Announcements

Connecting Histories: Deadline Approaching for Two Research Opportunities

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The deadline for two research opportunities connected to the multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy is fast approaching (August 16, 2024). Both positions are for a one-month in-person stay in Princeton. The first focuses on the Graphic Arts collection in the Princeton University Library and/or the Slobodan Nenadovicě Collection of Drawings and Photographs of Hilandar Monastery in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University; while the second explores the Kurt Weitzmann Archive in the Visual Resources Collection of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Generous funding for these positions has been offered by the Mount Athos Foundation of America and the Princeton University Humanities Council.

For further details see: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/announcements/

 

CFPs for From Tree to Truss at ICMS Kalamazoo 2025

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AVISTA invites paper proposals for From Tree to Truss, its two in-person sessions at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan (May 8-10, 2025). Paper proposals will be accepted through the Confex proposal portal at the links below through September 15, 2024. If you have any questions in the interim, don’t hesitate to reach out to session co-organizer Lindsay Cook (lsc5353@psu.edu).

  1. From Tree to Truss: Wood in Medieval Building(s)

The 2019 Notre-Dame fire laid bare vast quantities of a building material ubiquitous throughout the medieval world, yet sometimes concealed from view: wood. Despite their practical, structural, and even symbolic importance, the wooden elements of medieval buildings often go unheralded in scholarship or are treated in isolation from building materials like earth, brick, and stone rather than in concert with them. This session welcomes papers that take a range of approaches to the use of wood in medieval construction (e.g. as formwork or scaffolding) and/or in the finished structures themselves (e.g. as roof trusses or vaults).

Submit your paper proposal for the first session here: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6440

  1. From Tree to Truss: Woodcarving in Medieval Architecture

The 2019 Notre-Dame fire laid bare vast quantities of a building material ubiquitous throughout the medieval world, yet sometimes hidden in plain sight: wood. As a pendant to our session about the place of heavy timber in medieval building(s), this session will focus on the works of woodcarvers, woodturners, and joiners within medieval architectural spaces. To that end, we welcome papers that take material, technical, or intermedial approaches to more intricate forms of woodwork, including but not limited to wooden altarpieces, bemas, canopies, ciboria, iconostases, lecterns, maqsuras, minbars, screens, stalls, templons, Torah arks, and beyond.

Submit your paper proposal for the second session here: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6443

 

CFP: Epiros: The Other Western Rome

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Epiros: The Other Western Rome

Friday 8th  November 2024, Virtual Workshop. 

In association with the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR).

 

Call for Papers:

For close to two and a half centuries, the state of Epiros represented a crucial node for an alternative socio-political network of the Balkans. Founded by the illegitimate son of the union of three imperial Byzantine dynasties, at its largest extent Epiros assumed the title of ‘Empire of the Romans’ and campaigned to the very walls of Constantinople. Defeated but not destroyed in 1230, Epiros persisted in its autonomy through the strength of its ties. Bound by either marriages or confession to Italians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Albanians, and more, Epiros continued to exist as an alternate, moved Byzantium that understood its reunification of the former provinces of the Byzantine Balkans to be a retaking and preservation of ‘the West’, a term with which it also self-identified. Transitioning in the fourteenth century to Albanian and later Italian rule, Epiros’ role as a centre of multi-ethnic exchange and independence created a legacy that exists today.

 

This workshop seeks to gather leading research across multiple fields to discuss the places and peoples which were either part of or engaged with this Epirote Western Rome. Following two successful panels at Kalamazoo and Leeds International Medieval Congresses, supported by the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, this hybrid workshop calls upon scholars to present from multiple specialisms. One of the reasons Epiros and its neighbours in the period of the Principality, Empire, and Despotate have remained so poorly studied has been the reliance upon century-old editions and a reluctance to publish in translation. Therefore, we envision not only a proceedings volume from this workshop but additionally the creation of a ‘sourcebook’ for Epirote Western Rome and its surrounding states which presents both papers and the key materials for its study in English translation with critical edition as necessary.

Potential topics for study include but are not limited to: History, Archaeology, Epistolography, Art History, Ethnic/Identity Studies, Spatial and Topography Studies, Numismatics, Network Studies, Sigillography, Ecclesiastical Studies, Manuscript Studies, Environmental History, Philology and Vernacular Studies. Papers should be twenty minutes long, allowing ten minutes for questions, and shall be delivered on Zoom in English. Please submit abstracts of 300 words to Nathan.Websdale@Wolfson.ox.ac.uk by Saturday 17th August 2024.

