The Byzness, 3rd May 2026
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 3rd May 2026
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
Dear all,
With Trinity now properly underway, I hope that everyone is feeling restored and ready for the summer. Thankfully, there is some lovely Oxford spring weather to make the transition between the vacation and term time a little easier.
The OUBS 2025/6 Committee is looking forward to a much more relaxed term, and eagerly anticipate (although we are sad to leave our roles behind!) the election of the next Committee in 6th week. We can't wait to see what next year's Committee will bring to the table, after such an exciting and successful year for the Society.
Remember to keep up with us on our socials, including our new Instagram handle!
Instagram: @oxbyzsoc
Bluesky: @oxunibyzantinesoc.bsky.social
X/Twitter: @oxbyz (if you do follow us on X, we are transitioning over to Bluesky, so please do follow us there in the first instance)
All my best,
Madeleine.
For those wishing to submit an event, call for papers, job or scholarship opportunity to the Byzness please send details to the committee at byzantin...@gmail.com indicating the relevant list for The Byzness our external to Oxford and year-round newsletter or The Byzantine Lists our Oxford-centered events and circulated only in term-time. Please keep listing brief and include all relevant information in the body of the notice. Outside of exceptional circumstances, we only share events once.
Summer Semester Lecture Series at LMU Munich: Byzantine Studies & NOMOS Project
This summer semester, the Chair of Byzantine Studies at LMU Munich and the NOMOS Project are delighted to host a distinguished series of lectures featuring prominent scholars in our respective fields. Please find the complete programme below.
23 April 2026, 16:00
Prof. Dr. Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
Monastic Settlement Expansion after the Arab Conquest: Revising the Narrative
Ludwigstr. 28, Raum 026
NOMOS Project: For online registration, please send an email to byzant...@mu.de
5 May 2026, 16:00
Dr. Adrian Pirtea
Byzantium in the Seventh Century: Insights from the New Maronite Chronicle of 713
Amalienstr. 52, Historicum, Raum K201
21 May 2026, 16:00
Daniil Pleshak
Photius' Circle and Islam
Oettingenstr. 67, Raum U139
NOMOS Project: For online registration, please send an email to byzant...@mu.de
1 June 2026, 16:00
Prof. Dr. Stefanos Katsikas
Greece and Islam: The Greek Culture of Memory between Remembering and Forgetting
Veterinärstr. 1, Raum 009
In collaboration with Lehrstuhl für Turkologie/Iranistik
8 June 2026, 18:00
Prof. Dr. Vasilis Marinis
The Biography of an Illuminated Liturgical Scroll: Jerusalem, Greek Patriarchal Library, Stavrou 109
Ludwigstr. 28, Raum 026
9 June 2026, 16:00
Prof. Dr. Verena Krebs
Dream Byzantines: 'Rome' in Late Medieval Solomonic Ethiopia
Amalienstr. 52, Historicum, Raum K201
2 July 2026, 16:00
Prof. lic. iur. can. Dr. jur. Dr. phil. Hubert Kaufhold
Die Beschäftigung mit dem Recht der orientalischen Christen in der Vergangenheit und heute
Ludwigstr. 28, Raum 026
NOMOS Project: For online registration, please send an email to byzant...@mu.de
9 July 2026, 16:00
Dr. Narine Vardanyan
The Reflection of Inter-Religious Relations in the 'Armenian Book of Canons' (Kanonagirk' Hayots’)
Ludwigstr. 28, Raum 026
NOMOS Project: For online registration, please send an email to byzant...@mu.de
14 July 2026, 16:00
Prof. Dr. Kostis Smyrlis
Lords and Peasants: The Transformation of Byzantium, 11th–14th Century
Amalienstr. 52, Historicum, Raum K201
16 July 2026, 16:00
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Tonio Richter
From Declaration (homologia) to Writ (khartês): The Alteration of Coptic Legal Instruments from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century
Ludwigstr. 28, Raum 026
NOMOS Project: For online registration, please send an email to byzant...@mu.de
We look forward to seeing you at these lectures.
Course: The Greek Book in the Renaissance at the California Rare Book School
https://www.calrbs.org/the-greek-book-in-the-renaissance-2026/
This course explores the material and literary evolution of the Greek book and its spread in Europe following the fall of Constantinople and the invention of movable type printing. Through a historical and codicological analysis, it will consider how the paramount transition from manuscript to print influenced the preservation, the transmission and the diffusion of Greek literature and science. This course aims to provide the tools to conduct historical investigations on manuscripts and early printed books in Ancient Greek, as well as to explore and appreciate the changes that took place in the fields of literature, scholarship and typography in Italy during the Renaissance.
