Announcements

54th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies

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The 54th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies: Material Religion in Byzantium and Beyond – 18-20 March 2022, Corpus Christus College & All Souls College, Oxford (deadline 10th December)
The 54th Annual Spring Symposium in Byzantine Studies will be held in Oxford on the theme of Material Religion in Byzantium and Beyond. The Symposium brings together Byzantine studies with a series of innovative approaches to the material nature and realities of religion – foregrounding the methodological, historical and archaeological problems of studying religion through visual and material culture. Taking a broad geographical and chronological view of the Byzantine world, the Symposium will range across Afro-Eurasia and from Antiquity to the period after the fall of Constantinople. Panels will be arranged around the themes of ‘Objects in motion’, ‘Religion in 3D’, ‘Religious landscapes’, ‘Things without context’, ‘Things and their context’ and ‘Spatial approaches to religion’.
In addition to the customary panel papers, an inaugural lecture and a closing lecture for a wider public, we now invite Communications of 10 minutes in duration on current research in fields linked to the theme of the Symposium. Please send your abstract (of not more than 300 words) to Ine Jacobs (Ine.Jacobs@univ.ox.ac.uk) by 10 December 2021.

Annual Ptarmigan Mini-Lecture Series at Stanford University

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These lectures are designed to provide an overview of a specific author, topic, place, text, or methodology accessible both to specialists in late ancient studies as well as to interested parties outside this field. These five virtual lectures are not modelled on a research talk but rather on a classroom lecture, and they require no prior preparation.
Each event will be exactly one hour long: an approximately 40 minute presentation followed by about 15-20 minutes of curated Q&A.
December 1st, 2021, 6PM-7PM PT:
Professor Nicola Denzey-Lewis, Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, will present “Roman Catacombs.” More information on Professor Denzey-Lewis’ work can be found here: https://www.cgu.edu/people/nicola-denzey-lewis/
January 12th, 2022, 5PM-6PM PT:
Professor Meghan Henning, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, will present “Hell.” More information on Professor Henning’s work can be found here: https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/henning_meghan.php
February 16th, 2022, 5PM-6PM PT:
Professor Maia Kotrosits, Research Associate, at the University of Waterloo, will present “Fantasy and Late Antiquity.” More information on Professor Kotrosits’ work can be found here: https://denison.academia.edu/MaiaKotrosits/CurriculumVitae
April 13th, 2022, 5PM-6PM PT:
Professor Shaily Patel, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity at Virginia Tech, will present “Magic in Early Christianity.” More information on Professor Patel’s work can be found here: https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-religion-and-culture/faculty/shaily-patel.html
May 18th, 2022, 5PM-6PM PT:
Professor Georgia Frank, Charles A. Professor of Religion at Colgate University, will present “Egeria’s Pilgrimage Diary.” More information on Professor Frank’s work can be found here: https://www.colgate.edu/about/directory/gfrank

CFP: Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies (June 9-10)

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The Department of Theology at Fordham University and Dorushe invite proposals for the Eighth Dorushe Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies, to be held at Fordham University (NYC) on June 9-10, 2022.
Erin Galgay Walsh (The University of Chicago Divinity School) will deliver a keynote address.
We welcome graduate student proposals for papers in all subjects, disciplines, and methodologies related to Syriac studies. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):
Early Syriac Christian Origins
Peshitta Studies; Syriac Theology and Christology
Jews, Muslims, and Syriac Christians
Early Syriac Encounters with the Far East
Syriac Liturgical Tradition and Hymnography
Syrian Ascetics and Martyrs
Women in Syriac Christianity
Syriac Iconography and Visual Culture
Syriac Studies and Digital Scholarship
To promote and diversify interaction at the conference, we invite proposals in two different categories:
(a) 20-minute conference papers and
(b) 8- to 15-page dissertation interim reports.
Dissertation interim reports will be circulated in advance to facilitate discussion at the conference, and should introduce, at minimum, the project’s argument, method, and primary source material.
Proposals of either kind should be emailed by January 31, 2022 to dorusheconference@gmail.com.
Please attach:
(1) an abstract of no more than 300 words, using a unicode font for non-Roman characters, and (for the purpose of anonymous judging) not including the author’s name or other identifications
(2) a separate cover sheet with the author’s name, academic affiliation, and e-mail address; paper title and type (20-minute paper or dissertation interim report); and indication of any technological support needed.
Both documents should be submitted in .rtf or .doc format. Applicants will be notified regarding acceptance by February 2022.
Support for the Eighth Dorushe Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies is generously provided by Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Theology Department, Jewish Studies Center, Theology Graduate Student Association through GSAS Graduate Student Association, Women’s Studies Department and Medieval Studies as well as Gorgias Press.

