennis

Head of the History Department