The first part of the course will cover the methods of productions of the objects (the manuscript and the printed book) and the study of those material elements that assist historical analysis (paper, writing, binding). The second part will be devoted to the printing in Ancient Greek in Italy during the 15th and the early 16th centuries. After considering the pioneering works carried out in Milan and in Florence, the classes will focus on Aldus Manutius’ revolutionary editions and on the reasons of their success to the present day. Through an in-person observation of these early Greek editions, it will be analysed the textual and graphic evolution of the printed book as an object. As a conclusion, it will be proposed an overview of the most important collections of Greek books during the Renaissance.
Regards littéraires sur Chypre, BnF Richelieu, 11 mai 2026
À l’occasion de l’exposition Chypre à la BnF, l’acteur Georges Corraface propose une lecture d’un florilège de textes consacrés à Chypre dans les années 1950, dernière décennie de la domination britannique sur l’île.
Cette période charnière de l’histoire contemporaine chypriote est évoquée au travers de textes et de poèmes de grandes figures des lettres européennes, qui portèrent chacune un regard personnel sur Chypre : le Français Albert Camus, le Britannique Lawrence Durrell et le Grec Georges Séféris.
Informations et réservations ici : https://www.bnf.fr/fr/agenda/regards-litteraires-sur-chypre
GAZE ܓܰܙܶܐ̈ – The treasures of Syriac - podcast
Last year, Dr. Nunzia di Rienzo and I started a podcast on Syriac Studies. These podcasts are short 15-20 min conversations about a topic in Syriac studies.
If you are interested in speaking on our podcast about a project or topic, we are looking for speakers for new episodes.
We are hopeful about the podcast as a means of growing interest in our field and in the Syriac heritage.
Graduate Students working on dissertations are also welcome.
Please send us a note at jeanneni...@gmail.com or annunziat...@uniroma1.it.
Invitation: Lecture by Leonora Neville, May 7, 2026, 5:00 p.m.
Boğaziçi University Byzantine Studies Research Center cordially invites you to a lecture by Leonora Neville: "From Creation to Constantinople: Byzantine Visions of History".
The lecture will be held at Boğaziçi University, South Campus, Anderson Hall (Temel Bilimler Binası), Room 310 on May 7, 2026 at 5:00 pm.
To register, if you are not affiliated with Boğaziçi University, please contact byzantin...@bogazici.edu.tr
Abstract
How people choose to remember and present their history says a lot about how they understand the world and who they want to be. This lecture explores histories written in the medieval east Roman empire that begin with the Creation of the world and end near their authors' present. These histories describe a continuous flow of time that included characters and stories from classical mythology, the Bible, and ancient historians. Seen from medieval Constantinople, all of these elements merged to create a vision of the past that gave a staring role to the eastern Roman empire and their own society.
Bio:
Leonora Neville studies the culture and society of the Eastern Roman Empire, particularly history writing, and gender. In Anna Komnene: The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian (Oxford 2016) she explained how Anna Komnene's reputation as a power-hungry schemer comes from misunderstanding the rhetoric she used in the Alexiad to portray herself as a good historian, even though she was a woman, and a good woman, even though she wrote history. To make her field more accessible Neville wrote a Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing (Cambridge 2018) and an introduction to Byzantine Gender (Arc 2019). Her most recent book Sailing Away from Byzantium toward east Roman History (Cambridge 2025) makes the case for seeing 'Byzantine' history as one phase in a long Roman empire. She is the John and Jeanne Rowe Professor of Byzantine History and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Annonce d'une école d’été / Announcement of a summer school: École thématique d’été La philologie latine classique et postclassique : questions, méthodes et problèmes
Montpellier, 29 juin – 2 juillet 2026
The summer school "Classical and Post-Classical Latin Philology: Questions, Methods, and Problems," intended for Master's and doctoral students wishing to train in text editing, will take place in Montpellier from June 29 to July 2. The application deadline is May 10, and on-site accommodation is provided (no registration fee). Contact: camille....@umpv.fr
L’école thématique s’adresse à des doctorant•e•s et à des étudiant•e•s inscrit•e•s en M2 dont les recherches s’inscrivent dans le champ de l’édition des textes latins, du latin classique au néo-latin. Les participant•e•s devront avoir des notions en ecdotique acquises lors de stages spécifiques, d’UE dans leur formation universitaire etc., dont ils ou elles devront faire état dans leur candidature. L’objectif est d’approfondir des connaissances et de consolider des compétences méthodologiques dans le domaine de l’ecdotique et de la critique textuelle. Le déroulement de l’école repose sur trois types de modules : des cours d’histoire de la philologie, des ateliers de méthodologie et des conférences autour de cas pratiques (cf. planning).
Le dossier de candidature comprendra :
- Un bref CV
- Une lettre de motivation
- Un résumé des recherches en cours (thèse ou mémoire)
Les participant•e•s seront logé•e•s dans une résidence universitaire à proximité du campus universitaire Saint-Charles. Le transport et les repas ne sont pas pris en charge.
