The Byzness, 19th January 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 19th January 2025
====
1.
NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
====
Happy New Year to everyone (perhaps slightly late), OUBs would like to start the new year off by sharing with you details about our upcoming graduate conference.
Entitled “Byzantium and its environment” the conference will run from the 1st-2nd March here in Oxford, as well as online via Zoom. The focus will be on natural and environmental history throughout the Late Antique and Byzantine period.
For the full schedule and abstracts, as well as details of how you can register, please see here.
1. NEWS AND EVENTS
Greek Palaeography Course | American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Application deadline: April 15, 2025
2025/2026 Winter-term (November through January) Hybrid, non-credit seminar, with the generous support of Dumbarton Oaks
This new course is an introduction to post-classical Greek book culture (4th – 16th c. CE), the study of Greek literary scripts from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance, the transmission history of Greek texts, and the theories and techniques of textual criticism. Students become acquainted with the history of books, the contexts and agents of their production, the history of libraries, manuscript collections, and early printed books, and the transmission of Greek classical literature as well as post-classical, patristic, and Byzantine literature. Unlike the Gennadius Medieval Greek Summer Session which includes some rudimentary introduction to Greek scripts, this seminar provides in-depth training in reading and dating different scripts, as well as in studying textual transmission, and in editing ancient, medieval, and early modern Greek texts.
There is no need to have taken the Gennadius Medieval Greek Summer Session to apply for this course. A minimum of four semesters of Ancient Greek (or equivalent) is required.
The course will be taught by Dr. Stratis Papaioannou (Director of Research at the National Hellenic Research Foundation; Senior Fellow, Dumbarton Oaks) and will be open to eight graduate and recent Ph.D. holders (Ph.D. earned within the last five years) specializing on any relevant subject (Classics, History, Art History, Archaeology, Religious Studies, Biblical Studies, Renaissance Studies, Comparative Literature, etc.) and studying in universities in the US and around the globe. A maximum of 10 program participants will be accepted.
For more information about the course please see here.
Two Language Summer Schools – HMML at St. John’s University, Collegeville
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota are hosting two language summer schools:
Introduction to Classical Armenian — July 7--August 1, 2025 (in person)
Deadline: February 24, 2025
This is in partnership with Dumbarton Oaks, who are generously covering all costs for this years course. Participants will have to cover their own travel costs to and from Collegeville. For more information please see here.
Introduction to Arabic Manuscript Studies — June 23—27, 2025 (virtual)
Deadline: March 3, 2025
For graduate students, advanced undergraduates, faculty, and independent scholars with a research interest in Arabic manuscripts. The program welcomes international applicants. For more information please see here.
Shifting Frontiers XVI
Registration for Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity XVI is now open. The conference will be held at the University of Tulsa (in Tulsa, Oklahoma) March 20-23, 2025. Its theme is “Gender, Identity, and Authority in Late Antiquity.” Additional information, including the current program, logistics, and a link for registration can be found here.
There is a slight discount for anyone that registers before February 1st.
Summer School in Latin and Greek Codicology and Palaeography 2025 (C.E.U)
Date: 30 June – 4 July 2025.
Place: Central European University, Summer University (SUN), Budapest, Hungary
Description: The 5-day intensive course includes Latin and Greek practical palaeography seminars, study of script history and abbreviation systems, instruction in textual criticism with practical assignment producing Latin and Greek critical editions, lectures in codicology and diplomatics, and hands-on experience during visits to manuscript collections. The intensive small-group palaeography seminars will run in four parallel options: beginner and advanced Latin palaeography and beginner and advanced Greek palaeography.
Main target audience: PhD and MA students and early career researchers and faculty within the fields of Manuscript Studies, Medieval Studies, Byzantine Studies, Classics, and History.
Fees: 600EUR. Partial tuition wavers (fee of 450EUR) are available on a competitive basis.
Course webpage: Summer School in Latin and Greek Codicology and Palaeography | CEU Summer University
“John of Ephesus: His Profile Among the Historians of Late Antiquity”, Lecture by Muriel Debié (Frankfurt-Leuven)
The Frankfurt-Leuven project “Commentary on John of Ephesus’s Ecclesiastical History” organizes a series of occasional lectures on John of Ephesus. These are open to the public via Zoom. The next lecture will be given by Muriel Debié (Paris) on Wednesday, 29 January, at 5 pm CEST (4 pm London time). Muriel will be talking on “John of Ephesus: His Profile Among the Historians of Late Antiquity”.
