The Byzness, 23rd November 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 23rd November 2025
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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,
7th week is at last upon us! I’m sure there are many looking forward to some respite after what has been a busy, yet wonderfully fulfilling, Michaelmas Term.
It is also the final stretch before the OUBS begins to review submissions for our 28th International Graduate Conference, Decline and Flourish. The quality of the abstracts received so far is extremely impressive, and we cannot wait to receive more of them. There are six days to go, the deadline is this coming Saturday, November 29th. The conference will be held in Oxford & online on February 28th and March 1st 2026. As ever, the conference CfP and poster are attached to this email.
You can also view the full CfP on the OUBS website by following the link here.
Please note that if your attendance at the conference is contingent upon receiving bursary funding, you must specify this when you submit your abstract to us. As with all previous conferences, we have a limited amount of funding available to student speakers who require it for their attendance at the conference.
As preparations ramp up for the conference over Christmas and early Hilary Term, the OUBS will be documenting some of our more exciting endeavours on our social media channels. If you don’t follow us yet, you can find us at the following handles:
Instagram: @ox_byz
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 very 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.
Online Lecture: Learning Late Antiquity: The Quarry Church at Deir al-Ganadla and the Lost Timber Nave
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtot Chair of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the next lecture in the 2025–2026 East of Byzantium lecture series.
December 9, 2025 | Zoom | 12:00–1:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time, UTC -5)
The Quarry Church at Deir al-Ganadla (Asyut, Middle Egypt) and the Lost Timber Nave
Mikael Muehlbauer, Columbia University
This presentation presents the little-known Quarry church of Mary at Deir al-Ganadla (near Asyut) as a tool for students of Late Antiquity to visualize lost timber-roofed basilicas in Egypt as well as the Mediterranean more broadly. The church’s value lies in its mural program, which orders the Pharaonic mine from which it was consecrated into a fictive freestanding basilica. These paintings depict painted timber ephemera from circa 500 that are largely lost to us. By fully documenting this largely unknown church and its decorative schema we may reconstruct elements of freestanding basilicas in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean which lack extant naves. Although modest, Ganadla’s import should not be understated, as it is the most in-tact Late Antique church in Egypt known.
Mikael Muehlbauer is Lecturer in the Discipline of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. He is a specialist in the architecture of Medieval Ethiopia, Egypt and the textile arts of the Western Indian Ocean world.
Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjc...@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
"How Mediterranean French Became a Language of Contact between East and West" (25 November: online)
The German Historical Institutes in Paris and Rome present: "How Mediterranean French Became a Language of Contact between East and West”
Speaker: Uri Zvi Shachar (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Discussant: Robert Friedrich (Munich, Germany)
Tuesday, 25 November 2025, 5:00-6:00 PM CET, via Zoom
Please register to receive the access details: https://maxweberstiftung.zoom.us/meeting/register/0axsSMZQRtC61but3AYwDA#/registration
In the second half of the thirteenth century a linguistic shift started to unfold where vernacular languages began to flourish. Throughout the Mediterranean, French came increasingly to be seen as a language appropriate for philosophy, scripture, and science. The theory that lay behind this shift involved the idea that French is inherently "translatable", that it is uniquely capable of maintaining contact with neighboring idioms. This idea emerged in many works, but most prominently and early it is found in a little known and somewhat forgotten compendium, called the "Book of Sidrac", which spearheaded the attempt to articulate the epistemology of Mediterranean French. With a focus on the prologue of this fascinating work, the seminar will discuss how Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean became a site of intellectual, spiritual and linguistic contact, and what theoretical models were set in place to make this contact possible.
