Advanced Summer Course: ‘Byzantine Epigraphy in Situ’

Advanced Summer Course: ‘Byzantine Epigraphy in Situ’

Centre of Excellence ‘Heritage BG’ Nessebăr,

Bulgaria, 12-15 September 2023

Organised and convened by Emmanuel Moutafov, Ida Toth and Andreas Rhoby

Overview

The Advanced Summer Course ‘Byzantine Epigraphy in situ’ offers a training programme to doctoral and early-career scholars, who wish to gain experience in using epigraphic material for research. The aim of the course is to advance the knowledge of medieval and early modern Greek inscriptional culture and its contributions to the overall heritage of Byzantium and the Balkans. The course will provide a unique opportunity to read, examine, and interpret inscriptions in situ, that is, in their architectural, iconographic, liturgical, art-historical, social and cultural contexts.

For more information, see the website: https://phd-edu.nasledstvo.bg/

 

CFP Deadline Extension: CLARE DGA Graduate Student Conference

The University of Calgary’s Classic and Religion Departmental Graduate Association is hosting its graduate student conference this May 4-5. We want to announce an extension for abstract submissions from our original deadline of February 28th to the new deadline of March 20th. Accepted presenters can now expect to hear back from us on whether they have been selected on March 31st  

[Below] you will find our Call for Papers with this updated information. Abstracts, along with any questions, should be directed to our organizational email, classicreligiondga@ucalgary.ca

Sincerely,

Brandon Sonmor (he/him)

CLARE DGA President

_____

Call for Papers:

Emotions Under Duress: Responses to Disaster and How People Feel
Classics and Religion Graduate Student Conference

University of Calgary
May 4th -5th

The University of Calgary’s Classics and Religion Departmental Graduate Association is holding
its Graduate student conference on May 4-5, in a hybrid fashion, with presenters in person and
on Zoom at the Nickle Galleries.

The theme of our conference is the examination of human emotion in the midst of catastrophe,
either public or private. Cicero, in his work, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, briefly ponders
the vocabulary of emotional language, attempting to translate the Greek term, pathos, which
Aristotle used to describe the different emotional states of humans. More interesting than the
term he settles on for emotions of the mind, perturbatio, is the fact that he first considers morbos,
‘diseases,’ as an appropriately literal translation. As we emerge from the isolation of the recent
pandemic, the time seems apt to investigate our relationship to the mental and physical morbi
that humanity have faced in the past and continue to face today. In the humanities, from history,
literature, philosophy, religion, and everything in between, such responses to disaster are crucial
pieces in furthering the knowledge of our respective fields. Our goal is thus to explore people’s
existence in and around such crises, through an interdisciplinary lens, across different times and
cultures, to reveal a reflection of our own current experiences that allows us to better understand
our own present emotional conditions.
Possible topics may include but are not limited to:
– Literary, visual, and historical responses to catastrophe
– Literary, visual, and historical explorations of the emotional response to private/public
catastrophe
– Theoretical and/or philosophical discussions on emotion and disaster
– Studies of art history and architecture in and around eras of historical
disasters/catastrophes and/or immense social change.
– The study of different oppressed and underrepresented minorities and marginalized
peoples throughout history
– The study of mental health as it pertains to different cultures, religions, and times
– And much more!
We welcome submissions from Graduate students in disciplines across the sphere of the
‘humanities,’ including approaches that are based in history, literature, and theory (although not
exclusive to these fields and approaches). Please submit your abstracts, no greater than 300
words in length, to classicreligiondga@ucalgary.ca in a PDF or Word document by March 20 th ,
2023. Accepted submitters can expect to be notified by March 31st, 2023. Paper presentations at
the time of the conference should not exceed 20 minutes.
Any questions should be directed to the conference organizers at
classicsreligiondga@ucalgary.ca.

AntCom Call for Applications

10 funded PhDs opportunities within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral network “From Antiquity to Community: Rethinking Classical Heritage through Citizen Humanities” (AntCom)

Are you interested in cultural heritage, reception studies and/or the new frontiers of manuscript studies? Are you passionate about cutting-edge research but you also want to boost your skills by learning about new approaches and technologies? We might have something for you.

We are a network of four universities (University of Southern Denmark, University of Verona, University of Salento, University of Santiago de Compostela), funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Sktodowska-Curie Action, Grant Agreement 101073543. We have created an innovative training program called “From Antiquity to Community: Rethinking Classical Heritage through Citizen Humanities”, where we will investigate various aspects of the reception of Graeco-Roman cultural heritage (manuscript, linguistic and narrative) in Europe.

