The Byzness, 8th November 2023
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 8th November 2023
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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
Hybrid Lecture on Medieval Armenia as part of the Tübingen Byzantine and Near Eastern Seminar
Bishops, sultans, monasteries: Seljuk conquest and social
transformation in Armenia (11th-12th century)
Professor Zaroui Pogossian (Florence)
Thursday 9th November, 2023 at 6:15pm.
Hegelbau, 1st floor, room 2
You can also join via the link:
https://zoom.us/j/5621603396?pwd=YjR6VlJUTXdvWVpxVkczSTJoU0dvQT09
or directly on the platform with Meeting-ID 562 160 3396 and password 924178.
Mateusz Fafiński Lecture on 'Monks or Citizens: Monasticism and Civic Unrest in Edessa?'
On Thursday, 9 November (4.45 Warsaw time), at Ewa Wipszycka’s Warsaw Late Antique Seminar, Mateusz Fafiński (Erfurt) will present a paper Monks or citizens: Monasticism and civic unrest in Edessa? We are meeting in Room 203 at the Faculty of Law and Administration (UW main campus), but Zoom participation will be possible via this link.
Abstract:
In 449 Edessa found itself at a brink of exploding - its bishop, Hiba, was accused of heresy and a new governor was just about to enter the city. We have an exclusive, first row view of these events thanks to the Syriac Acts of the Council of Ephesos - an early and fascinating source documenting the events in April of 449. If we read the text carefully, we notice that these Acts are not only a dossier of christological differences and doctrinal grievances but also allow a peek into the urban life of a provincial late antique metropolis. While on its streets we meet various members of the society one group stands out: the monastics in all their diversity and heterogeneity. Their ubiquity in the events of the "hot" April of 449 offers us a unique opportunity: to reassess the way a fifth century metropolis dealt with unrest. The paper presents a fresh look at the role of monks in the late antique urban governance at a moment of extreme tension. Were monasticis really a little more than a disruptive force, confirming the decline of Roman urban administration? Or was there a method to the monastic madness? A new reading of the Acts will be used as a chance to get to know the urban troublemakers a little bit better.
'The Long Shadow of the 536 CE Event' Lecture by Lee Mordechai
Princeton's Program in Medieval Studies and Environmental History Lab invite you to its next event, on November 9, 2023 at 4:30pm in Scheide Caldwell House 209:
The Long Shadow of the 536 CE Event, by Dr. Lee Mordechai (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Shelby Cullom Davis Center Fellow 2023-24).
This talk investigates the construction of an environmental event in 536 CE, revealing how scholarly discourse in the natural sciences and the humanities over the past half century has transformed an ambiguous portent in the late antique literary sources into a major turning point in global history, associated with the end of antiquity and the beginning of the medieval period. Throughout the period, cutting-edge scholarship in the most esteemed venues has repeatedly interpreted the 536 event to fit contemporary public discourse, often presenting wishful thinking as fact with little supporting evidence. The challenges in the interdisciplinary research environment, as well as the porous boundaries between academic and para-academic discourse, are the causes for this phenomenon, which requires a critical reflection of our approach to interdisciplinary environmental history.
The event is Supported by a David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project Grant from the Humanities Council and the Program in Medieval Studies.
Light refreshments will be served starting at 4:00pm.
Registration is required for virtual attendance only. Please, use the following link: https://princeton.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrd-qgpzkqGNQclA6scE2VBAQpdEEoaUH5.
'Ivories in Roman and Islamic Contexts' Guest Lecture at Universität Hamburg
You are cordially invited to the interdisciplinary guest lecture “Ivories in Roman and Islamic Contexts” on Wed. Nov. 15, 2023, 5 pm (German time) on Zoom, please find the invitation here.
Luxury is often the exotic thing. In the Roman and the Islamic world, one of the most precious material was the white slightly honey colored material ivory. This material of prestige had to come from the exterior of our empires: India and sub-Saharan Africa. Source, meaning, and use of the material was different in the Roman and the Islamic Empires.
The interdisciplinary guest lecture Ivories in Roman and Islamic Contexts comprises the lectures "Roman Ivory – A Brief (Trans)Cultural Biography of a Luxurious Material" by Kasper Grønlund Evers (Copenhagen University) and "From Trans-Saharan to Trans-Iberian: Early Islamic Ivory and Ivories" by Rose Walker (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London).
Kindly confirm your participation by Nov. 13, 2023 to roman...@uni-hamburg.de
You will then receive a link enabling you to access the event as an attendee.
Two Byzantine-Related Lectures by the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens
Friday 24/11/2023 - 5 p.m.
Prof. Paul Arthur (Università del Salento) - hybrid lecture
"Character and resilience of Byzantine Italy"
Convenor Dr. Rossana Valente (Post-Doc IASA)
Friday 15/12/2023 - 5 p.m.
