Announcements

H. Bruce McEver Chair in Archaeological Science and Technologies

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Georgia Tech, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

H. Bruce McEver Chair in Archaeological Science and Technologies

Job Summary

Georgia Tech, one of the world’s leading technological research universities, is launching a new initiative in archaeology. We look to fill the newly created H. Bruce McEver Chair in Archaeological Science and Technologies. We are seeking an accomplished archaeological researcher, educator, and academic leader who is eager to work collaboratively across Georgia Tech and to engage communities beyond the institute. The appointment will be to the rank of associate or full professor, commensurate with experience and accomplishments. The appointee will reside in the School of History and Sociology within the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, with possible affiliation in engineering and the sciences. The position is expected to begin on 1 August 2024.

Required and Preferred Qualifications

A PhD is required. Candidates should possess an outstanding publication record and a strong teaching dossier. The position is open with respect to regional and temporal focus and methodology, although the ideal candidate will have research and teaching interests in archaeology that complement the current emphases of the School of History and Sociology (HSOC). These emphases include urban studies; food, energy, and environment; science, technology, engineering, and society; race, ethnicity, and social justice; museum studies and cultural heritage; among others. The successful candidate will demonstrate commitment to the core missions of HSOC, which include promoting a broader understanding of how racial, gender, and class inequalities intersect, as well as how technology, science, and culture are intertwined. We encourage applications from scholars whose research and teaching focuses on Indigenous or marginalized knowledges and/or incorporates decolonial and postcolonial approaches.

The successful candidate will have opportunities to form partnerships at Georgia Tech beyond the School of History and Sociology, including in science and technology fields relevant to their research. Current partners of HSOC faculty include colleagues in Earth and Atmospheric Science, Bioengineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Sustainable Systems, and City and Regional Planning. Depending on the candidate’s expertise and research focus, there may be further opportunities to develop local and regional partnerships. The successful candidate will also have opportunities to extend HSOC’s experiential learning opportunities at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

We strongly encourage applications from scholars committed to inclusive and community-engaged archaeological practice, irrespective of geographical or cultural focus. HSOC believes diversity is foundational to creating the most intellectually vibrant and successful academic communities. We are especially interested in applicants who will work effectively with students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds, including women, those who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color, from minority ethnic groups, identify with LGBTQIA+ communities, have disabilities, from lower income backgrounds, and/or first-generation college students. Women and members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Required Documents to Attach and Contact Information

We will begin reviewing applications on 15 September 2023. Application materials should be sent electronically. Please submit a letter of application that speaks to your qualifications for the position, a curriculum vitae, up to three writing samples, and a list of three references through Georgia Tech’s Careers Site at https://hr.gatech.edu/careers (Job ID: 258879). A teaching portfolio will be requested for all final candidates. Requests for information may be directed to Professor Helen Anne Curry (hacurry@gatech.edu).

About Us

HSOC is one of six schools in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The Ivan Allen College is home to researchers and educators whose expertise spans the humanities and social sciences, with strengths in economics, the history and sociology of technology and science, global media and cultures, digital humanities, technology-focused international security, and science and technology policy. HSOC offers a Bachelor of Science degree in History, Technology, and Society and several joint undergraduate minors including Health, Medicine, and Society; Science, Technology, and Society; and Social Justice. At the graduate level, HSOC offers master’s and doctoral degrees in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science. More information about HSOC and its degree programs is available on the HSOC website: http://hsoc.gatech.edu.

Georgia Tech is a top-ranked public research university situated in the heart of Atlanta, a diverse and vibrant city with great economic and cultural strengths. The Institute is a member of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Research Alliance, and the Association of American Universities. Georgia Tech prides itself on its technology resources, collaborations, strong student performance, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Georgia Tech is an equal education/employment opportunity institution. It has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.