E-Card: https://www.dhi-roma.it/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-dateien/Veranstaltungsprogramme/2025/20251125_E-Card_Medieval-Entangelements.pdf
For more information about of the seminar series "Euro-Mediterranean Entanglements in Medieval History": https://www.dhi-roma.it/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-dateien/Veranstaltungsprogramme/2025/Programme_Euro-Mediterranean-Entanglements-in-Medieval-History_2025-2026.pdf
2. CALL FOR PAPERS
CfP: Mirages of Byzantium across the Arts in France (1821–1931)
From 1821, the year the Greek War of Independence broke out—a conflict in which France played an active part and which contributed to the rediscovery of a still littleknown medieval Greek heritage—to 1931, the year of the first international exhibition of Byzantine art in Paris, the French fascination with Byzantium steadily increased. This enthusiasm found expression across all artistic fields: painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts, but also the performing arts, fashion, and cinema. Parallel to the rediscovery or reinvention of Western medieval art during the same period, Byzantium, elusive and dreamlike, accompanied the emergence of a new field that, over these same decades, was taking shape and becoming institutionalized: Byzantine studies. In the current dynamic context of renewed historiographical attention to Byzantium, its collections, and the approaches developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this conference aims to examine the reception of Byzantium through artistic production and creative processes. The focus will be on works created in France, while also encouraging comparative perspectives with those produced in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, in the Americas, and around the Mediterranean. Set against aesthetic, political, religious, and scholarly dynamics, the creations of French artists reveal multiple visions of Byzantium, shaped by their chosen techniques and by the periods in which they worked. Without excluding other perspectives, proposals may address one of the following themes:
The Discovery of Byzantine Art by Artists
From the Romantic period onward, artists encountered Byzantine art during travels in Italy (Ravenna, Venice, Sicily), Greece, Russia, or the Ottoman Empire. Architects, painters, and photographers copied churches, mosaics, and objects from different periods. Others, remaining in France, discovered Byzantium through Byzantine works in public and private collections, where their gaze was enriched by a constant dialogue with scholars and Byzantinists at the intersection of artistic practice and erudite study.
A Religious and Mystical Byzantium
For many French artists of the Romantic era—and for some continuing into the twentieth century—Byzantium appeared above all as a realm of religion and mysticism. Church and funerary architects and decorators drew inspiration from Byzantine religious buildings and from architectural and ornamental motifs, or from what was then considered “Byzantine.” French church interiors of this period display hieratic compositions, golden backgrounds, and mosaics that evoke this spiritualized vision.
A Fantasized, Decadent, and Oriental Byzantium
By the late nineteenth century, a fantasized Byzantium—decadent, orientalized—was staged in painting and sculpture exhibited at the Salon, in decorative painting, in book and novel illustration, and in posters. These representations often focused on major figures and dramatic episodes of Byzantine history: emperors and empresses— above all Theodora, who stood at the center of a true “Theodoramania” sparked by Victorien Sardou’s famous play. Patriarchs, ascetic monks, and the sumptuous ceremonial life of the Byzantine court were also recurring themes. This imagery extended into popular culture, particularly through cinema.
Byzantium and Modernities
For the avant-gardes of the twentieth century, Byzantium became an ambivalent source of inspiration. The brilliance of its golds, the intensity of its colors, the richness of its materials, and its rejection of mimetic representation offered a visual language freed from Western conventions. Artists recognized in it an art at once abstract and hieratic, yet sensual and vibrant—a fertile ground for reinventing forms and techniques. Matisse found inspiration in the frontal radiance of icons; Maurice Denis in the decorative and symbolic power of mosaics; Rouault in its spiritual and expressive intensity. Many other artists, often working at the margins of mainstream recognition, also drew upon this legacy.
Proposals exploring these less familiar engagements are especially welcome.
Papers will be thirty minutes in length. Proposals, in French or English, of no more than 2,000 characters, accompanied by a title and a brief biographical note of no more than 500 characters, should be sent by November 30, 2025 to: francois.d...@univ-lyon3.fr and adrien.p...@louvre.fr
Scientic and Organisational Committee François de Vergnette (LARHRA), Maximilien Durand (Département des Arts de Byzance et des Chrétientés en Orient, Musée du Louvre), Ioanna Rapti (EPHE), Rémi Labrusse (EHESS), Édouard Papet (Musée d’Orsay), Adrien Palladino (Département des Arts de Byzance et des Chrétientés en Orient, Musée du Louvre)
CfP: New Ancient Greek Literature: Contexts, Audiences, Legacies, KU Leuven, July 8–10, 2026
Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2025
Notifications of acceptance: 1 February 2026
Registration fee: 50 euros
The ongoing HellBel project organizes an international conference devoted to the vibrant but understudied phenomenon of New Ancient Greek (NAG) or Humanist Greek literature (also known as e.g. Neo-Greek). This body of texts, composed primarily during the Renaissance and the early modern period but by no means limited to it, sought to revive and reinvent classical Greek as a living literary language, bridging antiquity and Byzantium with the authors’ contemporary intellectual landscapes.