We advertise:

  • 10 PhD positions

PhD candidates are expected to be recruited either from 01/09/2023 to 31/08/2026 or from 01/10/2023 to 30/09/2026, depending on the enrolling institution, under a 36- month research contract and will be enrolled in the PhD program starting from the 2023-2024 academic year. Depending on the chosen fellowship (details in the call), PhDs will be based at one of the consortium’s universities. Mutual secondments are part of the program.

We offer a generous living and research allowance (gross amounts):

  • Living: 3,400 €/month corrected by a country-specific coefficient established by the European Commission
  • Mobility allowance: 600 €/month
  • Family allowance (optional): 660 €/month.

Deadline for the application is the 24th of April

Interested applicants will find information on the training program, on each fellowship as well as details on specific requirements and the application process on the consortium’s website: www.antcom.eu. For further questions you are welcome to contact the project’s PI Aglae Pizzone (pizzone@sdu.dk) or the project’s project manager Claudia Zichi (czichi@sdu.dk). We look forward to receiving your applications!

 

OUBS 25th International Graduate Conference

We are delighted to announce that registration for the Oxford University Byzantine Society’s 25th Annual International Graduate Conference for the 24th – 25th February ‘Passing Judgement: Distinctions, Separations, and Contradictions’ is now open!

Please use the links below to register for in person attendance (at the History Faculty, George Street OX12BE) or online. All papers will be delivered in-person, with the proceedings broadcast on a Zoom link that will circulate via email. We are greatly indebted to our sponsors and co-organisers and the team who have put their hard work into the two-day event.

The costs for attendance are as follows: 

In person attendance: £15 for students / £20 for non-students

Online attendance: £5 for students / £6 for non students

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/passing-judgement-distinctions-separations-and-contradictions-25th-igc-tickets-537684327297

You can view the programme and abstracts of speakers at https://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com/accessible-programme-oubs-25th-international-graduate-conference/. The programme may change at short notice due to unforeseen circumstances, but we will endeavor to keep the programme on our website up to date to minimise disruption.

Please note, there is the option to pay either in advance through Eventbrite, or to pay on the day The second option is preferable as it saves the Eventbrite fee. Eventbrite charges 6.95% and £0.59 per ticket sold (plus VAT on the fee), which is almost £2 of each ticket. We now accept both card and cash (and have fixed our card machine). Please use the ‘Pay at Door’ option to register your interest even if not paying in advance, as this helps gauge participant numbers.

The conference is run on a tight budget and all funds go into its running, from the bursaries for travelling speakers, the lunches, refreshments, and the speakers’ dinner.

Please see above the programme, and we look forward to welcoming you to Oxford to celebrate a quarter-century of postgraduate Late Antique and Byzantine research with the OUBS. Long may it continue.

Best wishes,

Nathan, Tom, Jamie, and Yan.

OUBS Conference Committee

—————–

Oxford University Byzantine Society

byzantine.society@gmail.com

http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com

https://twitter.com/oxbyz

Introduction to Computational Text Analysis for Byzantinists

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and BSANA are pleased to offer a three-part Computational Text Analysis workshop for graduate students and early career researchers in collaboration with Dr. Jakub Kabala of Davidson College.

Introduction to Computational Text Analysis for Byzantinists, workshop by Jakub Kabala (Davidson College), via Zoom, March 15, March 22, March 29, 2023, 12:00–2:00 pm (EDT)

This online workshop will offer Byzantinists an applied introduction to computational text analysis. Over the course of three sessions, participants will 1) learn the basics of programming with the Wolfram Language in Mathematica; 2) experiment with a series of text analysis functions on a common set of biblical texts (in both Greek and English); and 3) apply their new skills to a digital Byzantine text of their own choosing.

The workshop is limited to 15 participants. The time commitment for this workshop is six hours of instruction and an additional one–two hours between each session for light exercises in coding and preparatory work. Participants should have at least beginner level Greek. Participants are required to attend all sessions. Registration is first come, first served.

Registration closes Sunday, March 5, 2023.

Who is eligible?

  • Graduate students and early career researchers (PhD received after October 2014) in the field of Byzantine studies. Students enrolled in graduate programs in North America and early career researchers working in North America will be given priority. Graduate students and early career researchers outside of North America will be placed on a waiting list and contacted if space is available.
  • All participants must be BSANA members. BSANA membership is free for graduate students and early-career contingent scholars who have earned their PhD within the last eight years and who do not hold a permanent or tenure-track appointment. If you are not already a BSANA member, please complete the BSANA Membership Form (https://bsana.net/members/) before registering for the workshop. Your membership status will be confirmed before your space in the workshop is confirmed.

To read a full description of the workshop and register your interest, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/introduction-to-computational-text-analysis.