Updated version of the 1st Circular, Vienna Congress

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On behalf of Christos Stavrakos, Secretary of the AIEB (Association Internationale des Études Byzantines), please find below an updated version of the First Circular of the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies (Vienna 2026), including a language update.

_______

Dear Colleagues,

Following the online meeting of the Organizing Committee of the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies -Vienna 2026 with the members of the AIEB Bureau on 16 March 2023, we would like to inform you about the preliminary profile and structure of the Congress program and to appeal to all National Committees to send us their proposals for Round Tables by 31 December 2023. The call for Free Communications will be sent in spring 2025. You may find below the main theme of the Congress, the themes of six Plenary Sessions, as well as the timetable and procedures for Round Tables, to be confirmed and approved at the Inter Congress meeting in Athens on 12 April 2024.

INFORMATION ON THE PROFILE AND STRUCTURE OF THE 25th CONGRESS OF BYZANTINE STUDIES, Vienna 2026

Date: The 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies will be held on 24 to 29 August 2026 in Vienna, Austria.

Main Theme: “Byzantium beyond Byzantium”, “Byzance au-delà de Byzance”, “Byzanz jenseits von Byzanz”, “Bisanzio oltre Bisanzio”, “Το Βυζάντιο πέρα από το Βυζάντιο”

General Rule: Scholars can participate in no more than two sessions throughout the Congress. (i.e., as speaker in two sessions, or as speaker in one session plus as convener, or as convener in two sessions).

Plenary Sessions: There will be six Plenary Sessions. The list of Plenary Session themes and speakers will be approved at the Inter-Congress meeting in Athens on 12 April 2024. National Committees will be informed about the details shortly before the meeting.
The themes for Plenary Sessions are:

1. Byzantium lost and found

2. Romanitas beyond Byzantium. Diffusion and impact of ideas of Rome in a „post-Roman” world

3. The beasts, the crops and the bones. Biological perspectives on the Byzantine world

4. Byzantine Diversities

5. Reading Byzantine literature across the centuries

6. Byzantium in Central Europe

Round Tables:

General rules

1. Round Tables must be proposed through the National Committee of the proposer. There is also the option of joint proposals by more than one National Committee.

2. Round Tables are allocated 90 minutes. They should consist of no fewer than four and no more than six speakers, plus the convener(s), in order to ensure adequate time for discussion.

3. The professional affiliation of the speakers should represent at least two countries. We particularly encourage the inclusion of young researchers.

4. We strongly encourage those who propose Round Tables to follow the Congress main theme.

5. The most important criterion for accepting a Round Table proposal will be its innovative scholarly contribution.

6. The number of proposals, including joint proposals by each National Committee is limited to ten.

7. Proposals should include a title, an abstract of 250 words, 5 key words, the names of the convener(s) and speakers as well as the name of the person sending the proposal, his/her affiliated institution and his/her mail address.

8. Proposals should be written in English, French, German, Italian, or Modern Greek.

Timetable

– The deadline for submission of Round Table proposals by National Committees to the Organizing Committee is 31 December 2023. Any Round Table proposal sent after the deadline will not be accepted. The proposals should be sent to program.ICBS2026@univie.ac.at.

– Conveners of Round Tables will be informed about the decision of the Program Committee (in accordance with the Bureau of the AIEB) in mid-February 2024. Proposed Round Tables will either be accepted or rejected or the option of an Organized Session will be offered.

– Conveners of accepted Round Tables will be asked to confirm their participation and the organization of their Round Tables by 31 March 2024. – The list of Round Tables will be presented at the Inter-Congress meeting in Athens on 12 April 2024.

Vienna, March 2023
The Organizing Committee

 

Call for Papers ‘Fiction and Faction in Byzantine Literature’

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Call for Papers ‘Fiction and Faction in Byzantine Literature’ (Buenos Aires, 3-5 April 2024)

Fifth Byzantine Colloquium of the University of Buenos Aires

Continuing the tradition of the Buenos Aires conferences, the topic of the fifth instalment is primarily narratological. The aim of this colloquium is to discuss case studies from the Byzantine millennium that show the tension between the narration of ficta res and of events ‘that really happened’.

