Stylianos Spyridakis

Education

• Ph.D., Ancient History, UCLA, 1966
• Walter Loewy Fellow, Heidelberg University, Germany, 1963–64
• BA., History, UCLA, 1960
• School of Law, University of Athens, Greece, 1955–57

About

Professor Stylianos V. Spyridakis was born in Crete and educated in Greece (University of Athens School of Law), Germany (Walter Loewy Fellow, Heidelberg University), and the United States, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. in ancient history at UCLA under the guidance of Truesdell Brown. He taught at UCSB, CSULA, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln before joining UC Davis in 1967.

In 1979, he was invited by the Greek Ministry of Education to establish and chair the Department of History at the newly founded University of Crete. He returned to UC Davis and continued to serve the University of Crete as a member of the Board of Electors responsible for academic appointments.

A recipient of the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the Excellence in Education Award, and the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, he has taught tens of thousands of students and authored six books along with numerous scholarly articles published in Greek, French, German, Italian, and American academic journals.

Beginning in 1988, Professor Spyridakis served as a trustee of the Speros Basil Vryonis Center for the Study of Hellenism and as a member of its Academic Committee and Editorial Board, contributing to its international conferences held at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and abroad, as well as to its publication of more than thirty scholarly volumes on Hellenism through the millennia.

Upon his retirement in 2017, the California State Legislature honored Professor Spyridakis with a Resolution commending “his exemplary record of accomplishments in the field of education,” applauding “the concern and commitment he has displayed for the education of his many students for more than 50 years,” recognizing him as an “extraordinarily successful and popular teacher of well over 50,000 undergraduates,” and declaring: “The contributions of the beloved Dr. Stylianos Spyridakis to the education of thousands of students have been invaluable, and he has served as a worthy model for all education professionals in the State of California and around the world.”

Professor Spyridakis and his wife, Klea Bertakis, M.D., M.P.H., Distinguished Professor and Chair Emerita of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, have two sons, Vasilios and Demetrios, and spend summers on their ancestral island of Crete.

History Undergraduate Scholarship Fund

The “Stylianos V. Spyridakis, Ph.D. Scholarship Fund” supports undergraduate students who have “traveled the farthest,” overcoming personal, socioeconomic, or health obstacles on their path to UC Davis.

Research Focus

The Ancient World, Crete and the Aegean from Minoan Times to the Present.

Publications

• Spyridakis, S. (2004) The Voice of the People: Mantinades of Crete. Modern Greek Research Series, vol. 12.
• Spyridakis, S., & Nystrom, B. (1997) Ancient Greece: Documentary Perspectives, Second Edition, Kendall-Hunt.
• Spyridakis, S., & Angelakis, A. (1996) "The status of water resources in Minoan times" in Diachronic Climatic Impacts on Water Resources, A. Angelakis and A. S. Issar (Eds.), NATO ASI Series Vol. I36, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
• Spyridakis, S. (1992) Cretica: Studies on Ancient Crete, Hellenism – Ancient, Medieval, Modern vol. 10.
• Spyridakis, S. (1970) Ptolemaic Itanos and Hellenistic Crete, University of California Press, 1970

Teaching

111A: The Ancient Near East, 111B: Ancient Greece, 111C: Rome, 102A: Undergraduate Seminar, 201A: Ancient History Graduate Seminar, 299: Readings.

Awards

• Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award, 1985
• Excellence in Education Award, 2004
• Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, 2006