Dear all,
The committee is excited to invite you to the 28th OUBS International Graduate Conference, to be held in Oxford and online on February 28th and March 1st, 2026.
Please see the Call for Papers below, and in the attachments to this email.
We look forward to receiving your submissions, and hope many of you will be able to join us in Oxford next year.
All my very best,
Maddie
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Decline and Flourish: New paradigms of decline & renewal in Late Antiquity and Byzantium
28th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society 28th February & 1st March, 2026
Oxford and online
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon’s magnum opus was a landmark for the development of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies into a discrete, academic discipline. Despite his now-controversial claims, the interdisciplinary and patchwork nature of the field owes much to Gibbon’s initial premise. However, as the discipline has become institutionalised, its widening scope of practice and diversity of perspectives have responded to Gibbon’s theories by reclaiming processes of historical change. The field has thus moved away from ‘negative’ paradigms of decline towards neutral or positive frameworks, such as ‘transformation’ or ‘renewal’. Indeed, almost as a rule, scholarship tends to repudiate notions of decline in Late Antiquity and Byzantium.
The 28th International OUBS Graduate Conference aims to challenge these contemporary scholarly axioms, inviting an open conversation about our accepted paradigms of Late Antique and Byzantine ‘decline’ and ‘renewal.’ Is there any validity or utility in the concept of ‘decline,’ and can it be as invigorating as renewal? How can we positively employ such concepts to achieve more accurate insight into the periods under consideration? For example, we might engage with sources whose authors insist the period they are living in is one of pervasive decline more critically, and justly. Alternatively, developing awareness of the factors impacting material sources, such as the loss of specialised skills or changes in material availability might be illuminative. Ultimately, we believe it is time to question the moral implications of words like ‘decline’ and ‘renewal’, or even ‘transformation’, by bringing them into closer conversation.
The present Call for Papers seeks contributions that address these topics through any facet of Late Antique and Byzantine history. This framework is intended to be broadly construed — for instance, interrelated concepts like decay, deterioration, degeneration, or even death are within the Conference’s scope. So too are papers that conceive of ‘transformation’ with fresh perspectives, or which apply concepts within that umbrella to new sources or which employ new methodologies. In lieu of writing about ‘decline’, papers might tackle renewal, regeneration, regrowth, renovatio, or rebirth. Again, we invite contributors to problematise and trouble these categories and associated moral judgements.
Some suggestions by the Oxford University Byzantine Society for how this topic may be addressed include:
* The Archaeological — settlement abandonment, reuse, or continued habitation; the problems and challenges of physical decay or the issue of lacunae in the material record; theories/methodologies of cyclical decline and renewal.
* The Artistic and Architectural — the decline (or rediscovery) of particular materials, skillsets, or artistic themes; spoliation and its impacts on architectural development; ideas of ‘Renaissances’ and associated problems.
* The Economic — declines in the use of currency, a return to barter or exchange systems; debasements of coinage; monetary inflation and deflation.
* The Environmental — environmental or climactic decline and its impact on human or non-human populations; human instigations of environmental decline; land regeneration, or the reinstitution of older land management practices; waste and its management
* The Historiographical — how scholarship has treated any of the paradigms addressed above/their change over time; direct engagement with Gibbon’s work, which reframes or reconsiders the arguments made.
* The Literary and Linguistic — authors or works bemoaning the decline of their age; the decline or loss of languages or linguistic practices; ideas of ‘Renaissances’ and associated problems.
* The Political — ideological manipulations of decline; the politics of nostalgia for distant or recent ‘golden ages’ as a means of discourse; institutional decline, restoration, or reinvigoration
* The Religious: how different religions conceived of their own decline, or the decline of others; the reuse of specific religious practices/holidays/festivals in new religious contexts; ideas of rebirth or regeneration; perceptions of death and the afterlife.
* The Social/Societal — groups who may have benefitted from the decline of another; coping strategies in the face of decline or change in status/identity/values; addressing ideas such as ‘civic’ decline or the decline of socio-cultural practices/institutions.
