Peasants in the Byzantine World (2 May 2023)

Updated on April 21, 2023 by bsanacom

A one-day workshop entitled Peasants in the Byzantine World: The State of the Question will be held at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens on 2 May 2023, the first in the series “Byzantine Workshops” co-organized by the Institute of Historical Research (NHRF), the École française d’Athènes and CNRS, HiSoMA UMR 5189.

The workshop’s program is below.

You may also join via Zoom by following the link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0R1AqdFsRxOnwIz_bsaybg#/registration

Peasants in the Byzantine World: The State of the Question

A one-day workshop co-organized by the Ecole française d’Athènes, the Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation, and CNRS, HiSoMA UMR 5189.

PROGRAM

9:00–9:20 Coffee and welcome

Welcome: Laurianne Martinez-Sève, directrice des études antiques et byzantines, EfA –– Anastasia Yangaki, Section of Byzantine Studies, IHR, NHRF –– Anna Lampadaridi, CNRS, HiSoMA UMR 5189.

–– 9:20–9:30 Introduction, morning session: Kostis Smyrlis & Charalambos Gasparis

9:30–10:10 Paolo Tedesco (University of Tübingen): What was life like for Late Antique peasants? A Reassessment (CE 300–600)

10:10–10:50 Constantin Zuckermann (EPHE): Le statut de la communauté paysanne du Code rural

10:50–11:20 Coffee break

11:20–12:00 Kostis Smyrlis (NHRF): The making of the Byzantine peasant, 11^th–14^th c.

12:00–12:40 Charalambos Gasparis (NHRF): The peasants in late medieval Venetian Crete: Are there still new questions to be answered?

12:40–14:30 Lunch break

–– 14:30–14:40 Introduction, afternoon session: Priscilla Ralli & Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez

14:40–15:20 Αthanasios Vionis (University of Cyprus): The archaeology of the villages of the Byzantine world (4^th–15^th c.)

15:20–16:00 Priscilla Ralli (EfA): Local workshops and rural settlements in the Late Antique Peloponnese

16:00–16:30 Coffee break

16:30–17:10 Geoffrey Meyer-Fernandez (EfA): L’apport de l’histoire de l’art à la culture des paysans du royaume de Chypre : le cas du décor peint de la Panagia à Moutoullas (1280)

17:10–17:50 Lilyana Yordanova (EfA): Searching for the peasant in the art and material culture of the central Balkans (13^th–15^th c.)

REMINDER: 10 fully funded PhD fellowships (MSCA Doctoral Network – AntCom)

Updated on April 17, 2023 by bsanacom

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 – 12 p.m. (CET)

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: https://antcom.eu/call-for-applications/. For further questions you are welcome to contact the project’s PI Aglae Pizzone (pizzone@sdu.dk).

Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar – Trinity 2023

Updated on April 17, 2023 by bsanacom

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 (BST), via Zoom. The speaker will present for 40-45 minutes, followed by audience questions and discussion. To register to attend, please contact james.cogbill@worc.ox.ac.uk. All are very welcome.

___________________________________

This term’s papers will be:

Monday 24th April

Prolet Decheva (University College Dublin), Late Antique Personifications of Abstract Ideas and Elite Identity

Monday 1st May

Paul Ulishney (University of Oxford), The Crisis of the Chalcedonian Episcopate in Egypt, c. 652-c. 710

Monday 8th May

Valeria Annunziata (La Sapienza Università di Roma), Challenging Authorities: How and Why Byzantine Scholars Emended Classical and Authoritative Texts

Monday 15th May

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

Monday 22nd May

Emily Chesley (Princeton University), Collateral Damage: Eastern Women’s Experiences in the Roman-Persian Wars, 4th-6th c.

Monday 29th May

No paper

Monday 5th June

Peter Boudreau (McGill University), Keeping Time in Byzantium: Temporal Imagery and Thought in the Calendars of Later Byzantium

Monday 12th June

Jack Dooley (Royal Holloway, University of London), Between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’: the case of the gasmouloi in Late Byzantium

Monday 19th June

Rachel Catherine Patt (Princeton University), From Pliny’s Potter to Proclus’ Vision: Tracing the Role of Pothos in Byzantine Visual Culture

Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Updated on April 15, 2023 by bsanacom

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 9–11, 2024. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2023.If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. Participants must participate in the conference in-person to receive funding. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/59th-icms.

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

Teaching Fellow in Classics – Durham University

Updated on April 15, 2023 by bsanacom

Teaching Fellow in Classics – Durham University

The Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University invites applications for a fixed-term (16 months full time) position of Teaching Fellow with a particular expertise in the history of late antiquity, as well as the ability to teach Latin and Greek language and literature. Teaching Fellows normally have a teaching load of 4 modules in total, over the course of the year. Modules to be taught in AY 2023-24 include half of CLAS 1791 (Empire and Religion in the Age of Constantine); all of CLAS 3671 (The Late Roman World); all of CLAS 2191 (Advanced Latin 2a) and may also include teaching for existing modules in Greek or Latin language and literature. Applications are due by noon on April 26^th, with the successful application ideally in post by 1st September 2023 (the position is until 31 December 2024). The salary will be at Grade 7, £36,333 – £43,155 per annum. This position may suit candidates who have recently completed or are currently completing their PhD.