The Zoom link can be found here.
Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art: "Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century"
Dr. Benjamin Anderson and Dr. Emily Neumeier in Conversation
Friday, January 31, 2025, 4–5:30 PM
Hybrid: In-person at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Room Arch 104
Temple University, 2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia PA 19122.
Virtual via Zoom, please register here.
Hagia Sophia—a building whose domes have defined Istanbul’s skyline for over 1500 years—has led many lives. Initially a Byzantine church, subsequently an Ottoman mosque, then a museum, the structure is today a monument of world heritage, even as its official status remains contested. Hagia Sophia’s global fame took shape during the long nineteenth century, when Europeans "discovered" its architectural significance. But what role did local actors play in the creation of Hagia Sophia as a modern monument?
Dr. Benjamin Anderson, Associate Professor of the History of Art and Classics, Cornell University, and Dr. Emily Neumeier, Assistant Professor of Art History, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, will discuss these ideas, stemming from their newly co-edited book, Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024, Edinburgh University Press).
The event is free and open to the public. The Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art— this year dedicated to the memory of Robert G. Ousterhout—is generously sponsored by Lynn Jackson. Additional support comes from Temple University's General Activities Fund (GAF) and the Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT).
Unveiling Sacred Soundscapes: “Devotional Music and Rituals of Sabbatians in Late Ottoman Cross-Cultural Context”, by Hadar Feldman Samet (Tel Aviv University)
Thursday, February 6th, 2025, 5pm - 6pm GMT
Aurality & Devotion in the Pre-Modern World, a project sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University, invites you to virtual gathering on zoom for a lecture on Unveiling Sacred Soundscapes: Devotional Music and Rituals of Sabbatians in Late Ottoman Cross-Cultural Context by Hadar Feldman Samet (Tel Aviv University).
To register and receive a zoom link, please complete this online form by February 3, 2025.
or email Georgia Frank (gfr...@colgate.edu)
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Call for Papers: Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule II
Following the success of the online workshop ‘Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule’ in December 2023, the research group ‘Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period’ (SCORE, University of Hamburg) will host a follow-up event in December 2025. On this occasion, the workshop will focus especially, though not exclusively, on material culture.
The workshop will comprise a two-day fully online event, taking as its focus the region of Armenia between the first Muslim invasions and the establishment of the Bagratuni Kingdom, i.e. seventh to ninth centuries CE/first to third centuries AH.
Contributions will be welcome on any aspect of material culture, for instance – but by no means limited to – monumental architecture, coins, inscriptions, ceramics, glassware or metalwork. Papers addressing Armenian society under caliphal rule by means of other types of evidence (e.g. texts or climatic data) will also be considered.
As in 2023, the workshop will be a compact and focused event running on two consecutive afternoons only, thereby facilitating the participation of scholars in multiple time zones. The dates of the workshop are fixed as Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 December 2025. Papers will be pre-circulated among speakers (though need not be polished) two weeks in advance, i.e. by Monday 24 November 2025.
Following the workshop, revised versions of the papers will be requested from contributors, to be submitted as a dossier for publication. This publication will form a sequel to the volume currently in preparation from the workshop of 2023.
If you would like to participate in the workshop, please send an abstract of around 250 words to alasdai...@uni-hamburg.de by Monday 31 March 2025. Preliminary expressions of interest or questions about the event are also warmly welcome at any time before the deadline.
"Balkan Gambit: Southeastern Europe between east and west (1185 – 1285)"
Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“, The Institute of Balkan Studies with Center for Thracology and The Institute for Historical Studies at The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are pleased to invite you to participate in the International conference "BALKAN GAMBIT: SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (1185 – 1285)". The scientific forum is dedicated to the 820th anniversary of the Battle of Adrianople (April 14, 1205) between the armies of the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan and the Latin Emperor Baldwin I of Flanders and will be held in hybrid format on April 14 and 15 2025 at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and online in the Zoom platform.
The aim of the International conference "BALKAN GAMBIT: SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (1185 – 1285)" is to present new perspectives and contributions to the study of the dynamic events and processes that marked the region of the Balkan Peninsula in the turbulent century from the time of the third Norman invasion of Byzantine lands and the restoration of the Bulgarian state to the end of the era of confrontation between the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus and the Sicilian King Charles I of Anjou. The conference will focus on the encounter, clash and mutual influences between East and West in the European Southeast and their impact on the Balkan societies in this period.
