International Conference on Cultural Politics in Byzantium, Harvard, May 1-2

[Roland Moore]

From: "Roilos, Panagiotis" <roi...@fas.harvard.edu>

Dear all,

I would like to invite you to the following conference.

Best wishes,

Panagiotis

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Past and Present: Cultural Politics in Byzantium and Beyond
May 1-2, 2026

Convenors: Panagiotis Roilos and Dimiter Angelov

 

Friday, May 1
Fong Auditorium
Boylston Hall 110

 

9:20
Welcome remarks 
ELIZABETH KAMALI, Chair of the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
PANAGIOTIS ROILOS, Departments of Classics and Comparative Literature 
DIMITER ANGELOV, Department of History 

 

Keynote Address
Chair: DAN SMAIL, Harvard University

9:30–10:00
PETER FRANKOPAN, Oxford University
Byzantium, Global Connections, and the Politics of History
 

I. History and the Politics of Culture
Chair: PAUL KOSMIN, Harvard University

10:00–10:30
DIMITER ANGELOV, Harvard University
The Cultural Politics of Constitutional Imagination: Debating Tyranny in Byzantium
 

10:30–11:00
ZACHARY CHITWOOD, University of Munich
The Ruler and the Limits of the Law: New Insights on the Concept of Princeps Legibus Solutus from the Late Eleventh Century

 

II. Literature and Cultural Politics
Chair: ALEXANDER RIEHLE, Harvard University

11:00–11:30
BAUKJE VAN DEN BERG, Central European University 
Constructing Literary History: The Cultural Politics of Ancient Literature in Byzantium 

11:30–12:00
FILIPPOMARIA PONTANI, Ca' Foscari University
Praying in Ancient Greek Verse Across the Centuries
 

Lunch and Museum Visit

12:00 Lunch

1:00–2:00 

EURYDICE GEORGANTELI, Harvard University
Communicating Power: Byzantine Money and Cultural Politics, Art Study Center, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street. Sign up here (maximum 16 participants)

 

III. The Cultural Politics of Christianization
Chair: CHARLES STANG, Harvard University

2:30–3:00
PANAGIOTIS ROILOS, Harvard University
The Cultural Politics of Allegorization: Christianizing the Hellenic Past in Byzantium

 

3:00–3:30
DEREK KRUEGER, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Suppressing Same-Sex Desire in Middle Byzantine Monastic Discourse

 

3:30–4:00 
FABIO PAGANI, Catholic University of America
Reconstructing or Reinventing the Past? Plato and Pletho
 

Coffee & tea
4:00–4:30 
 

IV. Art History and Cultural Politics: Beyond Byzantium 
Chair: CHRISTINA MARANCI, Harvard University

4:30–5:00
IOLI KALAVREZOU, Harvard University
The Cultural Politics of Visual Symbolism: Images of Controversies

5:00–5:30
ANTONY EASTMOND, The Courtauld Institute of Art
The Politics of Style in the Byzantine East

 

V. Lightning Talks
Chair: DIMITER ANGELOV, Harvard University

5:30
Presentations by graduate and undergraduate scholars

 

6:30
Reception in Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall

 

Saturday, May 2
History Department Seminar Room
Robinson Hall
35 Quincy Street
 

VI. The Greek Diaspora Before and After 1453
Chair: ANN BLAIR, Harvard University

10:00–10:30
JONATHAN HARRIS, Royal Holloway, University of London
The Dishypatos Family in Constantinople, Italy and France, c.1400-1496
 

10:30-11:00
NATHANAEL ASCHENBRENNER, Bard College
Cultural Commerce: Michael Apostoles and the Economy of Greek Letters in Post-Byzantine Europe
 

Chair: PANAGIOTIS ROILOS, Harvard University
11:00
Concluding roundtable discussion

With Special Thanks:
Dumbarton Oaks
Harvard Department of Classics
Harvard Department of History
Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities
The Standing Committee on Medieval Studies

Panagiotis Roilos

George Seferis Professor of Modern Greek Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature

Department of the Classics and Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Comparative Literature

Faculty Associate, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

President of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi