Announcements

MA and PhD Programs at Central European University, Vienna: Call for Applications

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The Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University (Vienna) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the academic year 2022/2023. The deadline is February 1, 2022.

Central European University is a graduate-level, English-language university with a multi-disciplinary Medieval Department that offers the following programs:

• 1-year MA in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• 2-year MA in Comparative History: Late Antique, Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• 2-year MA Cultural Heritage Studies
• PhD in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies

CEU provides a variety of need- and merit-based scholarships and various other types of financial support available to students at all levels and from any country (tuition waiver, stipend, housing awards, health insurance coverage): https://www.ceu.edu/financialaid.

Interested applicants can contact us at medstud@ceu.edu. For further information, visit: https://medievalstudies.ceu.edu/.

Call for Applications: Mary Jaharis Center Grants 2022–2023

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The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce its 2022–2023 grant competition.

*** NEW *** 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 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.

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.

The application deadline for all grants is February 1, 2022. 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.

Fantastic Fountains and Where to Find Them, Dec. 16

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Byzantium at Ankara is happy to announce the second talk of the Fall 2021/22 Seminar Series.

On Thursday 16 December 2021 (h. 18.00 Istanbul time), Dr. Federica A. Broilo (University of Urbino “Carlo Bò”) will be delivering a paper entitled: “Fantastic Fountains and Where to Find Them: A Comparative Analysis on Fountains in Byzantium and the Islamicate World.”

For further info and registration, please send an email to byzantiumatankara@hotmail.com

The talk will also be broadcast live on our Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6mx3xkQknph5pPwrodhrw ) where all the recordings of the previous lectures can also be found.

Consuming the Middle Ages: 2022 Medieval Studies Student Colloquium

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The Medieval Studies Program at Cornell University is pleased to announce its thirty-second annual graduate student colloquium (MSSC), which will focus on the theme of ‘Consuming the Middle Ages’. The conference will take place on the 23rd of April, to be held virtually over Zoom. The colloquium will be preceded by a small lecture series.

We invite 20-minute papers that investigate consuming the Middle Ages as defined within a range of different disciplines and perspectives. Consuming can denote both physical consumption as well as the act of consuming and making sense of the medieval past through scholarly productions, creative media, and cultural phenomena and practices. How were medieval feasts organized and what socio-cultural function did food and the act of consuming it serve? What are possible connections between the life cycle stages of consumed goods (e.g., from cultivation to processing, to consuming, to disposal, etc.) and climate, migration, economics, etc.? What material and immaterial substances were subject to consumption and what religious or cultural roles did they play? How do postmedieval writers and thinkers configure the medieval? What are the ramifications of consuming the past and is this the nature of periodization? How are the traces, artifacts, or influences from the medieval past consumed by later or contemporary individuals, communities, and cultures? Papers may respond to (but are not limited to) one of these questions.

Preference will be given to papers from underrepresented backgrounds and disciplines. We strongly encourage submissions that expand these themes and categories of inquiry beyond Christian, Western European contexts. We invite submissions in all disciplines allied to Medieval Studies, including Asian Studies, Africana Studies, Critical Race Studies, Indigenous Studies, Near Eastern Studies, literature, history, the history of art, archaeology, philosophy, classics, theology, and others. Abstracts on all topics will be considered, though priority will be given to those which address our thematic strand.

Please send abstracts by January 30, 2022, to Sarah LaVoy at sfl39@cornell.edu.

Update: 2022 Summer Seminars, New Seminar, January 7 Deadline

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ASCSA SUMMER SEMINARS
DEADLINE: January 7, 2022

The Summer Seminars of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens are 18-day programs that focus on specific cultural themes, historical periods, or geographical regions. The Seminars are led by exceptional scholars of Classics and related fields. Under their direction, participants study texts, visit archaeological sites and museums, and engage with expert guest speakers in order to deepen their understanding of Greece’s landscape, history, literature, and material culture.
For Summer 2022, the two seminars are:
Thanatopsis: Greek Funerary Customs Through the Ages (June 6 to June 24, 2022)
This seminar will introduce its members to the wide range of Greek funeral customs and monuments, methods of burial, inscriptions, curse tablets, funerary offerings and rituals, and conceptions of death, from antiquity to the present. Participants will visit a wide range of sites and museums in Attica, Boeotia, the Argolid, and Crete to get a sense of the variety of mortuary practices and remains. Taught by Professor Daniel B. Levine (University of Arkansas).
The Northern Aegean: Macedon and Thrace (June 30 to July 18, 2022)
In this seminar, participants will explore the Northern Aegean region during various time periods. The history of Macedon and Thrace bridges the East and West and offers a glimpse into some of the most significant developments in Greek history, such as colonization, cross-cultural relations, the Persian Wars, Athenian hegemony, and the rise of Macedon. Taught by Professors Amalia Avramidou (Democritus University of Thrace) and Denise Demetriou (University of California, San Diego).
Internationally known scholars of Greek history, art, and archaeology will participate as guest lecturers in both seminars. Students are expected to give on-site reports, which they will prepare in their home libraries before the program begins. Committed to presenting a comprehensive view of Greece’s rich history and archaeology, these seminars involve long days and extensive walking in the hot Mediterranean summer, and participants should be prepared for a rigorous program of study.

Eligibility: Enrollment is open to graduate and advanced undergraduate students, as well as to high school and college instructors of classics and related subjects. Each seminar is limited to twenty participants. The language of instruction is English. Applicants who are not enrolled or teaching at English-speaking institutes, or schools, may be required to supply evidence of proficiency in English.

Cost: The fee for each summer 2022 Seminar is $2,750. This includes tuition, room for the entire 18-day period, partial board in Athens, travel within Greece, and museum and site fees. International airfare, most meals outside Athens and weekends in Athens, and incidental expenses are the participant’s responsibility. Financial aid is available in the form of ASCSA scholarships, awarded on the basis of academic merit, and many classical professional organizations have funding opportunities. More information at https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/programs/summer-session/ss-scholarships. Inquire about course credit option.
Application:  Applicants will complete an online application, for which they will submit scans of academic transcripts (unofficial transcripts are acceptable) and arrange for the online submission of two letters of recommendation by the application deadline, January 7, 2022. All applicants will be notified in February 2022. More information and online application form are available through the website at: https://ascsa.submittable.com/submit/115820/ascsa-summer-seminar-application-18-day-sessions
For more information on the seminars, view the website at https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/programs/summerseminars or email ssapplication@ascsa.org.

Byzantium at Early Modern Courts. Reception, Confrontation and Projects

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Date: November 10 -12 , 2022
Location: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Organised by: Jan Kusber, Klaus Pietschmann, Matthias Schnettger, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Sponsored by: Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Byzantium between Orient and Occident
Compact Summary:
This conference aims at examining the different dimensions of the presence of Byzantium at early modern courts. It will therefore cover, amongst other topics, the treatment of artefacts of Byzantine provenience, the reception of Byzantium in the representation of power, and the knowledge of Byzantium which was available at court. This conference also seeks to examine the competition for the Byzantine heritage and to what degree attempts were made to revive this heritage and make use of it.
Extended Summary:
“Byzantium at Early Modern Courts. Reception, Confrontation and Projects”
Byzantium was present at early modern courts in different ways. Not only the classical Roman period, but also the late antiquity and early Byzantine period, i.e. the era of Christian emperors, offered multiple points of reference for the representation of early modern rulership. Women such as the saint Empress Helena offered points of reference to princesses, as can be seen in the foundation of the order of the Starry Cross by the then Dowager-Empress Eleonora Gonzaga-Nevers in 1668. Byzantine themes were also present at courts in the fine arts as well as the court opera.
An entirely different area of engagement with the Byzantine heritage was the confrontation with the Ottoman Empire, which saw itself as a successor to the Byzantine Empire. The sultans not only resided in the capital of Constantinople since 1453, they also laid claim to the imperial office, which they, in turn, denied the Habsburgs until the 17th century. From the second half of the 17th century onwards the military balance of power shifted significantly. The Ottoman Empire was now in a more defensive position and at times the renewal of the Byzantine Empire was envisaged, like with the “Greek project” of Catharine II of Russia in the 1780s.
Without question, the Orthodox Church stood in the Byzantine tradition. Early modern rulers also found opportunities and necessities to confront and discuss the Byzantine heritage on this level. The most obvious examples are the Muscovite Tsars and their claim to a Third Rome based on the translatio imperii from a Second to a Third Rome, but also Western European powers ruling over an Orthodox population did this, such as, since the 13th century the Republic of Venice and, especially since the 1680s, the Habsburg Empire. The Patriarch of Constantinople’s claim to be an “Ecumenical patriarch” posed a bothersome limitation to the papal primacy of the Roman Curia, while Protestant rulers and their theologians might have perceived the patriarch as a potential ally against Rome.
This conference aims to examine these and other dimensions of engagement of early modern courts with Byzantium and its heritage up to the 18th century.
Possible fields of research might include:
– The various forms (fine arts, opera, literature etc.) of representation of rulership and propaganda
– Knowledge of Byzantium
– Influence of Byzantium/reception on politics
This call for papers invites established as well as young researchers working on the topics discussed above to submit their contributions. The conference will be held in German and English. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus: Byzantium between Orient and Occident.
We invite you to send a proposal for a possible contribution in the form of a one-page abstract and a short biography to schnettger@uni-mainz.de. Deadline is January 10 , 2022. A publication of the conference contributions is planned.
Contact:

BSC special events and final program

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Via Elizabeth Bolman, Case Western Reserve University
Dear Friends,
As we approach the start of the Byzantine Studies Conference in Cleveland, we would like to remind you of several great special events that we have organized, including breakfast at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They all require advance registration, separate from your conference registration. You may view these events here: https://artsci.case.edu/bsc/special-events/. The sign ups will close on Sunday, December 5th at 5pm (EST).
Those of you who registered as virtual attendants will automatically receive information about the events that will be livestreamed.
The conference program may be downloaded here: https://artsci.case.edu/bsc/conference-schedule/. We will be distributing hard copies to those of you who come in person, along with conference bags and pins!
We look forward to seeing you next week!
Betsy

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