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

 

Database of Religious History: Call for Contributions

The Database of Religious History, based at the University of British Columbia, is a digital, open access, and queryable repository of quantitative and qualitative information with the goal of covering the breadth of human religious experience. Begun in 2013, the DRH now has almost a thousand entries by qualified scholars, covering religious groups, places, and texts (the three types of polls that make up the entries in the database), but we need your help! As part of a new initiative we are attempting to expand our entries that deal with Late Antique and Medieval Christianity and Judaism, and Early Islam, as well as other contemporary religious movements in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. In an effort to build the database in as swift a manner as possible, and improve the quality of any analyses produced with it, the DRH is offering $300 CAD honoraria for each completed entry.

If you are a PhD candidate or above and would like to contribute an entry on any religious group, place, or text, please contact Dr. Ian Randall (irandall@mail.ubc.ca) or sign up for the database at https://religiondatabase.org/landing/get-involved and select Dr. Randall as your entry editor.

Diogenes Journal: New Deadline of March 1, 2023

CFP via Jacopo Marcon

On behalf of the general editors of the Postgraduate journal “Diogenes” from the University of Birmingham, I kindly ask you if you could please circulate the updated CFC with the new deadline (1st of March, 2023). Attached you can find the new poster and the link to the GEM page (Diogenes Journal – Gate to the Eastern Mediterranean (wordpress.com).

Diogenes Journal

Since its launch in January 2014, Diogenes is an open-access and peer-review online journal edited by the postgraduate students at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham. This year Diogenes is expanding its editorial team to other disciplines within the College of Arts and Law and also its audience. The new refreshed Diogenes is now collaborating with the School of Theology and Religion and the Department of History of Art.

Diogenes aims to bring together postgraduate and early career researchers and provide a platform at which they can further develop their research ideas and communicate them to a general audience.

The articles published in Diogenes cover a wide range of research interests, yet they all fall under the umbrella of the often-separate fields of Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies. We look forward to any article that actively engages with any of these fields, from universities in the UK and abroad. It is published twice a year.

Therefore, indicative topics cover yet are not limited to:

  • Byzantine archaeology, material culture, art history and textual analyses
  • Ottoman history, archaeology, literature and art
  • Modern Greek history, literature, film, pop culture, and politics
  • Book Reviews in BOMGS
  • Theoretical Reflections and Methodological explorations on BOMGS

Before submitting, please consult the author manuscript guidelines (Diogenes Manuscript Guidelines)

If you have any questions regarding getting involved in Diogenes or submitting articles or reviews, please contact the editors at:

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

The editorial team is proud to announce the Call for Contributions for the 15th issue, to be published in June 2023. We look forward to receiving contributions in English by postgraduate students in Byzantine, Ottoman, and/or Modern Greek Studies in the UK and abroad, in the following forms:

Article

We welcome articles on topics of history, archaeology, anthropology, or on any other field relating to the three areas of our Centre. Contributions should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words and must include a bibliography (excepted from the word count). Articles should follow the Chicago Manual of Style and should include a 150-word abstract. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission in written form to use any copyrighted image.

Book Review

Reviews of between 700 and 1,000 words are welcome on any work published in the last three years in the fields of Byzantine, Ottoman, and/or Modern Greek Studies. If you are interested in contributing, please contact the general editors about the choice of book for review before submitting.

Supplementum

This section aims to present the diversity of postgraduate research activities and opportunities in Byzantine, Ottoman, and/or Modern Greek Studies. Contributions between 500 and 1,000 words are welcome. Types of contribution may include, but are not limited to, archaeological reports, thesis summaries, conference reports, workshop reports, student society introductions, notices of events, etc.

For enquiries or submission, please contact the general editors: Danielle Krikorian, Penny Mantouvalou and Jacopo Marcon at: diogenesjournal@outlook.com

The deadline for contributions for the Winter Issue is 1 March 2023. Contributors will be informed by the general editors about the status of their submission(s) within four weeks of receipt.

The Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar: Hilary Term 2023

The Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar is designed to showcase the breadth of graduate research in modern Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and to foster academic collaboration across institutions and sub-disciplines.

The Seminar takes place weekly on Mondays at 12.30-14.00 (UK time), via Zoom. The speaker will present for 40-45 minutes, followed by audience questions and discussion.

To register to attend, please contact the organiser at james.cogbill [@] worc.ox.ac.uk. All are very welcome.

This term’s papers will be:

Monday 23rd January
Rebecca Amendola (La Sapienza Università di Roma)
Manuscripts in Motion: The Parma Gospel Book (Ms. Pal. 5) and Its Journey to Italy

Monday 30th January
Emma Huig (Universiteit Gent)
Stephanites and Ichnelates: recovering the Eugenian recension?

