The Byzness, 27th October 2024
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 27th October 2024
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
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27th OUBs International Graduate Conference
For those who may have missed it, earlier this week we announced the call for papers for this academic year’s OUBs Graduate Conference entitled: “Byzantium and its environment.”
For those graduate students interested in participating and showcasing their research that touches upon nature and the environment during the Late Antique and Byzantine period please see the call for papers here.
1. NEWS AND EVENTS
Epiros: The Other Western Rome, Virtual Workshop Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November 2024 – Registration and Programme
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 marriage 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 gathers 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 platforms scholars presenting 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 a proceedings volume from this workshop that additionally functions as 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.
This workshop was made possible through the generous support of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR) and The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities (Torch).
Please note all times are correspond to the UK (GMT).
Register here.
For the full programme see here.
Numismatics workshop in Athens in January 2025
The FLAME Project, in conjunction with Princeton’s Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, is offering a two-week course at the Princeton University Center in Athens from January 13-24, 2025, to bring together Greek, Turkish and Princeton-based graduate students and recent Ph.D.s to examine the transition of coinage in the Byzantine heartland between 325 and 750.
For full details, see the website here.
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Call for Abstracts – Gregory of Nazianzus: Poet of networks – 4th-5th September 2025 (Faculty of Classics and Trinity College, University of Cambridge)
In recent years, the fourth-century author Gregory of Nazianzus has been the subject of intense scholarly re-assessment, which has reconfigured our understanding of his theology, political engagement, rhetoric, and of his autobiographical and self-legitimising aims (Mc Lynn 1998, McGukin 2001, Elm 2012, Simelidis 2009, Hofer 2013, and Storin 2019 to name but a few examples). Time seems ripe to draw on these insights to re-assess Gregory’s poetry. As one of Late Antiquity’s most prolific poets, writing in a variety of genres (including epigrams, hymns, autobiographical and theological poems) and metres, Gregory offers a unique window into the relevance of Greek poetry to fourth-century cultural debates.
This workshop, generously funded by the Martin Rees Conference Fund of Trinity College, will centre Gregory’s poetry to ask how literary connectivity relates to sociocultural engagement. We are especially interested in exploring Gregory’s poems as a window on dynamics of interaction between literary intertextuality and the construction of social networks.
Confirmed participants include Gianfranco Agosti (University of Pisa), Kristoffel Demoen (University of Ghent), Emma Greensmith (University of Oxford), Simon Goldhill (University of Cambridge), Neil McLynn (University of Oxford), Christos Simelidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), and Tim Whitmarsh (University of Cambridge).
Submission guidelines:
An extended version of this Call for Abstracts, including illustrations of the several ways in which contributors are invited to interpret the concept of ‘poetry of network’ with regard to Gregory’s literary activity, is available here
Contributors from scholars in any career stage are welcomed, and early career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Submissions for abstracts are welcome on any given poem, passage, or collection of poems of Gregory of Nazianzus. To stimulate discussion around the historical networks of Gregory’s poetry, we warmly invite also comparative contributions juxtaposing Gregory with other fourth-century poets whose networks of readers and correspondents are well known.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to gregory-...@outlook.com by 15 January 2025. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Best wishes,
Lea Niccolai, Assistant Professor in Classics, Cambridge Classics Faculty; Fellow of Trinity College
Mathijs Clement, PhD Candidate in Classics, King’s College, University of Cambridge
Call for contributions: Medieval Texts as Spaces of Cross-Cultural Exchange: Writing, Multilingualism, and Mediators between East and West
We invite scholars to submit abstracts for the volume Medieval Texts as Spaces of Cross-Cultural Exchange: Writing, Multilingualism, and Mediators between East and West, edited by Luisa Andriollo, Carlo Pernigotti and Maria Cristina Rossi (University of Pisa). This book project follows on from a workshop on the same topic held at the University of Pisa, and aims to extend and deepen its thematic focus. The volume explores the circulation of medieval texts across geographical, linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries, with a particular focus on the interactions between the Near East, the Byzantine world, and the Latin West. This editorial project seeks to investigate how books and documents served as vehicles for shared knowledge, reflecting cross-cultural negotiations and encounters through their content, linguistic choices, and graphic representations.
We encourage submissions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, examining texts as both literary and material products across their multiple dimensions (material, linguistic, symbolic). Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
•Graphic and documentary models in the imperial chancelleries of East and West
•Coexisting graphic and linguistic systems in literary or documentary texts
•Multilingualism in texts and documents
•Translations of texts across various literary genres
•Key figures in cross-cultural exchange: ambassadors, interpreters, translators, and scribes
Submission Guidelines
•Abstracts should be between 300-500 words.
•Accepted languages are English, Italian, French and German.
•Please include your name, affiliation, and contact information.