Paper topics may include, but are not limited to: History, Archaeology, Art History, Epistolography, Numismatics, Sigillography, Manuscript Studies, Warfare and Culture of War, Culture of Everyday Life, Prosopography, Ethnic/Identity Studies, Spatial and Topography Studies, Ecclesiastical Studies, Network Studies, Climatology and Environmental History, Philology, Folklore and Ethnographic Studies.
Conference working languages: Bulgarian and English.
Travel and accommodation expenses are to be provided by participants.
A conference proceedings volume will be published containing all of the papers.
Please submit applications for participation, together with the title of the paper and an abstract of up to 300 words by 15.03.2024 to: balkangambi...@balkanstudies.bg.
International Conference: "Entangled Christianities"
An international conference entitled “Entangled Christianities: 100-1500 CE” will be held in Greece on November 24-26, 2025, at the Orthodox Academy of Crete (www.oac.gr/en), in Kolymbari, Chania, Crete.
This conference explores the diverse manifestations of global Christianities from the early first to the mid-second Millennium CE and its “entanglement” with diverse local cultures and contexts. For example, what did it mean to be Christian in medieval Kiev? What enabled Christians in the Middle East to maintain their faith identity under Muslim domination? To what extent did Christianity lend a sense of homogeneity to its practitioners through its eclectic nature and vast global reach? We invite papers dealing with the theme of “entanglement” and the complex influences, interactions, and intersections within and between different varieties of global Christianity across the period 100–1500. The history of Christianity is not a monolithic narrative but a tapestry woven from diverse threads of doctrine, theology, practice, and belief. Entangled Christianities aims to unravel the individual threads that form this complex tapestry to gain a more nuanced understanding of the overall makeup of historical Christianity in its global contexts.
For more information about the conference and the Call for Papers, you can visit the link here.
The Acts of the Council of Nicaea I (325). Issues and perspectives
Sept. 3rd-5th 2025 – Issenheim (Alsace)
It would be strange if a council such as that of Nicaea, convened by the Emperor Constantine and whose decisions the Emperor attached so much importance to, had not been conducted in a formal manner and had not had notaries to draw up a stenography of its debates (...). But all this plausibility does not mean that we find any trace of the acta of Nicaea“ wrote Pierre Batiffol (”Les sources de l'histoire du concile de Nicée”, REByz 1925, 386-387). The lack of proceedings was felt early on, as false acts were put into circulation as early as the 4th century. Documents purporting to record the decisions of the Council of Nicaea were gradually circulated notably in Greek, Lan, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopian.
This conference will seek to determine whether official acts of the Council of Nicaea ever existed and, to this end, will re-examine the ancient testimonies on this issue. It will review the hypotheses and methodology used to reconstruct the Nicene Creed, and examine the textual history of the Council's canons and lists of signatures. While seeking to distinguish between authentic and inauthentic documents, it will above all examine forgeries as witnesses to the reception of the Council of Nicaea in the various forms of Christianity up to the beginning of the second millennium, and even beyond.
Main keynote Speakers: Alessandro B AUSI (Sapienza Università di Roma), Costanza BIANCHI (Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII), Alberto CAMPLANI (Sapienza Università di Roma), Thomas GRAUMANN (University of Cambridge), Uta HEIL (Universität Wien).
Proposals for contributions (title and abstract, in the usual scientific languages) should be sent before March 1rst to R. Gounelle (rgou...@unistra.fr) and C Guignard (c.gui...@unistra.fr). Papers on mentions of the Acts of Nicaea in ancient and medieval literature, on Greek and Lan, Armenian, Georgian and Slavic textual traditions, and on signature lists, will be parcularly welcome.
The organizers will cover accommodation and meals, but not travel expenses.
Call for Contributions to Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts 2 (2025)
The Editorial Board of Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts invites contributions of articles for the next volume of the journal to be published in 2025.
Valonia is an international, double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by Koç University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) (https://valoniajournal.org). Appearing online and in limited print runs, the journal aims to bring forth in a timely manner selections of the latest innovative, critical, and synthetic scientific research on the broad range of subjects that fall within ANAMED's mission: the archaeology, architectural and art history, heritage, and history of Anatolia and its affiliated geographies, from deep prehistory through Late Ottoman times. Valonia publishes one special or one open-topic issue per year. The selection of topics for special issues as well as articles for open issues aims for chronologically and disciplinarily balanced representation.