We invite proposals for 20-minute on any topic pertinent to narrative in Byzantium in the widest sense, including art. Submissions of English presentations are particularly welcome. Please submit your abstract by 31 January 2024 to the conveners.

All information can be found here online.

via Reinhart Ceulemans (Leuven), also on behalf of Tomás Fernández and Paloma Cortez (Buenos Aires).

 

 

 

Free Access to the Index of Medieval Art Database Begins July 1

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From the Index of Medieval Art

Last January we shared the news that the Index of Medieval Art database will become free to all users as of July 1, and that date is now right around the corner. The database can be consulted at https://theindex.princeton.edu/, and we look forward to sharing our resources with students and scholars at all levels and with public learners seeking reliable information about medieval art and culture.

The change was made possible by a generous bridge grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the ongoing support of Princeton’s Department of Art & Archaeology, to both of which organizations we are deeply grateful.

In the coming months we will offer several online training sessions to introduce the database to those who may be unfamiliar with it, the schedule and signups for which will be publicized on our blog (https://ima.princeton.edu/) and through the Index social media accounts. The first session will be held on August 3, 2023 from 10 to 11am Eastern time; further information and registration can be found here: https://ima.princeton.edu/index_online_workshop_august_2023/. Index staff also remain available for researcher questions via our online form at https://ima.princeton.edu/research-inquiries/.

Gendered materialities and the credit economy in late antique Egypt (NHRF lecture)

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The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on May 30 with a hybrid lecture on:

Gendered materialities and the credit economy in late antique Egypt

Arietta Papaconstantinou, University of Reading

18:00 EET, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48, V. Constantinou Av. 11635, Athens.

To join via Zoom please follow the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_haQaIHraRya3oePHz2Ng2Q

 

Please find online the series program for the spring semester of 2022-23.

CFP: CIHA Lyon 2023

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We invite proposals for the session CIHA202400009 “Dressing Bodies, Dressing Spaces: Challenges and New Approaches to Textiles and Adornment (300-1600) / Habiller le corps, Habiller l’espace: Enjeux et approches aux textiles et à l’adornement (300-1600)” at CIHA (Lyon, France June 23-28, 2024).

Session description:

Holistic consideration of the interrelationships of pre- and early modern bodies and spaces across Eurasia (300—1600) has been limited by conceptual frameworks divided into geographic, temporal, and methodological specialization. Thus, work on dress has dealt with personal appearance, highlighting questions about identity through clothing, jewelry, and accessories. Likewise, scholarship on interior decoration has considered the relationship of ephemeral design elements to permanent architectural forms through function and placement. Further, scholarship on the body’s presence in space has tended to work with movement, placement, and perception of abstracted bodies, rather than concrete figures weighed down by clothing and jewels.

These approaches, divided largely by medium, reflect art historiographical biases and technical specializations which silo, on the one hand, experts in textiles (weaving), jewelry (metalwork), and sculpture (architecture), or of art historians, archaeologists, and architectural historians, on the other. Similar divisions of body and interior also occur in the broader perspective of material culture theory, while modernist aesthetics have further obscured the interrelatedness of human form and spatial environment. Museum contexts reinforce this divide: objects tend to be isolated within cases, leading to a view of these pieces as context-free, while the museumification of historical spaces means that attendant furnishings are often displayed in special exhibition spaces, whereas historical rooms lie empty.

The proposed panel considers adorned human bodies in their spatial environments to forge new theoretical frameworks drawn from decorative arts historiography, ornament studies, sensory archaeology, anthropology, and material spatiality. An intermedial approach is essential, such as advocated in Luke Lavan and Ellen Swift’s (2009) work on late antique dress and interior decoration and in Jonathan Hay’s (2010) explorations of the somatic experiences of surfaces in early modern Chinese decorative arts objects. Recent efforts to draw together diverse Eurasian experiences of dress and furnishing textiles include a conference on medieval wearables at the Bard Graduate Center (2022) and a panel on embodied movement and interior decoration at the ICMS-Kalamazoo (2023).

