The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals of the University of Cyprus is in the very happy position to announce the online publication of its brand-new diamond open access journal Eventum: A Journal of Medieval Arts & Rituals. You can access its contents by following the journal’s link: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/eventum
[The program can be accessed online here].
The editors of Dumbarton Oaks Papers are pleased to announce a Virtual Open House on Wednesday, October 18, from 12:00–1:00pm EDT.
Join Colin Whiting and Nikos Kontogiannis for a conversation about Dumbarton Oaks Papers. We will cover the scope and current direction of DOP, the submission and review process, and tips for submitters. Following our discussion, there will be an open Q&A in which audience members are welcome to ask the editors any questions about the journal.
The event will take place on Zoom; registration is required at the link below:
Please see the embedded email message below or the Dumbarton Oaks website for information about Dumbarton Oaks fellowships and grants with a deadline of November 1.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
2024 SUMMER EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS AND UNDERSERVED YOUTH
Deadline for applications: October 31, 2023
Thanks to a grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) invites high schools and other organizations that work with high school-age students to apply for a ten-day summer education program in Greece. This summer experience, developed for underserved youth and their teachers, will introduce students to the archaeology of Ancient Greece and the culture of the modern country while providing their teachers with guidance in designing lesson plans relating archaeology to curriculum objectives in various subject areas.
This unique opportunity will open students’ horizons to new ideas and experiences. For teachers interested in teaching history, literature, philosophy and other humanistic subjects with a hands-on, experiential model, this opportunity will help create new curricula and lessons to engage students. This program aims to give students with few study-abroad opportunities expanded insight into cultural diversity, global and historical awareness, and the humanities.
Term: Ten days, inclusive, during summer 2024. Specific dates to be determined.
Eligibility and Qualifications: High schools, school districts, foster youth organizations or other similar organizations serving high school students in the United States are eligible to apply. Applicant organizations must demonstrate a clear focus on serving underrepresented or underserved high school students. The person who submits the application should be the point of contact with the ASCSA, if awarded the grant.
Description: The student experience will focus on the archaeological expertise of the ASCSA, with guidance in Athens from the Director of the Athenian Agora Excavations, Dr. John Papadopoulos (UCLA), and in Corinth and the surrounding area from excavation directors in that region. The students and teachers will visit archaeological sites and museums, and engage with expert guest speakers to deepen their understanding of Greece’s landscape, history, literature, and material culture. The program offers an unparalleled opportunity to experience the ancient sites, monuments, and culture of Greece first-hand with exclusive access to archaeological sites and storerooms with excavated artifacts. Committed to presenting a comprehensive view of Greece’s rich history and archaeology, this program involves long days and extensive walking, often over uneven terrain, in the hot Mediterranean summer, where many days over 85ºF can be expected.
The school, school district, or other organization awarded this program will select the 10 students and 9 teachers who will participate. Once in Athens, Dr. Dawndria Cox will be the group leader for summer 2024. She received her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Management in 2013 from Alliant International University, and currently teaches at Lynwood Middle School (Lynwood, California). She is a board member of the Los Angeles County Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and a former fellow of the ASCSA.
Dr. Cox will work with the awardees and the ASCSA staff to develop the specific itinerary for the summer program. Attached to this call for applications is last year’s program itinerary as an example of what can be accomplished during the program. Participants will be transported to various historical sites and museums by van with a professional driver. Hotel accommodations are planned with two to three students sharing a room and likewise double occupancy for teachers.
Outcome: The program aims to provide teachers with material to enhance their curriculum, to provide students with hands-on, on-site learning experiences. Teachers will come away with many ideas for a teaching unit about ancient Greece and the ancient Mediterranean. Students will be assigned a short homework assignment before the trip, and during the trip will use the knowledge from their assignment on-site. Schools can also add their own homework assignments to the program, if they wish. The students and teachers will gain experiences with new cultures, new ideas, and first-hand interactions with history.
Stipend, Budget, and Logistics: The ASCSA provides the awardee with up to $27,500 USD in support of the program. The funds are dispensed as reimbursement upon submission of receipts (lump-sum invoices from travel agencies may be payable directly by the ASCSA). Funds may be used to cover travel, room and board costs for student and adult participants, for example: $15,500 airline/roundtrip expenses, $4,500 bus rental/in-country travel costs, $5,000 hotel rooms, $2,500 board/food expenses. The awardee is responsible for booking travel arrangements (such as flights, bus rentals, hotel accommodations, etc.) but is urged to consult with ASCSA staff before finalizing any arrangements. The ASCSA will coordinate some in-Greece logistics, and will also connect the awardee with a Greek travel company for in-Greece travel coordination. Please be aware that the awardee is responsible for any surplus of costs associated with the program, as the ASCSA can only reimburse up to $27,500 USD in total. The ASCSA is neither responsible for nor will be held liable for any overspending associated with the program. Thus, the applying school or school district must be prepared to take on any extra costs that may be incurred during the planning and execution of the program. Likewise the ASCSA provides logistical advice and support as well as scholarly expertise, but the awardee bears full responsibility for the health, safety and security of all participants.