Our conference aims to explore NAG literature not simply as a philological curiosity but as a dynamic cultural practice — crafted by specific authors, for specific audiences, and shaped by particular literary and performative conventions.
We invite proposals for papers on any topic relevant to the subject matter of the conference. We especially welcome contributions engaging with the following themes
Author, Audience & Performance: How were NAG texts intended to be read, heard, or staged? What roles did rhetorical training, manuscript/print culture, visual presentation, or oral delivery play in their production and reception? How did NAG authors influence each other, whether within Greek or across languages
Byzantine Legacy: In what ways did Byzantine literature (and collections such as the Greek Anthology), scholarship, or (religious) culture influence the content, form, and function of NAG texts?
The Epic Tradition: How did humanist authors imitate and emulate the epic tradition in Greek? What narrative, metrical, linguistic, or ideological strategies did they adopt, adapt, or transform?
We welcome proposals from scholars across disciplines including (but not limited to) classical studies, Byzantine studies, Neo-Latin and New Ancient Greek philology, Renaissance studies, performance studies, and intellectual history.
Please submit a title & abstract (max. 300 words) and a biographical note (max.100 words) to hel...@kuleuven.be
Participants are expected to arrange their own travel and accommodation. We may be able to reimburse some of the expenses of early career researchers who have no funding of their own. Please indicate this in your submission.
Call for applications - Spring School Les Fabriques de l'antique à Oxford, 23-27 March 2026, Oxford
applications must be submitted by 4 December 2025.
Présentation de la Spring School
Le Grand programme de recherche (GPR) PSL “Les fabriques de l’antique” (FAn) organise
son école de printemps à Oxford du 23 au 27 mars 2026, en collaboration avec la Maison
française d’Oxford. Cette “Spring School” intensive est destinée aux étudiants inscrits à PSL, en Master 2 (ou équivalent) ou dans les trois premières années de doctorat. Elle offre une immersion unique au cœur des enjeux du projet FAn : comment les sociétés, anciennes comme modernes, construisent-elles leurs expériences du temps et leurs représentations de l’antique ? Le programme s'articulera autour des trois axes scientifiques de FAn, avec une journée dédiée à chacun :
Axe 1 : La construction du temps et ses enjeux
Axe 2 : Constructions et représentations de l'antique
Axe 3 : Le façonnement linguistique du monde : les langues et écritures comme objets
historiques
Les matinées seront consacrées à des conférences suivies de discussions entre chercheurs et participants, afin de sensibiliser ces derniers aux questions thématiques et méthodologiques du programme. Les après midis permettront une mise en pratique exceptionnelle grâce à des ateliers sur sources primaires au sein des collections de l'Ashmolean Museum, de la Bodleian Library et du Musée d'histoire des sciences d’Oxford.
Comité scientifique : Olivier Delouis (CNRS), Vincent Eltschinger (EPHE-PSL), Matthieu Husson (Observatoire de Paris-PSL), Vassa Kontouma (EPHE-PSL), Daniel Petit (ENS- PSL et EPHE-PSL), Andréas Stauder (EPHE-PSL), Stéphane Van Damme (directeur de la Maison française d’Oxford). Pour en savoir plus sur le programme FAn, suivez ce lien.
Organisation
Les langues d’intervention seront l’anglais et le français. Une maîtrise suffisante de l'anglais est requise pour assister et pouvoir participer à cet événement. L’inscription à la Spring School est gratuite. Le programme FAn prendra en charge le transport des étudiants depuis Paris jusqu’à Oxford, les quatre nuits à Oxford, ainsi que les repas. Les candidats retenus s’engageront à participer à l'ensemble de la Spring School, qui se
déroulera du lundi 23 mars 2026 au matin (départ de Paris) au vendredi 27 mars 2026 en
soirée (retour à Paris).
Candidature
Le dossier de candidature sera constitué d’un unique fichier .pdf, portant indication du
nom et du prénom du candidat, dans la forme « NOM_Prénom_SpringSchool FAn
2026.pdf », et réunissant, dans cet ordre, les pièces suivantes :
- Un Curriculum Vitae
- Une lettre de motivation du candidat exposant l’intérêt de cette Spring School pour
ses recherches présentes et à venir
- Une présentation des recherches de master ou de doctorat (2 pages maximum)
- Une lettre de soutien du directeur ou de la directrice du M2 (ou équivalent) ou de
la thèse doctorale.
