Department Updates

Dr. Lee Brice

Associate Professor

email | vita | news items

Hist 125 Books, Sp 2010 | Hist 321 Books, Sp 2010

Hist 301 Books, Spring 2010

Study Abroad in Greece, Summer 2010

College Outstanding Faculty Award Winner

WIU "Outstanding First-Year Experience Teacher" Award Winner

Dr. Lee Brice joined the Department in the Fall of 2003 after receiving his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His historical interests include Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece and Military History.  He offers the Department's undergraduate courses on Ancient Greece [History 320], and Ancient Rome [History 321] as well as an upper-division/graduate courses on the Ancient Near East [History 444(G)] and an upper-division/graduate topics course that in the past has focused on Alexander the Great and Ancient Military History [History 430(G)].  In addition to these field-specific courses, he also teaches the first of the Department's Western Civilization courses [History 125] and the department’s writing/historical methods course [History 301]. His graduate seminars [History 514, 515, 540, and 541] focus on ancient Rome and on military history in the ancient world.

Prof. Brice's specific areas of focus for his research are Roman military-sociology especially during the late republic and early empire and Greek Numismatics, especially of Ancient Corinth.  His publications include an article on the Roman army as a peace-keeping force, the treatment of the Roman army in the popular HBO/BBC TV series Rome, and a forthcoming article examining the Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415 BCE. In addition to several articles, Dr. Brice is currently working on a book-length manuscript focused on unrest in the Roman army.

Dr. Brice has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including two Faculty Summer Research Stipends from the WIU Foundation, a University Research Council Grant from WIU, a Faculty Mentor Grant from the WIU College of Arts and Sciences, a Summer Travel Grant from the WIU Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research, the Eric Neumann Summer Fellowship from the American Numismatic Society, and a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society. He has also received a number of grants from the University, College, and Department to fund his students' undergraduate research projects. Dr. Brice has also won the College's Outstanding Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring.

Dr. Brice is the Faculty Advisor for Western's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the National Honors Society for history majors. Under his leadership, our chapter of Phi Alpha Theta is developing an on-line journal which will publish WIU history students' research. Dr. Brice has also been very involved in mentoring history students' Undergraduate Research projects on a wide array of topics, including serving as Director of the Undergraduate Research Initiative in Military History. He also leads short-term Summer study-abroad trips to Greece and Rome; in 2005 he led a group of WIU and Monmouth college students to Greece, and in 2007 he led WIU students to Rome.  He is planning a study-abroad trip to Greece in 2009 that will include WIU and Illinois State University students to Greece (see news item below).

Dr. Brice in the News

Dr. Brice (center front) with the 2009 Phi Alpha Theta Initiates