Application Process: Submit an application statement (max. 1300 words) addressing your school’s/school district’s or other organization’s interest in the program, foreseeable benefits to your participation, eligibility for the program (addressing the population the school/organization serves), as well as any previous experience in planning travel programs (locally, nationally, or internationally) by October 31, 2023.
Link to the online application form: https://ascsa.submittable.com/submit/a5a75173-3802-4d98-8aa8-6d6bbc39f9b7/summer-education-program
Questions? Contact Alicia Dissinger, the Programs Administrator, at adissinger@ascsa.org.
The ASCSA is an EO/AA employer. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national or ethnic origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation when considering admission to any form of membership or application for employment.
Reminder: Register now for the 49th annual Byzantine Studies Conference in Vancouver! Click here to register for the conference, read the conference program, and find links to the conference hotel. Rooms at the conference rate are filling up; reserve yours today.
All participants are required to be members of BSANA; find your membership category here.
We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver!
An Introduction to Nodegoat for Byzantinists, workshop by Jesse W. Torgerson (Wesleyan
How many of us organize key portions of our research and notes in spreadsheets? Whether
comparing manuscripts, organizing lists of persons and places, cataloguing objects, or creating
tallies of any kind, digital spreadsheets have become a ubiquitous scholarly tool. For many of us,
our spreadsheets have started to become unwieldy (how many columns is too many?), or they
would benefit from being able to “talk” to open-source reference information like the historical
locations in Pleiades. If this is you, then you would benefit from learning about how to build
Nodegoat (https://nodegoat.net/) is an open-source software, built to allow scholars with no
training in computer programming, doing historical social science and humanities research, to
turn their research notes into a custom database. Nodegoat’s free platform allows you to turn an
organized spreadsheet into data entry platforms for whatever kind of notes you want to create, to
explore new possibilities for analysis, visualization, and links with other projects, and to allow
you to set up custom visualization tools to analyze and present what you have. This introductory
workshop will introduce you to the concepts behind Nodegoat, guide you in setting up an initial
research environment, and leave you with the information to develop that environment.
For those who are interested in setting up their own Nodegoat database, a follow-up workshop
will provide guidance and the opportunity to learn additional customizations. Information about
the follow-up workshop will be shared with participants after the initial workshop.
Registration closes Monday, October 9, 2023.
Who is eligible?
* Graduate students and early career researchers (PhD received after October 2015) in the
field of Byzantine studies.
* 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.
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art
and Culture, with any questions.
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the first two lectures in our 2023–2024 lecture series.
Thursday, September 28, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
Byzantium as an Indian Ocean Society
Rebecca Darley, University of Leeds
Much of the current move towards global history is focused on connections. Viewed from this perspective, there is no very good reason for seeing Byzantium in the first millennium CE as an Indian Ocean society. Its direct contact with the Indian Ocean was attenuated in comparison with earlier Roman contact and increasingly mediated by others, most notably from the seventh century onwards, citizens of the Umayyad then Abbasid Caliphates. There are other ways to think about both Byzantium and global history, though. This paper examines Byzantium not as a player in an Indian Ocean defined by mercantile networks, but as one of many societies around the Indian Ocean littoral, shaped by common forces. Between the fourth and the ninth centuries, understanding Byzantium as an Indian Ocean society, in direct comparison with complex states from the Horn of Africa to peninsular South Asia provides a new insight into the development of governmental structures, state religion and economic practices that all affected the lives of millions of people in profound and sometimes unpredictable ways.
Rebecca Darley is a scholar of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Indian Ocean in the first millennium. She is currently employed as Associate Professor of Global History, 500-1500 CE at the University of Leeds.
Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/
Friday, October 6, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
A Song of Theology and Emotion: Romanos the Melodist’s Hymn on Pentecost
Andrew Mellas, St Andrew’s Theological College and University of Sydney
While Romanos the Melodist composed hymns rather than theological treatises, the theology of his poetry echoed the festal orations of the fourth-century Cappadocian, Gregory the Theologian. Articulating the mystery of the Trinity through the performance of his hymn for the feast of Pentecost, Romanos wove together sacred song and theology, retelling the scriptural stories that defined the Byzantines, and shaping an emotional and liturgical community in Constantinople. Poetry and music showed forth the hidden fears and desires of scriptural characters amidst the overarching narrative of Pentecost, inviting the faithful to become part of the biblical narrative unfolding before them and experience the mystery of the Trinity. This paper will explore how Romanos the Melodist reimagined the events narrated in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, amplifying the biblical story, echoing the theology of Gregory’s oration on Pentecost and providing an affective script for his audience.
Andrew Mellas is a Senior Lecturer at St Andrew’s Theological College and an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney’s Medieval and Early Modern Centre.
Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
Call for communications: The 55th SPBS Spring Symposium in Byzantine Studies will be held at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK), from 13th-15th April 2024. The topic is ‘Justice in Byzantium’, a topic especially pertinent in our turbulent modern societies. Justice is one of the pillars on which every civilisation should be based even though it is not always granted for all, and Byzantium was no exception. Its inhabitants had to deal with justice-related issues in everyday life, but theoretical, religious, and philosophical implications were also involved in its very conception. These ideas are not merely reflected in written laws but in historical and literary works, as well as in unwritten rules, customs, and traditions.
Panels will discuss social, civil, divine, and criminal justice, as well as concepts of revenge and unwritten/ written rules. Our keynote speaker is Daphne Penna (Groningen). Confirmed speakers include Dionysios Stathakopoulos (Cyprus), Carlos Machado (St Andrews), Arietta Papaconstantinou (Reading), Rosemary Morris (York), Anna Kelly (St Andrews), Lorena Atzeri (Milan), Mike Humphreys (Cambridge), Catherine Holmes (Oxford), Robert Wiśniewski (Warsaw), Caroline Humfress (St Andrews), Peter Sarris (Oxford), Matthijs Wibier (Cincinnati), Simon Corcoran (Newcastle), Dan Reynolds (Birmingham), Shaun Tougher (Cardiff), and Maroula Perisanidi (Leeds).
Those interested in presenting a Communication (15 mins max) should contact Laura Franco (laura.franco@libero.it) with a title and abstract by December 15th 2023. For any queries relating to the Symposium, please contact Anne Alwis (a.p.alwis@kent.ac.uk). Once the conference website with booking details is live, a further email will be circulated.
Dumbarton Oaks is sponsoring three really great sessions next year at the 2024 International Congress On Medieval Studies, May 9–11 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. Those interested in delivering a paper at one of our sessions should make sure to visit the call for papers: https://wmich.edu/
Hybrid Sessions (presenters can be either in-person or virtual)
Apollonius of Tyre: Medieval Translation and Rereading
Organizer: Nicole Eddy
Delivery Mode: Hybrid
Principal Sponsoring Organization: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library
The story of Apollonius of Tyre is as widely traveled as its hero, with versions extant in Latin and an array of European vernaculars. The story finds its way into the Carmina Burana and the Confessio Amantis, and was enjoyed by readers from Castile to Greece. Its sensationalizing adventures of pirates and shipwrecks, evil kings and generous ones, love lost and families reunited, riddles, incest, and miraculous resurrections—all captivated medieval audiences. This session seeks papers that explore the Apollonius story in any of its adaptations. Submissions may employ any methodogy, and we welcome fresh approaches to this key work.
In-Person Sessions
Coins and Seals in Byzantium
Organizer: Jonathan Shea
Delivery Mode: Traditional in-person
Principal Sponsoring Organization: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Co-Sponsoring Organization(s): Princeton Univ. Numismatic Collection
Byzantine coins and seals survive in enormous numbers, and thus provide some of the most important sources of evidence for economic and administrative history, social and religious developments, onomastics and prosopography. This panel welcomes papers working on all aspects of coins and seals and although focusing on Byzantium is open to speakers working on materials from a comparative perspective.
The Red Sea in the Middle Ages
Organizer: Colin Whiting
Delivery Mode: Traditional in-person
Principal Sponsoring Organization: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
This session focuses on the global medieval world using exchanges between the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean as its basis. Papers will consider encounters that took place in Late Antiquity, when the northern Red Sea was under Roman rule, and especially the complex interplay between Byzantium, Arabic cultures, Africa, and the western Indian Ocean in the following centuries. Whether the Red Sea served as a commercial highway or as a hub for interconnected regional networks, it remains greatly important and yet understudied in medieval scholarship.
© 2023 Byzantine Studies Association of North America, Inc. (BSANA) . All Rights Reserved.