Les dossiers de candidature devront être envoyés au plus tard le jeudi 4 décembre 2025
(23h59, heure de Paris) à l’adresse : con...@fab-antique.fr. Les dossiers envoyés
ultérieurement ne seront pas retenus. Tous les dossiers font l’objet d’un accusé de
réception au plus tard une semaine après leur réception. Les candidats recevront une
réponse le 15 décembre 2025.
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Mary Jaharis Centre Dissertation Grants
Mary Jaharis Center Dissertation Grants are awarded to advanced graduate students working on Ph.D. dissertations in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. These grants are meant to help defray the costs of research-related expenses, e.g., travel, photography/digital images, microfilm.
Please apply via the Mary Jaharis Interfolio Portfolio, details here
https://maryjahariscenter.org/grants/dissertation-grant-20262027
Funding: For the 2026–2027 grant cycle, up to 4 grants of $4000 will be awarded.
Application Deadline: The application deadline is February 1, 2026.
Eligibility: All graduate students whose primary research focuses on an aspect of Byzantine studies are eligible. Applicants must have an approved dissertation project by the application date.
Evaluation: Applications will be evaluated using the following criteria:
Significance: The extent to which the proposed dissertation research will make an original and important contribution to the field of inquiry it addresses.
Approach: The extent to which the conceptual framework and methodology are clearly presented and appropriate for the proposed research.
Need: The extent to which the funding will make a significant contribution toward the completion of the dissertation.
Terms
Funds must be used between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027.
Names of recipients and their projects will be published on the MJC website.
Recipients will submit by 1 September 2027 a brief report (400–500 words) outlining the work accomplished during the grant period and explaining how the grant money was used.
Recipients will submit by 1 September 2027 a précis (200–250 words) of her/his report highlighting the work accomplished during the grant period. The précis will be posted on the MJC website.
In any publications resulting from the grant, the recipient will acknowledge the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.
Grants may be combined with other funding sources.
Funds awarded to international applicants may be subject to US tax withholding. International applicants will receive funds in US dollars via wire transfer.
Recipients will be expected to carry out the activities outlined in their project statement. Any significant divergence from the original proposal should be reported to the Mary Jaharis Center.
Contact: For questions about the grant, the application process, or reimbursement, contact Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.
Retracing Connections Summer School on Translating and Narrating in the Middle Ages, CEU, Vienna Campus, May 25–29, 2026
What happens when stories are translated into new languages? Is translating a narrative different from translating any other type of discourse? What techniques do medieval translators use to render narratives in different languages or linguistic registers? How does the transfer affect things like the narrative structure, the characters, and the spatial setting? What does such a transfer mean for the understanding of a story? Do narrative translations overcome the difference between languages or do they produce and reinforce it by construing languages as enclosed units? And how can we, as modern scholars, approach these issues from a well-informed and theorized position?
While narratology has gained ground in the study of medieval literature over the past decades, the combination of narratology and translation studies is still fairly unexplored. And yet, medieval texts are brimming with exciting examples of translation strategies that greatly affect both content and narrative form, ranging from ‘Translation Rigidly Conceived’ to creative adaptations and rewritings. Simultaneously, a curious affinity seems to exist between medieval translation practices and postmodern translation theory. Medieval practices and postmodern theory both seem to embrace the creative potential of translation, accept its non-linear and prismatic itineraries, defy the notions of single authoritative versions, and tolerate hybridity and ambiguity.
At the Retracing Connections summer school, instead of dissecting the details of texts translated between specific languages, we rather wish to offer theoretical frameworks and methodological tools for working with translational material that can be considered from any narratological angle. A variety of medieval languages will be included, but the reading materials will be made available in English for the convenience of the participants. Since written translation was just one of the vehicles for traveling stories, its relation to other means of transport, such as images or objects, will also be considered.
The program will include keynote lectures by renowned scholars of narrative and translation, ambulatory workshops on pre-circulated medieval and theoretical texts, and doctoral thesis seminars where participants will receive comments on their ongoing research from tutors and peers. Confirmed keynote lecturers include Matthew Reynolds, Ingela Nilsson and Emilie van Opstall. The workshop topics will include material and political aspects of translation, cultural adaptations, the figures of translators, self-narratives across linguistic traditions, decolonial considerations and digital methodologies.