Monday 6th February
Daniel Alford (University of Oxford)
Adults, Children and Other Animals: The Construction of the Zoroastrian Household
Monday 13th February
James Duncan (University of Liverpool)
Mechanical Dragons and Underground Cults: Quodvultdeus’s Hidden Pagans

Monday 20th February
Nathan D. C. Websdale (University of Oxford)
The Humbled Generation: Racial Otherization and Ethnic Contraction in Byzantium in the Witnesses of the Fourth Crusade

Monday 27th February
Ben Morris (Cardiff University)
‘Against All Men’: The Movement of Military Service in Byzantine and English Treaties, 900-1200

Monday 6th March
Juliana Santos Dinoá Medeiros (Uniwersytet Warszawski)
Hagiography and miracle performance in seventh-century Gaul

Monday 13th March
Maria Rukavichnikova (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
War Discourse in Times of Crisis: Authorial Strategies in Byzantine Historical Literature of the 14th Century

Constantine and George Macricostas Fellowship at the Gennadius Library

CONSTANTINE AND GEORGE MACRICOSTAS FELLOWSHIP 
AT THE GENNADIUS LIBRARY
Deadline: January 15, 2023
The Constantine and George Macricostas Fellowship at the Gennadius Library supports research on Orthodox Christian Studies with an emphasis on Orthodoxy’s history, religious traditions, and geographical, geopolitical, and cultural reach. Of particular interest is the significant role that the institution of the church played in the broader history of Hellenism. Opened in 1926 with the 26,000-volume collection of diplomat and bibliophile Joannes Gennadius, the Gennadius Library now houses 145,000 titles of rare books and bindings, research materials, manuscripts, archives, and works of art that illuminate Hellenism, Greece, and neighboring civilizations from antiquity to modern times. The collection includes rare and unique items on the intellectual, social, cultural, political and institutional history of the Orthodox Church through the centuries. Holdings of 90,000 research titles in open stacks complement the rare books and other collections to create a comprehensive resource for the history of Greece across the ages.

Eligibility: Ph.D. students and those who have earned the Ph.D. within the last 5 years with research projects focusing on the historical, political, and sociological dimensions of Eastern Orthodox religion from Late Antiquity to the present are eligible. The fields of study may include, but are not limited to religious studies, anthropology, history, philosophy, politics, law, and sociology. Open to all nationalities.

Terms: A stipend of $11,500 plus room and board in Loring Hall, and waiver of School fees. Meals, Monday through Friday, are provided at Loring Hall for the fellow. Fellows are expected to be engaged full-time in the supported research from early September 2023 to late May 2024, and are expected to participate in the academic life of the School. A final report is due at the end of the award period, and the ASCSA expects that copies of all publications that result from research conducted as a Fellow of the ASCSA acknowledge the support of the ASCSA and be contributed to the Gennadius Library.

Application: Submit an online application form for “Associate Membership with Fellowship.” An application consists of a curriculum vitae, description of the proposed project (up to 750 words), and three letters of reference to be submitted online. Student applicants must submit transcripts. Scans of official transcripts are acceptable.

For more information:
https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/research/gennadius-library/educational-programs/fellowshipsQuestions? Contact: application@ascsa.org

The award will be announced by March 15, 2023.

2023–2024 grant competition, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce its 2023–2024 grant competition.

Mary Jaharis Center Co-Funding Grants promote Byzantine studies in North America. These grants provide co-funding to organize scholarly gatherings (e.g., workshops, seminars, small conferences) in North America that advance scholarship in Byzantine studies broadly conceived. We are particularly interested in supporting convenings that build diverse professional networks that cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, propose creative approaches to fundamental topics in Byzantine studies, or explore new areas of research or methodologies.

Mary Jaharis Center Dissertation Grants are awarded to advanced graduate students working on Ph.D. dissertations in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. These grants are meant to help defray the costs of research-related expenses, e.g., travel, photography/digital images, microfilm.

Mary Jaharis Center Project Grants support discrete and highly focused professional projects aimed at the conservation, preservation, and documentation of Byzantine archaeological sites and monuments dated from 300 CE to 1500 CE primarily in Greece and Turkey. Projects may be small stand-alone projects or discrete components of larger projects. Eligible projects might include archeological investigation, excavation, or survey; documentation, recovery, and analysis of at risk materials (e.g., architecture, mosaics, paintings in situ); and preservation (i.e., preventive measures, e.g., shelters, fences, walkways, water management) or conservation (i.e., physical hands-on treatments) of sites, buildings, or objects.

Mary Jaharis Center Publication Grants support book-length publications or major articles in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. Grants are aimed at early career academics. Preference will be given to postdocs and assistant professors, though applications from non-tenure track faculty and associate and full professors will be considered. We encourage the submission of first-book projects.

The application deadline for all grants is February 1, 2023. For further information, please visit the Mary Jaharis Center website (https://maryjahariscenter.org/grants).

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center, with any questions.

© 2023 Byzantine Studies Association of North America, Inc. (BSANA) . All Rights Reserved.