John W.I. Lee

John W.I. Lee is a Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern history. He holds a PhD from Cornell University and serves on the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. His research focuses on the history of ancient Greece and Achaemenid Persia, African Americans in classical scholarship, and the history of warfare.

Lee's notable works include The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert (2022), which examines the legacy of the first African American archaeologist. He teaches courses on ancient Mediterranean history, the Persian Empire, and comparative military history. His archaeological fieldwork includes the Mitrou Archaeological Project and Cornell Halai and East Lokris Project.

He received the UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award (2004) and has lectured internationally on topics ranging from classical archaeology to African American intellectual history. Lee advises graduate students in ancient history and serves as faculty advisor to UCSB’s Student Veterans of America chapter.

His research bridges archaeology, textual analysis, and socio-political contexts. Recent projects include studying African American engagement with Xenophon and classical Greece, and analyzing Achaemenid Persian history in U.S. school curricula.