Thomas G. Palaima

Who is Thomas G. Palaima?

Thomas G. Palaima is a Mycenologist, the Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor and the founding director of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Palaima was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

He received his B.A. Mathematics and Classics from Boston College and a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Palaima received a MacArthur fellowship 1985-90 for work on Aegean scripts and an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala in 1994. 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 also has provided impoverished adults the opportunity to return to higher education through an innovative program that focuses on the humanities.