We seek papers that:

  • articulate new theoretical approaches that treat pre- and early modern dress and furnishings as coherent visual and material systems;
  • consider the concept and metaphor of “dress,” viewing bodies as structures for adornment and decor, and buildings as immersive environments that respond to the embellished body;
  • evaluate dress and furnishings in a cross-cultural or comparative global framework, particularly in terms of status, value, ritual, identity, and somatic experience;
  • include contributions that draw from museum collections, given the history of textile research and collections in LyonSubmission deadline: 15 September 2023

    Candidates should send the following information:
    – Title of the paper
    – Paper proposal :
    An abstract of 350 to 500 words, in English or French, including 4 to 6 key words and a possible bibliography.
    – CV of 500 characters :
    First name, last name, title, position, institution, with a link to the personal or professional page if applicable.

Submissions should be made through the conference website: https://www.cihalyon2024.fr/fr/appel-a-communications

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the session organizers:

Patricia Blessing pblessing@princeton.edu

Elizabeth Dospěl Williams williamse@doaks.org

Eiren Shea sheaeire@grinnell.edu

 

 

Dumbarton Oaks Graduate Student Museum Study Day

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In conjunction with the ongoing interdepartmental project “Passage Between Worlds: Exchanges Along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages.”

Egyptian Textiles and Medieval Indian Ocean Trade

Friday, October 13, 2023
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Applications due: July 17, 2023

In conjunction with the ongoing interdepartmental project “Passage Between Worlds: Exchanges Along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages,” the 2023 Dumbarton Oaks Museum Graduate Study Day Egyptian Textiles and Medieval Indian Ocean Trade will consider Indian cotton textiles found in Egypt, India, and Indonesia and emblematic of a vibrant maritime trade network found east of the Mediterranean Sea in the late antique and medieval periods.

The workshop will be co-taught by Elizabeth Dospel Williams (Dumbarton Oaks), Anna Kelley (University of St. Andrews), Sumru Belger Krody (The George Washington Museum and The Textile Museum), and Arielle Winnik (Yale University), who will discuss the trade, manufacture, and use of textiles across the Indian Ocean in the premodern periods.

In the morning, these scholars will present their current research, with a particular focus on recent exhibitions featuring Indian textiles. After lunch, participants will spend the afternoon studying textiles from the Dumbarton Oaks Collection in object storage and the Cotsen Textiles Collection at the Textile Museum.

Funding

Dumbarton Oaks will reserve participants’ accommodation in its on-site Guest House for one night (October 12) and will arrange for Friday lunch in the Refectory. Participants should book their own travel to Washington, to be reimbursed up to $600 upon submission of receipts.

Applications

Currently enrolled graduate students in good standing are eligible to apply. Dumbarton Oaks does not sponsor J1 visas for Study Day attendees. We encourage applicants from graduate programs in art history, archaeology, history, classics, religious studies, and other fields who might benefit from close engagement with our collections and from training in material culture approaches.

To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter with a brief summary of the candidate’s research interests, plans for future research, and an explanation of why attendance is important to the candidate’s intellectual and professional development. All materials should be submitted as one pdf to museum@doaks.org. Applications are due July 17, 2023.

Pious service groups (diakoniai) in Byzantium: Searching for the evidence

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The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National HellenicResearch Foundation) continue on May 30 with a hybrid lecture on:

 Pious service groups (diakoniai) in Byzantium: Searching for the evidence

 Claudia Rapp, University of Vienna

18:00 EET, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48, V. Constantinou Av. 11635, Athens.