The summer school will take place at the Central European University in Vienna, 25–29 May 2026. Doctoral students of any level whose work involves translated narratives are encouraged to apply. Funding for travel and accommodation (5 nights) for up to twelve participants is available.
Doctoral students of any level working on translated medieval narratives can apply. Limited funding for travel and accommodation available.
Send:
- One page CV
- One page letter of interest
- One page thesis summary
- Letter of recommendation
As a single PDF document to milan.vu...@lingfil.uu.se by 30 November 2025.
Doctoral Researcher in History of Knowledge of the Medieval World, Kiel University
The Cluster of Excellence ROOTS (Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies) at Kiel University explores the deep history of tightly intertwined social and environmental processes, in order to explain their long-term developments and to understand how they resonate into the present. ROOTS combines expertise from a wide array of disciplines ranging from archaeology to other natural sciences, life sciences, and humanities, creating a unique bridge between different scientific cultures. The ROOTS experts are organized into six subclusters (Hazards, Dietary, Knowledge, Urban, Inequalities, Conflict), three supportive research platforms (Technical Platform, Data Management and Data Science Platform, Outreach and Dissemination Platform), as well as diverse central units (ROOTS Academy, Reflective Turn Forum, Methods Nucleus) to collectively pursue a research agenda targeting key parameters of socio-environmental connectivity related to (1) human subsistence and biodiversity; (2) inequality and conflict; (3) technology and environmental impact; (4) boundaries and well-being.
ROOTS will be housed in the ARCWorlds research building, which is currently being established at Kiel University, in a few years’ time. It will offer high-end infrastructure to realize innovative interdisciplinary research.
For its 2nd phase, ROOTS is offering several new career opportunities for early career researchers within the ROOTS Academy on both doctoral and postdoctoral levels. Therefore, we invite applications for the following research positions.
The following positions are to be filled at the 01st of July 2026:
a) 5 positions as postdoctoral Researchers,
b) 9 positions as doctoral Researchers (phd)
All application documents must be submitted in English (except for master’s theses, certificates must be in English or German at least). Please be sure to include the reference number of the position you are applying for at the beginning of your cover letter! Please send your application as a single PDF file to:
Search Committee
Speaker Prof. Dr. Martin Furholt,
Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Kiel University,
Leibnizstraße 3
24118 Kiel
Germany
via e-mail appli...@roots.uni-kiel.de
The application deadline for all positions is December 15, 2025.
We expressly do not require photographs/application photos and therefore ask that you refrain from submitting them. Please note that all documents will be destroyed after the recruitment process has been completed. Certificates of equivalence for foreign qualifications must be enclosed with the application. Interviews are expected to take place in Kiel at the end of February 2026.
If you have any questions, please contact the person listed in the individual job advertisements.
PhD opportunities in Classics and Ancient History at Warwick
The Department of Classics and Ancient History at Warwick is currently seeking expressions of interest for students looking to undertake doctoral study from 2026/27.
The department has research expertise in Greek and Latin literature, ancient Greek drama, numismatics, the medical humanities and Greco-Arabic studies, epigraphy, ancient space, art and archaeology, as well as Greek and Roman history and material culture more broadly. An overview of our research clusters can be found at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/interests/. Individual staff profiles can be found at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/staff/. The department has a lively research environment, with weekly seminars and training activities during term time and conferences throughout the year.
Interested students are encouraged to contact a potential supervisor or Professor Caroline Petit, Director of Graduate Studies (C.C.L. Pe...@warwick.ac.uk) to begin to develop project proposals as soon as possible; better developed proposals generally are more successful in obtaining funding.
Please note the following deadlines for :
-applications for a place to study with us : 8 December
-applications for funding: 11 December
The University of Warwick offers the following scholarship schemes for Autumn 2026 Entry:
Chancellors Scholarships (Faculty & Interdisciplinary)
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Scholarships
Doctoral Access Scholarships- Sanctuary
Doctoral Access Scholarships – Pathway
Shanghai Jiao Tong University – Warwick Joint Scholarship (SJTU)
Monash – Warwick Alliance Joint Scholarships (MWA)
China Scholarship Council – Warwick Joint Scholarships (CSC)
Applicants will submit a single application and will automatically be considered for all funding opportunities for which they are eligible.
More information here: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/dc/schols_fund/applicants/competitions/
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Madeleine Duperouzel
DPhil in History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com