•Submissions should be sent to textsandcrosscu...@gmail.com by December 15, 2024
•Decisions will be made shortly thereafter, and final chapters will be due by June 15, 2025
Call for Journal Dossiers, Belgian Review for Philology and History
As of volume 2025, the editorial committee for the Antiquity section of the Belgian Review of Philology and History wants to make more room for thematic dossiers (for instance based on study days or workshops). Each dossier will consist of an introduction, followed by three to five articles, and optionally a short conclusion. Submissions should be made by one or more ‘editors’ acting as contacts for the editorial board. As in the case of individual articles, dossiers will be selected based on a double-blind peer review. This evaluation will be carried out on the dossier as a whole. A maximum of one dossier per volume will be accepted. Interested parties should submit a proposal in advance to secretaries of the editorial committee (see below). These proposals include a title, a short description, the list of authors and provisional titles.
The Belgian Review of Philology and History is one of the most prominent Belgian scholarly journals in these fields. The first issue per year is devoted to antiquity and classical philology, and has its own editorial board. Authors at all stages of their careers are welcome, but young authors are particularly encouraged to submit their work. Contributions are accepted in English, French, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish. We aim to limit the time between submission, acceptance and publication to less than one year. After three years, all articles will be made available in open access via the Persée portal (www.persee.fr).
Editorial secretaries –
Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant: jean.van...@uclouvain.be
Dimitri Van Limbergen: Dimitri.Va...@UGent.be
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Richard Sharpe Memorial Fellowship
The Bodleian Libraries are now accepting applications for the Richard Sharpe Memorial Fellowship to be taken up during the academic year 2025-26. This fellowship supports a research visit of one or two months to explore any aspect of the manuscripts of the Canonici Collection at the Bodleian Library. In line with Richard Sharpe's pioneering work on the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, we especially welcome applications from those working on the medieval libraries of Italy.
Details of the Fellowship terms and application process can be found on the Fellowships webpage: Bodleian Visiting Fellowships | Bodleian Libraries (ox.ac.uk).
Applications for these Fellowships should be made by the deadline of Friday 29 November 2024, 5pm GMT.
For further information, please email: fello...@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Eastern Christianity (University of Virginia)
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia seeks to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor who studies Eastern Christianity, broadly construed.
Method, time-period, and thematic focus are open. Candidates should demonstrate expertise in a particular archive or context of Eastern Christian thought, interest in historical or contemporary interactions between Christian and Islamic thought and practice, competence to teach an undergraduate introduction to Eastern Christian thought, and a capacity to work with graduate students. We will prioritize (but not limit consideration to) applications from scholars whose work sheds light on intellectual interactions within the broader Middle East and its diasporas.
Complementary scholarly interests might include philosophy of religion; ethics and culture; ritual; religion and the arts; religion and literature; religious and political conflict; religion, sex, gender, and sexuality; religion, race, and ethnicity; religion and colonialism, postcolonialism, and de-colonialism; religion and secularism/post-secularism; relations of Christian and Islamic worlds within the broader Middle East, the Horn of Africa, Russia, eastern Europe, the Caucasus, or globally.
For the full job ad and application information, see the Interfolio page here.
Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Medieval Judaism (University of Oregon)
Assistant Professor of Medieval Judaism
Job no: 533958, http://careers.uoregon.edu/cw/en-us/job/533958?lApplicationSubSourceID=
Work type: Faculty - Tenure Track
Location: Eugene, OR
Categories: Philosophy/Religion, Research/Scientific/Grants, Instruction
Department: Religious Studies
Rank: Assistant Professor
Annual Basis: 9 Month
Application Deadline
December 17, 2024; open until filled
Required Application Materials
Candidates are asked to submit the following application materials:
• Cover letter that discusses the nature of their research
• Curriculum vitae
• Statement on teaching experience and approach (one-page)
• Statement on personal contributions to foster an environment of equity and inclusion for students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds (one-page)
• Names and contact information for three recommenders. Letters of recommendation will only be requested if applicants advance to further rounds of consideration
Position Announcement
The Religious Studies Department at the University of Oregon invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Religious Studies with a specialty in Medieval Judaism at the rank of Assistant Professor. The position will begin September 16, 2025. Primary teaching responsibilities consist of five courses per year apportioned over three terms (e.g., 2-2-1). Courses in Religious Studies will include introductory courses on Judaism and advanced undergraduate seminars in the candidate’s area of specialization. The position also includes two courses in the Judaic Studies program that are cross listed in Religious Studies: “Medieval and Early Modern Judaism” and “Jewish Encounter with Modernity.”
• A Ph.D. with a research focus in Medieval Judaism is required by the time of appointment.
• Promise for excellence in scholarship and teaching in a secular academic setting in North America.
• Hebrew plus another language in target area of research
• Ability to Teach “Medieval and Early Modern Judaism” and “Jewish Encounter with Modernity”
Preferred Qualifications
• Adept in using the languages in their target areas of research (e.g., Judeo-Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Old French, Judeo-Italian, Spanish, Ladino, or languages of other lands in which Jews found themselves from the Levant to Europe).
• Specialization in Medieval Judaism whose research engages traditional and nontraditional sources from varied disciplinary, methodological, theoretical, and thematic approaches. These may include but are not limited to feminist, queer, and trans theory; decoloniality and subalternity; disability; race; migration and diaspora studies; lived religion; and material culture.
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Alexander Johnston
MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com