 

Organisers: Nathan Websdale (Oxford), Evangelos Zarkadas (Rhode Island).

Conference: Byzantine Cappadocia: “Visualizing Community” from Local and Transregional Perspectives

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Byzantine Cappadocia: “Visualizing Community” from Local and Transregional Perspectives: A Conference in Memory of Prof. Robert G. Ousterhout

July 22-24, 2024, Kapadokya University, Mustafapaşa, Türkiye

Co-organized by Prof. Ivan Drpić (University of Pennsylvania), Prof. Tolga Uyar (Nevşehir University), and Dr. Anna M. Sitz (University of Tübingen), in collaboration with Prof. Ferda Kolatan (University of Pennsylvania)

This conference honors the legacy of Robert (Bob) Ousterhout, beloved professor in the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania and eminent scholar of Byzantine architecture, who passed away in 2023. International researchers will present papers on Cappadocia in the Byzantine period (and beyond) and reflect on Ousterhout’s groundbreaking work on Cappadocian rock-cut monuments. The conference will be live-streamed.

For further information and a Zoom link, please contact Anna Sitz: anna-marie.sitz@uni-tuebingen.de

Connecting Histories: Two Research Opportunities

Updated on by bsanacom

Two new research opportunities have been announced connected to the multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy. Both positions are for a one-month in-person stay in Princeton. The first focuses on the Graphic Arts collection in the Princeton University Library and/or the Slobodan Nenadovicě Collection of Drawings and Photographs of Hilandar Monastery in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University; while the second explores the Kurt Weitzmann Archive in the Visual Resources Collection of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Generous funding for these positions has been offered by the Mount Athos Foundation of America and the Princeton University Humanities Council. The deadline is August 16, 2024.

For further details see: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/announcements/

Festschrift for Helen C. Evans: tabula congratulatoria

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Work is underway on a festschrift in honor of Dr. Helen C. Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator Emerita of Byzantine Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We, Jennifer Ball, Christina Maranci, Brandie Ratliff, and Thelma Thomas, the editors of Beyond Byzantium: Essays on the Medieval Worlds of Eastern Christianity and their Arts. In honor of Helen C. Evans invite friends, colleagues, students, and scholars who have known Helen in some capacity to sign the tabula congratulatoria and join us in congratulating Helen for her outstanding career, service to our field, personal mentorship, and many publications.

Helen has advanced medieval studies through her teaching, exhibitions, and scholarship. Moreover, Helen’s service to the fields of Byzantine and Armenian studies and to art history and the museum profession more generally has been long and transformational. As president of the International Center of Medieval Art, she helped to broaden the scope of the field to envision a truly global Medieval world, encompassing Afro-Eurasia.

The volume, to be published by De Gruyter next year, is organized around themes that reflect Helen’s contributions to Byzantine studies, the global medieval world, Armenia and the Caucasus region, and curating and exhibitions. Given her extensive career, Helen has touched the lives of so many scholars that it made the task of determining the scope of this festschrift difficult. We invited participation from authors whom she has mentored directly or with whom she has collaborated closely on a project.

Now, we invite all to sign the tabula congratulatoria using this Google form: https://forms.gle/Rcs5hsRyYk9KfEW18. Please note that our tabula is a way to thank and congratulate Helen. We are not asking for any donation for the publication.

We ask that you add your name to the tabula no later than August 15, 2024.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at hcefeschrift@gmail.com.

“The Unreluctant Master:” A Memorial for Robert G. Ousterhout

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“The Unreluctant Master”A Memorial for Robert G. Ousterhout

Thursday, May 30, 2024, 7:00pm (Greece) | 12:00pm (U.S. EDT)

Cotsen Hall

9, Anapiron Polemou Street, 106 76 Athens, & Online

The Gennadius Library is inviting you to a memorial for the late Robert G. Ousterhout, a world expert on Byzantine art and architecture and a great friend of the Gennadius Library and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.A professor devoted to his students, a prolific scholar committed to understanding every minute construction detail, a considerate mentor to students and colleagues alike, an enthusiastic and erudite guide on the field, a keen proponent of faithful restoration, Professor Ousterhout dedicated many years of his life to the restoration of Byzantine monuments in Constantinople, to the exploration of the landscape and monuments of Cappadocia, and to the investigation of the development of Byzantine art and architecture in both regional and global contexts.Charalambos Bakirtzis, Maria Georgopoulou, Eunice Dauterman Maguire and Henry Maguire, Stratis Papaioannou, Scott Redford, Brian Rose and Bonna Wescoat as well as friends, students and colleagues from Greece and the United States will come together in Athens to celebrate his life and reflect on his legacy.

Join on Zoom

Watch on YouTube

In Memoriam: Anthony Cutler (1934–2024)

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In memory of Anthony Cutler (1934–2024), please see below and online a commemoration from Dumbarton Oaks and members of the Penn State community.

From PSU Department Chair, Robin Thomas:”It is with great sadness that I share Tony Cutler passed away last night at the age of 90. Though his health declined over this past year, every time I saw him Tony remained as curious about the department as ever. He celebrated every accomplishment, asked about lectures, and gently nudged aside my more “platitudinous” (his words) conversation to find out the most interesting news. He loved his work, the people he worked with, and was a scholar to the end. I will share any plans to commemorate his life as they become available as well as an obituary when it is ready.”

We also note a social media photo and post by the PSU Art History Department: “We are sorry to share that Evan Pugh University Professor Emeritus Anthony Cutler died on Thursday, May 16. A member of the Penn State faculty for 51 years, Professor Cutler was an internationally renowned scholar of Byzantine art and an influential teacher and mentor throughout his career.”
Via Dumbarton Oaks:
“The scholarly community at Dumbarton Oaks is saddened to learn of the death of Anthony Cutler, who passed away on May 16 at the age of 90. “Tony” to friends, he had a keen eye for the material foundations of Byzantine art and its historical contextualization—and an acerbic wit that endeared him to many. He will be sorely missed.
Following studies at Cambridge (Master of Arts, 1960) and Emory (PhD, 1963), Cutler took posts at Morehouse College and Emory before settling as a lone outpost of Byzantium at Penn State in 1967, where he remained for the duration of his career.
His involvement with Dumbarton Oaks extended over forty years. In 1975–76, he was a research fellow; in 1982–83, 1989–90, and again in 1998–99, he was a fellow; he was symposiarch (with Angeliki Laiou) for “Realities in the Arts of the Medieval Mediterranean, 800–1500” in 2002; and he was a visiting scholar in 2013–14. His fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks were in addition to those held at virtually every prestigious institution in the world: the Institute for Advanced Study, the American Academy in Rome, the National Gallery of Art, and so on.

Known primarily for his expertise in Byzantine ivory carving (and his distinctive pipe), Cutler was really so much more: his scholarly interests extended across Byzantine art and iconography, encompassing paintings, coins, even manuscripts (which, following the development of an allergy to parchment, he described as “nasty bits of animal skin”). His books ranged from narrow topics in art history to broad topics in cultural history, and his numerous articles covered everything in between. Questions of authenticity were particularly interesting to him, and he was one of the earliest scholars to perceive that forgeries were in themselves objects of great interest and worthy of scholarly attention.

Lastly, he was one of the lead editors of the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium and instrumental in that major undertaking’s success. According to Cutler himself, Alexander Kazhdan approached him for the task by saying “Tony, you write the art history, I can do everything else.” Perhaps the story says a lot about Kazhdan, but it says a lot about Tony, too.”

CFP: The Hungarian Historical Review

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The Hungarian Historical Review invites submissions for its second issue in 2025, the theme of which will be, “Coherence of Translation Programs and the Contexts of Translation Movements, ca. 500–1700 AD.”

The deadline for the submission of abstracts: June 15, 2024. The deadline for the accepted papers: December 15, 2024.

This Special Issue aims to explore the complex historical, literary, and material backgrounds that are conducive to producing translations from any source language (Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew, etc.) into Latin and from Latin into the vernaculars or local dialects from Late Antiquity until the end of the Renaissance period. The special issue investigates triggers and factors that helped produce Latin translations and eased the reception of Latin texts by non-Latin-using audiences. The variety of source and target languages creates a comparative framework that enriches our understanding of complex translating processes as historical phenomena.

https://www.jstor.org/journal/hunghistrevi

Workshop: Binding the World, Withholding life. Poetry Books in the Medieval Mediterranean

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The TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World (University of Oxford) is delighted to invite you all to an international workshop on poetry books in the medieval Mediterranean.

The event will be held on 31 May 2024 in the FitzHugh Auditorium at Exeter College, Cohen Quadrangle (Walton St, Oxford OX1 2HG) and online. For the programme and the registration link, you can visit: https://torch.ox.ac.uk/event/binding-the-world-withholding-life.-poetry-books-in-the-medieval-mediterranean.

TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World
https://torch.ox.ac.uk/poetry-in-the-medieval-world
Mailing list: poetrymedievalworld-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

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