Michael Leese completed his Ph.D. in the University of Michigan’s interdepartmental program in Greek and Roman history. Previously, he earned a B.A. in classics and an M.A. in Latin education at the University of Connecticut as well as an M.A. in classics at the University of British Columbia. He also had the good fortune of being bussed around the beautiful countryside of Greece as a fellow and regular member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens during the 2011-12 academic year. In 2014-15, he served as the first postdoctoral associate with the Responsible Governance and Sustainable Citizenship Project at UNH in the Department of Classics, Humanities, and Italian Studies. His research interests focus on the economic history of the ancient Greek world, as well as the evolution of capitalism throughout world history. In his teaching, he draws upon a wide array of interdisciplinary theory to demonstrate how the ancient world can provide a useful perspective on problems in the world today. Courses he teaches at UNH include pre-modern world history, economic history, Greco-Roman history, and historical methodology. He is currently finishing his first book project based on his dissertation, entitled “Making Money in Ancient Greece,” and has also been awarded a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship from Harvard University for the fall of 2018 to begin his next major project, which explores the effects of ancient Greek institutions on economic growth and development.