Les dossiers de candidature sont à envoyer au format .pdf avant le 10 mai à : camille....@univ-montp3.fr
Sunoikisis Digital Classics Summer 2026: Digital Scholarly Editions in Classics, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies
The summer semester for the Sunoikisis Digital Classics programme is now online at https://github.com/SunoikisisDC/SunoikisisDC-2025-2026/wiki/Summer-2026-Digital-Classics. Sessions will appear on YouTube on Tuesday afternoons, and if you watch live you can ask questions or join the discussion via the live chat feature. Session pages below include readings, resources, and suggested exercises. All sessions are free to use in learning or teaching, and we would love to hear from you if use these with students.
Sunoikisis Digital Classics Summer 2026
Digital Scholarly Editions in Classics, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies
Convened by:
Monica Berti (University of Leipzig) & Martina Filosa (University of Cologne)
All sessions start at 17:30 CEST and last 90 minutes.
· Tue, April 21, 2026: Introduction to Digital Scholarly Editions (Franz Fischer)
· Tue, April 28, 2026: Tools and Environments for Publishing Digital Scholarly Editions (Chiara Martignano, Roberto Rosselli Del Turco)
· Tue, May 5, 2026: From the Manuscript to the Digital Scholarly Edition (Hannah Busch)
· Tue, May 12, 2026: Linked Open Data in Digital Scholarly Editions (Daniele Fusi, Paolo Monella)
· Tue, May 19, 2026: Wikidata Queries for Greek and Latin Philology (Monica Berti, Camillo Pellizzari)
· Tue, June 2, 2026: Treebanking and annotation to study reception of ancient language and text. Refer to Sunoikisis Digital Classics, Summer 2024, Session 9
· Tue, June 9, 2026: Digital Humanities for Greek and Latin Linguistics and Philology (Valeria Boano, Francesca Dell'Oro, Francesco Mambrini)
· Tue, June 16, 2026: Ancient Languages and Artificial Intelligence (Edward Ross, Chiara Zanchi)
· Tue, June 23, 2026: Digital Objects in Research-Based Teaching (Elisabeth Günther, Sven Günther)
· Tue, June 30, 2026: Digital Editions of Text-Bearing Objects (Seals, Inscriptions etc.) (Chiara Cenati, Lucia Maria Orlandi)
We look forward to seeing many of you there!
Announcing ODFMS - Open Datasets for Medieval Studies
Open Datasets for Medieval Studies is a new annual installment in Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures (Johns Hopkins University Press). This series inaugurates a new genre of research publication for scholars in all fields of the humanities and interpretative social sciences. As such it represents a sea change in the sorts of research publications which can be flagged as CV centerpieces: we champion open-access research datasets as stand-alone publications in their own right by providing post-publication peer reviews within an established scholarly journal.
The Fall 2025 ODFMS installment includes an explanatory preface to the ODFMS series as a whole by the section co-editors (McMichael, Morreale, Torgerson). The editors' more expanded introductory essay (“Review and Reuse”) provides a manifesto for the entire initiative which articulates how humanities disciplines benefit from data-centric research and why a standalone dataset is a distinct and self-contained research product which must be showcased and credited on its own terms.
The Fall 2025 ODFMS installment then models this process of review.
The Datini Letter Collection Dataset is introduced by its creators (Franklin-Lyons, Oleinikov).
That dataset is then peer-reviewed via a field-specific historical contextualization (Miner), and in the context of digital humanities approaches (Graham).
Learn more about the project on the ODFMS webpage. Read each section of the Open Access ODFMS installment with the rest of issue 14.2 on the Digital Philology journal website. Bring this new genre to your own field-specific journal by reaching out to odfms....@gmail.com for guidance and a replicable model of our workflow.
2. CALL FOR PAPERS
CFP: Special annual symposium of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies
Special annual symposium of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies, 13-14 April 202
Symposium annuel spécial de la société canadienne des études syriaques, 13-14 avril 2027
The CSSS will hold a special annual symposium on Friday-Saturday 13-14 April 2027 in honour of Professor Amir Harrak, the founder and long-serving president of the society, at the University of Toronto. The event will honour and commemorate his prolific and wide-ranging work in the field: contributions on all aspects of Syriac studies are welcome. The society plans to publish the proceedings in its journal, the JCSSS (following peer review).
Contributions on all aspects of Syriac studies will be welcome, especially those in which Professor Harrak was active. Speakers will have 20 minutes for their presentation, followed by 10 minutes for questions. Proposals (of no more than 300 words) should be sent to Dr R. Kitchen, robertarde...@gmail.com , by 31 October 2026.