Contributions for publication can be submitted at any time via the journal's website (https://valoniajournal.org). The deadline for submission of articles for Volume 2, which is an open topic issue to be published in 2025, is 1 May 2025.
For the journal's style guide and other guidelines for
submission,
see https://valoniajournal.org/submission-guidelines.
For the journal's general policies, see https://valoniajournal.org/journal-policies.
Please direct questions to val...@ku.edu.tr.
Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts (ISSN: 3062-0902) is an Open Access journal, and all articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Two postdoctoral fellowships: History of Political Thought at Ghent University
The Ghent Centre for Late Antiquity, Ghent University (https://www.gcla.ugent.be/) is offering two fellowships as part of the ERC Advanced Grant Project New Polities. Political Thought in the First Millennium, directed by Prof. P. Van Nuffelen. They are open to scholars specializing in Hebrew, Middle-Persian or Arabic sources. The deadline for application is 1 April 2025.
YOUR TASKS
· At least 70% of your assignment will be spent on academic research.
· The ERC Advanced Grant project New Polities. Political Thought in the First Millennium studies political thought in the Mediterranean world, starting from the Roman Empire until the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid Empires. It pays close attention to the many religious and political communities of the period, ranging from new states to religious communities (within Judaeism, Christianity, Manicheism and Islam). The project covers sources in many languages, including Hebrew, Middle-Persian and Arabic.
· Within this framework, you will write a monograph on a topic related to the project’s aims, including (but not limited to) concepts of social relations, utopias, virtue, law, economic thought and the relation between society, nature and the cosmos.
· The monograph will focus primarily on sources in Hebrew, Middle-Persian or Arabic, but a comparative perspective is recommended.
· You contribute to a database of commented passages on first millennium political thought.
· You participate in, and co-organize, team meetings, workshops and conferences.
· You co-supervise one or more PhD students.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
· You hold a thesis-based doctorate when you will start the position (obtained max. 6 years before the start of the contract. This term of 6 years is determined by the date written on the above-mentioned required diploma) in a relevant domain, including (but not limited to) Jewish Studies, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Classics, History, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, and Oriental Studies.
· You have a good track record in research, including publications and participation in conferences.
· You have a very good knowledge of at least one of the relevant languages (Hebrew, Middle-Persian or Arabic). Knowledge of two or more languages and cultures, or a willingness to acquire additional languages (including Latin, Greek, Syriac, Armenian and Georgian), is an advantage.
· You have an interest in working across different traditions and in comparative research.
· You have an interest in engaging with other disciplines, in particular philosophy and the history of political thought.
· Knowledge of Digital Humanities, or a willingness to acquire this, is an advantage.
· Whilst capable of doing independent work, you are also willing to work in a team.
· You have good organizational skills.
WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU
· We offer you a contract of indefinite duration with a maximum term of 3 years.
· Your contract will start on 1/10/2025 at the earliest.
· Your remuneration will be determined by salary scale PD1.
· All Ghent University staff members enjoy a number of benefits, such as a wide range of training and education opportunities, 36 days of holiday leave (on an annual basis for a full-time job) supplemented by annual fixed bridge days, a bicycle allowance and eco vouchers.
INTERESTED?
Apply online through the e-recruitment system before the application deadline (see https://jobs.ugent.be/job/Ghent-Postdoctoral-researcher-9000/809802902/). We do not accept late applications or applications that are not submitted through the online system.
The application deadline is 1 April 2025.
Your application must include the following documents:
· In the field ‘CV’: your CV and an overview of your study results (merged into one pdf file)
· In the field ‘Cover letter’: your application letter in pdf format
· In the field ‘Diploma’: a transcript of the required degree (if already in your possession). If you have a foreign diploma in a language other than our national languages (Dutch, French or German) or English, please add a translation in one of the mentioned languages.
· In the field “other documents”: the names and contact information of three referees; one-page proposal for a monograph; a writing sample (article or chapter, max 10 000 words).
Note that the maximum file size for each field is 10 MB.
As Ghent University maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone is encouraged to apply for this position.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about this vacancy and the project, please contact Prof. Peter Van Nuffelen (Peter.Va...@UGent.be, +32(0)9/3310175).
Important: do NOT send your application by email, but apply online.
-----------------
Alexander Johnston
MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com