To join via Zoom please follow the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NpxZ4z71Saaz8UUFFS1p2Q

For more information, see the National Hellenic Research Foundation website.

Warburg Institute CFP: Space in Time: From the Heavens to Outer Space

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SPACE IN TIME: FROM THE HEAVENS TO OUTER SPACE

The Warburg Institute

12–13 October 2023

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Space in Time is a forum for new work in the long and global cultural history of the space beyond Earth, from the ancient heavens to modern outer space. While space history is a vibrant field of study, extending across the humanities and social sciences, it often breaks down along familiar geographical, disciplinary, and period-based boundaries. In particular, the field’s predominant interest remains in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially following what is now increasingly referred to as the First Space Age. However, while outer space undeniably gains in interest in this period, this interest is preceded and underwritten by a cross-cultural history stretching as far back as the human imagination itself, much of it yet to be written.

Space in Time invites work sparking new cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-period conversations in this field, encompassing, but not limited to, perspectives in the histories of art, astronomy, cosmology, geography, literature, philosophy, religion, science and technology, and intellectual and cultural history at large. Contributions challenging traditional approaches to outer space are particularly welcome, as well as those working across one or more established domains of inquiry, and especially across the premodern/modern divide. The event is open to researchers of any disciplinary background, of any career stage, working in any regional or cultural tradition, from the ancient world to the present day.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Shifting depictions, descriptions, and understandings of spaces(s) above and around the earth, its domains and inhabitants, in different periods and contexts: e.g. the heavenly spheres, astrological houses, the apeiron, the sensorium of God, a sphere whose circumference is nowhere, outer space, deep space, etc. What cosmological, ontological, epistemological, theological, metaphysical, aesthetic, ethical concerns have shaped representations of superlunary space?
  • New directions in space history. Is it possible to write a history of outer space beyond ‘official’ histories of science? How have different senses and media informed perceptions and imaginations of outer space? How have terrestrial geopolitics, intercultural relations, and geographical imaginations shaped extra-terrestrial imaginations?
  • Contrasting and complementary perspectives on outer space or the superlunary regions—e.g. ‘enchanted’ / ‘disenchanted’, local / global, popular / elite, timeless / historical.
  • The Second / Third Space Age in historical perspective. How does a long cultural history of space inform the recent resurgence of public and private space programmes, controversial developments in space industry, space junk, and space tourism, and their complex political and cultural dynamics?
  • Sounds of and from outer space, from the celestial music of the heavenly spheres to the signals of early satellites’ radio beacons, radiotelescopy, and the first sound recordings from Mars.
  • Space, citizen science, and amateur initiatives: e.g. IGY Moonwatchers, radio amateurs, amateur astronomy, rocketry, SETI, diverse social and historical contexts of astrology, etc.
  • Long history of science fiction and speculative voyages beyond Earth.
  • Space in classical tradition / classical tradition in space.

We stress that these topics are meant as indicative only. If you are unsure about whether your topic fits the event’s remit, please do not hesitate to be in touch with a preliminary inquiry.

Space in Time will be a ‘hybrid’ event, combining in-person and online participation. Limited financial support may be available for early-career presenters attending in person.

The event will feature a keynote lecture by Frédérique Aït-Touati (History of Science, CNRS) as well as invited presentations by Oliver Dunnett (Geography, QUB), Andrew Gregory (History and Philosophy of Science, UCL), and others TBC.

Please send an abstract (up to 500 words) and abbreviated CV (2 pages) to spaceintime.conference@gmail.com by 31 May 2023, with an indication of whether you wish to attend in person or online. Please direct any inquiries, including about financial support, to the same address.

Organizers: Vladimir Brljak (English, Warburg/Durham), Veronica della Dora (Geography, Royal Holloway), Stamatina Mastorakou (History of Science, MPIWG), and John Tresch (History of Art, Science, and Folk Practice, Warburg).

Event homepage: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/CFP-space-in-time.

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