Call for Papers, Historiography and Life Writing in the Late Antique World

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Historiography and Life Writing in the Late Antique World
Call for Papers
Proposals for papers are sought for a hybrid conference (participation possible both in person and online) on June 16th–17th 2022 exploring the writing of historiography in context of the developments in biographical literature during late antiquity.
The relationship between historiography and biography in antiquity has always been an uneasy one. Despite their mutual interest in strong characters, the writing of history and the writing of lives were regarded by ancient authors as two distinct genres. This separation proved influential too among modern scholars, but there have long existed voices suggesting that the boundaries between the two were much more blurred in practice (Momigliano 1971; Geiger 1985; Kraus 2010). Such considerations are particularly important for the later period because of the dynamic literary transformations it catalysed. The changing literary landscape from the fourth century on, in East and West, was shaped not only by the rise of new genres but also by the shift, redefinition, and even breakdown of established generic boundaries (Greatrex/Elton 2015).
Recent scholarship has shown the fruitful interrelationships with contemporary literature of both later historiography (Blaudeau/van Nuffelen 2015; van Nuffelen 2019; Conterno/Mazzola 2020) and biography (Urbano 2013, Hägg/Rousseau 2000). But the link between the two remains largely unexplored. With the emergence of new biographical sub-genres – like hagiography or heresiology – and the blossoming of old ones – such as panegyric or philosophical biography – historians could draw on a hitherto unmatched spectrum of different models when incorporating the lives and deeds of individual characters into their historical narratives. This conference aims to investigate how historians adjusted to this increasing diversity of life-writing and what impact this development had on the evolution of historiography.
We invite scholars of varied specialisms and disciplinary backgrounds interested in the history and literature of the late antique world to submit 500-word abstracts for 30-minute papers. Papers might treat, for example:
  • the factors that influenced historians’ choice of a particular model of biographical presentation over another;
  • the incorporation and adaptation of biographical source material (including translations) into historiography;
  • how historians played with their readers’ expectations by both alluding to and breaking the generic conventions of different types of biographical literature;
  • the differences in the presentation of lives across the historiographical traditions of alternative writing cultures, like Syriac or Coptic;
  • how imagined audiences determined the stylistic and compositional choices of historians narrating the life of a historical character.
We are happy to announce Peter van Nuffelen (Ghent University) and Anne Alwis (University of Kent) as confirmed keynote speakers of the conference.
Applications from all scholars, including postgraduate students, are welcome. Abstracts of 500 words should be sent to karl.dahm@kcl.ac.uk by 5.00pm on 14th January 2022.

Ewa Wipszycka’s Warsaw Late Antique Seminar on Thursday, 2 December (4.45 Warsaw time): Adam Łajtar (UW): A new piece of evidence in an old question: A Greek inscription from Tafah and the Christianisation of Nobadia

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On Thursday, 2 November (4.45 Warsaw time), at Ewa Wipszycka’s Warsaw Late Antique Seminar, Adam Łajtar (UW) will present a paper A new piece of evidence in an old question: A Greek inscription from Tafah and the Christianisation of Nobadia. We are meeting in-person at the Library of Papirology and Roman Law (UW main campus) but Zoom participation will also be possible at the this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87050765768
Abstract
The subject of my presentation will be a Greek inscription painted on a wall of the church arranged in the so-called south temple at Tafa (Lower Nubia). Until quite recently, the text was known only through an imperfect facsimile made in 1819 by Franz Christian Gau, a French architect of German origin. Gertrud van Loon managed to identify among papers of an English aristocrat William John Bankes a much better facsimile of the inscription in question, made towards the end of 1818. Thanks to this facsimile, it is possible to establish that the inscription came into being on the occasion of the consecration of the church after its renovation. Retrospectively, the text mentions two further events: the original consecration of the church and the introduction of the Christianity to Nobadia, and gives the name of the then reigning king. Thus, it contributes considerably to a much debated question of the Evangelisation of Nubia.
Forthcoming papers
9.12: Jakub Łojszczyk (UW) Fragments regarding the alliance with ‘Turks’ as an example of ethnographic categories and Kaiserkritik in the History of Menander the Guardsman
16.12: Przemysław Nehring (Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika), Praktyka i teoria epistolograficzna w listach Augustyna
13.01: Adam Ziółkowski (UW), A case of collective amnesia? Why did the Western Romans of the 4th century know so little about the 3rd century crisis of the Empire?
The full programme can be found at the seminar’s website: http://lateantiqueseminar.historia.uw.edu.pl/content/harmonogram-schedule

Plekos – New Mailing List

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Plekos is an online review journal, established in 1998/1999, which publishes reviews of new publications in the following fields: Classical Philology, Ancient History, Byzantine Studies, Patristics and Church History, as well as Roman, Late Antique, and Byzantine Art History, Archaeology, Philosophy, Epigraphy, and Numismatics.