For full details and to apply, please visit this link.

For enquiries about the position, please contact Prof. Jennifer Ingleheart (jennifer.ingleheart@durham.ac.uk – for academic enquiries) or Michele Groark (michele.groark@durham.ac.uk – for HR-related enquiries about the recruitment process)

The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia

Updated on April 13, 2023 by bsanacom

East of Byzantium is pleased to announce the final lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia
Joel Walker | University of Washington, Seattle Early and influential allies of Chinggis Khan, the Öngüt Turks of Inner Mongolia played a pivotal role in the rise of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368). Their adoption of “Nestorian” Christianity represents the culmination of a broad stream of Turkic Christian tradition in medieval Eurasia. The careers of the ascetic Marqos of Koshang, who became the East-Syrian patriarch Yahballaha III (1281–1317), and the ruler Giwargis, the Mongol-appointed “Prince of Gaotang” (d. 1298 or 1299), help reveal the distinctive contours of the Öngüt Christian tradition.

Joel Walker is the Lawrence J. Roseman Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle. Trained as a historian of Late Antiquity, his publications include: The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (2006); “From Nisibis to Xi’an: The Church of the East in Late Antique Eurasia” (2012); and “Luminous Markers: Pearls and Royal Authority in Late Antique Iran and Eurasia” (2018). Current projects include Witness to the Mongols: A Global History Sourcebook (co-authored with Stefan Kamola) and a history of cattle in the Ancient World.

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

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

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

The historiographical topos in Byzantium (NHRF Lecture)

Updated on April 13, 2023 by bsanacom

The Byzantine Studies Lectures of the Institute of Historical Research (National Hellenic Research Foundation) continue on April 25 with a hybrid lecture on:

The historiographical topos in Byzantium: some thoughts on place, space, and meaning

Ingela Nilsson, Uppsala University

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_19bjxJ6FSMGJ2uzIazFikQ

CFP: Convivium 11, The Arts of Medieval North Africa

Posted on April 10, 2023 by bsanacom

The journal Convivium is publishing a themed issue on The Arts of Medieval Northern Africa for vol. 11, no. 1 (2024). Please find the call for papers below. A PDF poster is also attached. We encourage a diverse range of topics, including Jewish, Christian, Islamic, or polytheistic/indigenous art and architecture in dialogue; domestic, civic, or secular art and architecture; transcontinental trade and influence; historiography; or any other topic highlighting the contributions of Northern Africa to the history of medieval art and architecture.

Call for Papers for

Convivium 11, no. 1 (2024):

The Arts of Medieval Northern Africa

Edited by Nathan S. Dennis and Ravinder S. Binning

Deadline for abstracts and CV: June 5, 2023
Deadline for manuscripts: November 30, 2023
Deadline for complete articles: January 31, 2024

Whether in museum collections or textbooks, the arts of medieval Northern Africa remain largely omitted from canons of premodern art history. Yet the region’s aesthetic legacy continues to reward scholarly inquiry. Recent excavations in Sudan alone, for example, have unearthed artifacts attesting to understudied epigraphic traditions and hitherto unimagined pilgrimage routes. Various forms of artistic media, as well as liturgical objects, continue to surface. Archaeological surveys over the last twenty years in the Maghreb and Sahel have uncovered new artistic, theological, and political relationships between urban centers and rural settlements. Indeed, Northern Africa had robust cross-cultural exchanges with European, Asian, and Southern African cultures. Its pluralistic societies included Jewish, Christian, and Islamic art and architecture in dialogue, as well as remnants of polytheistic traditions extending back to Dynastic Egypt or rooted within indigenous communities. Furthermore, Northern African workshops provided artistic labor for various canonical monuments in Southern Europe and the Levant. Complex trade networks also demand further scholarly investigation: medieval commodities arrived in Europe from West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, as well as the southeastern Nilotic lands and Horn of Africa. Locally produced metalwork, ivory and wood sculpture, textiles, and ceramics were recognized as some of the finest works of medieval craftsmanship. They were collected and traded as far north as Great Britain and as far east as China.

The prominent position that Northern Africa held historically in medieval art and architecture has been the subject of several important exhibitions. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (2012) and the upcoming Africa and Byzantium (2023) exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are helping re-center Northern Africa as a cultural driver—not a marginal outpost—in the study of Byzantine and Islamic art. Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa (2019) at the Block Museum of Art provided a much-needed focus on the medieval cultures of the Sahara/Sahel and their rich artistic contributions to medieval Europe and the Middle East. And the upcoming exhibition, Ethiopia at the Crossroads (2023), at the Walters Art Museum offers opportunities to reframe Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa as a dynamic and influential space of artistic exchange between three continents. The proposed 2024 volume of Conviviumseeks to expand upon these conversations and connections. Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to:

Late antique and medieval Jewish art and architecture in Africa
Early Christian and Byzantine Africa
Medieval Islamic Africa
Medieval Nubia
Coptic Egypt
Medieval Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa
Amazigh/Berber and other nomadic arts of the medieval Sahara/Sahel
Art and trade networks between Northern Africa and other areas of the African continent
Western medieval or Asian art in dialogue with medieval Northern Africa
Historiography of medieval Northern Africa

Please submit an abstract of approximately 300 words and a CV to Nathan Dennis at ndennis@usfca.edu or Ravinder Binning at ravi.binning@gmail.com by June 5, 2023. Articles selected for the volume will be due by November 30, 2023. All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.

