Robert L. Dise (Jr.)
Associate Professor of History
Seerley 326
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Robert L. Dise (Jr.)
Associate Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1986
M.A., University of Michigan, 1973
B.A., University of Virginia, 1972
Dr. Robert Dise teaches a broad array of courses on classical and modern civilizations. He recently created Conflict and Justice in History: Contextualizing Little Big Horn, for UNIFI Human Condition Domestic, and From Mesopotamia to the Middle Ages: the Premodern West. His other courses include: Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Greek and Roman Life and Culture, and the Ancient Near East.
Dr. Dise’s research interests range widely. At present they include the evolution of Roman provincial administration, early Christian history and literature, and Army-Indian conflicts in the Northern Plains after the Civil War. He is the author of Cultural Change and Imperial Administration (1991) and a 36-lecture DVD series with the Great Courses (also known as the Teaching Company) titled Ancient Empires before Alexander. Since its release in 2008 Ancient Empires has sold more than 12,000 copies. Currently he is working on a study setting the Battle of the Little Big Horn within its broader historical and archeological context. Actively engaged in community education, since the spring of 2005 Dr. Dise has conducted both a weekly off-campus text-critical Bible seminar and overseen a public program series called the Canterbury Forum which explores the relationship between religion, society, and culture. Since its launch the Canterbury Forum has hosted nearly one hundred programs, and drawn an average attendance at each program of seventy-five people.
Professor Dise won the Apple Polisher Award in 2022, the Class of 1943 Award for Teaching Excellence in 2020, and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award in 2019.