The society will also hold an AGM and one or two lectures on Saturday 14 November 2026 – the regular slot for symposia in past years (although there wasn’t one in 2025). All will be welcome at this event, as usual, which will also be held at the University of Toronto.
CALL FOR PAPERS: 52nd annual Byzantine Studies Conference (Oct 22-25, 2026)
DEADLINE: May 25, 2026
The Fifty-Second Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (BSC) will be held in South Bend, Indiana, from Thursday, October 22, through Sunday, October 25, 2026. The conference will be hosted by the University of Notre Dame. The local arrangements chairs are Alexander Beihammer, Professor of Byzantine History and Co-Chair of the Byzantine Studies Committee, Medieval Institute; Alexis Torrance, Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology and Co-Chair of the Byzantine Studies Committee, Medieval Institute; and Jeff Wickes, Associate Professor of Syriac Christianity and Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute.
The BSC is the annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers on every aspect of Byzantine Studies and on related topics relevant to the field. Conference attendance is open to all, regardless of nationality or academic status.
The Program Committee invites proposals for papers and thematic panels on all topics and in all disciplines related to Byzantine Studies, broadly construed. Paper proposals for the 2026 BSC may be submitted in the form of individual papers or as part of organized panels.
To deliver your paper at the BSC, you must be a member of BSANA in good standing and either enrolled in a graduate program at the time of submission or hold a graduate degree in any field related to Byzantine Studies. We encourage undergraduate attendance but do not accept submissions from undergraduates.
You can join or renew your membership in BSANA and pay your dues according to your current status at: https://bsana.net/members/
For instructions on how to submit a proposal and to learn about funding opportunities, please visit the BSANA website: https://bsana.net/annual-conference/
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Professur (W3) für die Geschichte des Hellenismus
Das Fach Alte Geschichte am Historischen Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) erforscht den Mittelmeerraum und das westliche Eurasien vom dritten Jahrtausend vor unserer Zeitrechnung bis in die Spätantike. Die neu zu besetzende Professur vertritt innerhalb dieses breiten zeitlichen und räumlichen Spektrums die Geschichte des Hellenismus. Die erfolgreiche Bewerberin oder der erfolgreiche Bewerber (m/w/d) soll sich an den interdisziplinären Forschungsaktivitäten des Historischen Seminars sowie der Fakultät beteiligen und sich aktiv in Forschung und Lehre einbringen.
Die Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) möchte eine hervorragend ausgewiesene Persönlichkeit gewinnen, die die nach einem abgeschlossenen Hochschulstudium und einer überdurchschnittlichen Promotion international sichtbare, exzellente Leistungen in Forschung und Lehre erbracht hat.
Bei einer Einstellung im Beamtenverhältnis darf das 52. Lebensjahr zum Zeitpunkt der Ernennung noch nicht vollendet sein. In dringenden Fällen können hiervon Ausnahmen zugelassen werden.
Die LMU bietet Unterstützung für Doppelkarriere-Paare an.
Die LMU strebt eine Erhöhung des Anteils der Frauen in Forschung und Lehre an und bittet deshalb Wissenschaftlerinnen nachdrücklich, sich zu bewerben.
Schwerbehinderte Personen werden bei im Wesentlichen gleicher Qualifikation bevorzugt.
Kontakt:
Bewerbungen mit den üblichen Unterlagen (Lebenslauf, Zeugnisse, Urkunden, Schriften- und Lehrverzeichnis und -Evaluationen) reichen Sie bitte bis zum 22.05.2026 (Eingangsdatum) bei der Dekanin der Fakultät für Geschichts- und Kunstwissenschaften, Prof. Dr. Julia Burkhardt, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, in elektronischer Form über den folgenden Link einzureichen: LINK (Registrierung erforderlich).
Postdoctoral Positions in Ancient Medicine and Ancient Disease and Pandemics at the University of Exeter
The Department of Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology (CAHRT) in the University of Exeter (UK) wishes to recruit two postdoctoral researchers to work within the interdisciplinary project: ‘Pustules, Palaeogenetics and Pandemics from Galen to Rhazes: How to do the Early History of Smallpox and Measles’. This is a Wellcome funded project, PI: Prof. Rebecca Flemming, and these are 4-year posts, starting on 1 September 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.
Postdoctoral Research Associate or Fellow in Ancient Medicine
Postdoctoral Research Associate or Fellow in Ancient Disease and Pandemics (interdisciplinary approaches)
You can find more details of the project, and the research team, through the webpages of Exeter’s Centre for the study of Science, Technology, Ancient Medicine and Philosophy (STAMP).
For an informal discussion about the roles please contact Professor Rebecca Flemming: r.fle...@exeter.ac.uk
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Madeleine Duperouzel
DPhil in History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com