MJC-BSANA DH workshop: GIS

Updated on April 10, 2023 by bsanacom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and BSANA are pleased to offer a four-day geospatial workshop for graduate students and early career researchers in collaboration with Dr. Ryan Horne of the University of California, Los Angeles and Dr. Becky Seifred of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Working with Maps: An Introduction to GIS, Spatial Data, and Geospatial Resources for Byzantinists, workshop by Ryan Horne (UCLA) and Becky Seifred (UMass Amherst), Zoom, May 15–18, 2023, 11:00 AM–4:00 PM EDT with a break from 1:00–2:00 PM

This online workshop will offer Byzantinists an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its potential applications in Byzantine studies. Participants will learn how to work with geospatial data, how to organize it, where to find it, and how to create their own. Working in QGIS, a free and open-source GIS desktop software package, students will learn how to visualize geographic information and create their own maps. Sessions will cover the basics of GIS and using QGIS: data and file types, installing QGIS and adding plugins, coordinate reference systems, displaying and working with vector and raster data, performing vector-based spatial queries, using the QGIS Layout Editor to create a static map, and georeferencing an analog map to be used in analyses or as a basemap. This material will be complemented by sessions touching on cartography and geography—critical approaches to cartography, principles of effective map design, the intersection of geography and historical studies—linked open data, digital gazetteers, publishing maps for print and web applications, mapping resources, and data sharing repositories for making data accessible, as well as introductions to the web-based applications ArcGIS StoryMaps and Recogito.

This workshop is intended for those who have very little or no experience with GIS.

The workshop is limited to 15 participants. The time commitment for this workshop is 16 hours of instruction and an additional 30 minutes to an hour between sessions for practice exercises and preparation for following session. Participants are required to attend all sessions. Registration is first come, first served.

Registration closes Monday, May 1, 2023.

Who is eligible?

Graduate students and early career researchers (PhD received after May 2015) 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/working-with-maps.

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

Bryn Mawr College Graduate Group Symposium

Updated on April 7, 2023 by bsanacom

Call for Papers:

Timecraft: From Interpreting the Past to Shaping the Future

The Fourteenth Biennial Symposium organized by Graduate Students in Archaeology, Classics, and History of Art at Bryn Mawr College

November 10th-11th, 2023

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: Friday May 5th, 2023, 5:00 PM EST. biensymp@brynmawr.edu

Past, present, and future are not universal truths but ideas that emerge in relation to human existence. The social construction of time takes many forms. From the collection of relics and repatriation of antiquities to the creation of memorials and the removal of monuments, traces of the past help us to make sense of the current moment. Performances of epics collapse the past into the present and wish-fulfilling rituals tie the present to the future. Questions about time are accordingly wide ranging. For instance, how do researchers identify the cultural strategies people use to define their own time? What does the archaeological record tell us about continuities with and breaks from the past? How do objects and texts reflect attitudes and anxieties about the future?

Timecraft invites you to consider the ways in which people use the concept of time to understand the past, define the present, and envision the future. This will be the fourteenth biennial symposium organized by students in the Graduate Group of Archaeology, Classics, and History of Art at Bryn Mawr College. We encourage graduate students in relevant disciplines, working in any time period, to send us paper proposals on timecraft. Applicants may choose to present their research in the following formats:

Several regular panels are intended for full-length paper presentations. 15- to 20-minute papers will be followed by individual, 10-minute Q&A sessions in these panels. While we are planning the regular panels as in-person sessions, we hope to provide space for remotely-delivered papers to those participants who are unable to travel to the area.
One lightning panel is intended as an opportunity to share works-in-progress, and is geared towards fostering a hybrid mode of participation, allowing both remote and in-person participants to bring ideas into conversation. Five-to seven-minute introductions of the works-in-progress will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A after each paper.

Application process: Applicants are encouraged to submit abstracts to either or both types of panels, provided that the two submissions are separate works. We will consider submissions from graduate students at any point in their degree. All proposals should be sent to the BMC Graduate Symposium Committee at biensymp@brynmawr.edu by Friday May 5th, 2023, 5:00 PM EST.

To apply for the regular panel please send an abstract of 300-words to us, specifying your preferred panel format in the subject line of your email.
To apply for the lightning panel, please send a 150-word abstract to us, specifying your preferred panel format in the subject line of your email.

Review and Acceptance Process: The committee will assess submissions through a blind review process. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their submission by Monday May 22nd, 2023.

Please contact us with any questions regarding the symposium at biensymp@brynmawr.edu.

Please visit this link to see a list of some suitable topics for Timecraft.