PHOENIX

3 days / 70+ speakers
80+ seminars, workshops, and panels
National Classical Education Symposium

Phoenix Convention Center
February 22-24, 2023
https://classicaleducationsymposium.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Michael-Poliakoff-bw-320x418.jpg
President of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA)

Michael B. Poliakoff

Dr. Poliakoff became part of the ACTA team in March 2010 as the Vice President of Policy and became ACTA’s third president on July 1, 2016.

He previously served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and research at the University of Colorado and in senior roles at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the American Academy for Liberal Education, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

He has taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Hillsdale College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wellesley College. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and went on to study at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in classical studies. He has been a junior fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, and his research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and the Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles in classical studies and education policy and has received the American Philological Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Distinguished Service to Education Award.

Selected Publications

  • 2019-(forthcoming) “Greek Combat Sport and the Borders of Athletics, Violence, and Civilization,” in the Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World, edited by Thomas Scanlon and Alison Futrell (Oxford University Press).
  • 2016-No U.S. History? How College History Departments Leave the United States out of the Major, with Drew Lakin and Marya Myers
  • 2016-The Crisis of Civic Education, with William Gonch.
  • 2015-The Cost of Chaos in the Curriculum, with Elizabeth Capaldi Phillips.
  • 2014-“Civilization, Play, Education,” Journal of School Choice 3 (2014) pp. 545-547.
  • 2010-present-What Will They Learn? A Survey of Core Requirements at our Nation’s Colleges and Universities, with ACTA staff.
  • 2006-Review of A Loeb Classical Library Reader (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006) in The Wall Street Journal (Saturday/Sunday, April 8-9, 2006) P9.
  • 2003-“Teacher Quality Leadership from Public Charter Schools,” National Charter School Clearinghouse Review 3 (July 2003) 37-41.