The most recent as well as over 700 previous reviews can be found at www.plekos.de.

The journal is currently published and edited by Balbina Bäbler (Göttingen), Konstantin Klein (Bamberg), Ulrich Lambrecht (Koblenz), and Peter Riedlberger (Bamberg).

The editors would like to embrace the opportunity to alert you that from now on, there will is an additional mailing list for those who wish to receive the c. 50–60 reviews per year via e-mail. To remain up to date, please subscribe at the following link: https://www.listserv.dfn.de/sympa/subscribe/plekos

Byzantium in Mainz & Frankfurt lecture series – “Religious Conflict and Mobility, 700-900: Byzantium and the Greater Mediterranean in a New Project”

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Byzantium in Mainz & Frankfurt lecture series
“Religious Conflict and Mobility, 700-900: Byzantium and the Greater Mediterranean in a New Project”
Dr. Federico Montinaro (Tübingen) und Joe Glynias (Dumbarton Oaks/Princeton)
30 November 2021, 6:15 p.m.
This talk was originally scheduled to take place in person, but will now be on Zoom; those interested in attending should register at byzantinistik@uni-mainz.de. The original description of the talk can be found in the attached brochure.

42nd Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians

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The 42nd Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians will be co-hosted by University of Toronto Mississauga’s Department of Visual Studies and the Art Gallery of Ontario on March 25-26, 2022. We are planning to meet in person. Papers are invited on any topic relating to the art, architecture, and visual/material culture of the Middle Ages or its post-medieval revivals. Papers in English or French. Please submit a short abstract (250 words) and one-page c.v. to ccmah2022@gmail.com by December 17, 2021. Scholars at every stage of their careers are encouraged to submit proposals.

Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages VIII: Experiencing Space

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Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages VIII

Experiencing Space

Tampere, August 17-19, 2022

The focus of the Passages conference series lies on society and the history of everyday life. This time we are concentrating on the social construction and experiences of space, aiming to understand how it affected social frameworks, built communities and shaped individual lives. The “Spatial Turn” has directed scholars’ interest towards the interconnection between communities, individuals and space, but larger comparisons between eras and cultures are still mainly missing. We aim to approach space as an analytical tool, “experience” offering a novel conceptual method for the study in this field.

We are interested in everyday interactions within and between communities, groups and individuals and their relations with the environment. How did people negotiate the borders between built and “wild” environments, urban and rural space, the public and the private, the secular and the sacred? How were ideas, ideologies and identities reflected in the built environment and how were they shaped by space and perceptions of it? How did bodily practices and emotions create spaces, and how did space shape rituals and produce emotions? What was the role of sensory perceptions when living in and moving through space? How was space imagined and how did spaces, landscapes, buildings and monuments occupy a place in the private and public imagination? How were space and memories/narrations interconnected: how were spatial experiences inscribed in the preserved sources? In which ways did the political and legal, but equally religious spheres play a role in the formation of social spaces? We invite papers that focus on social topography, the lived experience of space, the normative and legal construction of space, the sensory perceptions of spatiality, and participation in constructing and regulating spaces.

We aim at a broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically and disciplinarily (all branches of Classical, Byzantine and Medieval Studies). Most preferable are those contributions that have a comparative and/or interdisciplinary viewpoint or focusing on a longue durée perspective. We particularly welcome papers, which have a sensitive approach to social differences: gender, status, health, and ethnicity.

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If interested, please submit an abstract of 300-400 words (setting out thesis and conclusions) and a short biography (50-100 words) for a twenty-minute paper together with your contact details (with academic affiliation, address and e-mail) via https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/passages2022cfp. The deadline for abstracts is January 31, 2022 and the notification of paper acceptance will be made in March 2022. Conference papers may be presented in major scientific languages, together with an English summary or translation, if the language of the presentation is not English. The sessions are formed on thematic coherence of the papers and on comparison between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, thus session proposals focusing on one period only will not be accepted. If the Covid-19 situation so requires, the conference has the option of participation via Zoom.

The registration fee is 130 € (post-graduate students: 60 €), online participation for presenters 50 €. For further information, please contact conference secretary saku.pihko@tuni.fi. The registration opens in April 2022.

The conference is organized by Trivium – Tampere Centre for Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences/Tampere University) in collaboration with the ERC project Law, Governance and Space: Questioning the Foundations of the Republican Tradition (SpaceLaw.fi, University of Helsinki). This conference has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 771874).

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