Prof. Natalia Poulou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) - hybrid lecture
“From town to countryside: Byzantine bath-houses in Crete and their changing functions”
Convenor Dr. Yuri Marano (Post-Doc IASA)
These talks are aimed at providing an opportunity for debate and discussion.
Attendance of young scholars and students is particularly encouraged. However, the talks are open to everyone interested.
Up to 50 attendees will be admitted.
To participate in person, attendees must register by filling up the following form:
Programme Released for the 'Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule' Workshop
The Emmy Noether Junior Research Group ‘Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period’ (SCORE) at the University of Hamburg is delighted to announce its programme for the online workshop ‘Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule’, 7–8 December 2023.
Workshop Programme
Thursday 7 & Friday 8 December 2023
Convened by the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group, ‘Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period’ (SCORE), Universität Hamburg
Online via Zoom; free and open to all
All times in CET = GMT +1
For registration and queries, email alasdai...@uni-hamburg.de
Visit our website at https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/forschung/score.html
Day 1 (07.12.23)
Chair: Alon Dar (Hamburg)
14:00–14:15: Welcome, Alasdair Grant (Hamburg)
14:15–15:00: ‘Past and present: The Canons of Partaw (768 CE)’, Tim Greenwood (St Andrews); respondent: Emilio Bonfiglio (Hamburg)
15:00–15:15: Break
15:15–16:00: ‘Around the frozen Lake of Bznunik. Climatic and environmental aspects of the Arab rule in Armenia, 7th–9th centuries’, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller (Vienna); respondent: John Haldon (Princeton)
16:00–16:15: Break
16:15–17:00: ‘Taxation and tribute’, Alasdair Grant (Hamburg); respondent: Noëmie Lucas (Edinburgh)
17:00–17:15: Break
17:15–18:00: ‘From Abū al-Dawāniq to Caṙay Dangi: Writing caliphal rule in Armenia’, Leone Pecorini Goodall (Edinburgh/St Andrews); respondent: Hannah-Lena Hagemann (Hamburg)
Day 2 (08.12.23)
Chair: Hannah-Lena Hagemann (Hamburg)
14:00–14:45: ‘Two Councils of Manzikert? A reassessment of the doctrinal policies of Yovhannēs Odznets‘i (c. 717–728) and the consequences of direct caliphal rule’, Stephanie Forrest (Cambridge); respondent: Walter Beers (Hamilton)
14:45–15:00: Break
15:00–15:45: ‘The birth of Armenian documentary epigraphy in the early Islamicate world’, Nik Matheou (Edinburgh); respondent: Lewis Read (Vienna)
15:45–16:00: Break
16:00–16:45: ‘Deflections and marriages in the Byzantine–Arab borderlands’, Ani Honarchian (Saint Louis); respondent: Antonia Bosanquet (Utrecht)
16:45–17:00: Concluding remarks, Alasdair Grant (Hamburg)
Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Studies Public Lecture, 9th November, 2023
The Ethical Museum: Reflections on Cultural Mission and Civic Responsibility in a Changing Landscape
Daniel H. Weiss explores the evolving civic role of the art museum while facing longstanding challenges and an increasingly polarized environment.
The American art museum has experienced sustained levels of growth and increasing popularity across generations, yet it is today at a crossroads, facing unprecedented challenges to its historic mission, cultural identity, and sense of purpose. Notwithstanding recent progress in expanding collections, generating new programs, and serving increasingly diverse audiences, new approaches are required to face longstanding challenges and sustain recent progress in an increasingly polarized environment.
This lecture will explore the context for the current environment and the evolving civic role of the art museum, considering the need to balance historic mission with the expectation for greater transparency and new thinking on such issues as cultural property rights, sustainable funding and problematic donors, diversifying collections and programs, responding to activism and protests, uses of AI and digital platforms, and especially the need for higher levels of public trust. To achieve these objectives the museum must continue to evolve while placing greater emphasis on the ethical components of its civic mission.
Register to attend the lecture either in-person or virtually.
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
'Rocky Landscapes at the Intersection of People and Rocks' Conference
The event will be hosted at the IFEA (French Institute for Anatolian Studies) in Istanbul (Turkey) on 23rd and 24th May 2024.
The interactions between humans and the rocky substrate have generated engraved landscapes across the globe, manifesting in diverse forms and spanning various epochs. The past human activity of digging rock outcrops produced different features, among which two macro-categories stand out:
– rock-cut spaces linked to human life and death;
– quarries for extracting materials for different purposes.
Although these two categories serve different functions, there are conceptual and physical links between the structures carved into the bedrock and quarry areas. Similarities can be identified in the techniques employed for rock carving and, consequently, in the networks for the transmission of knowledge and know-how. Quarries and rock-cut structures often coexist within the same rock formation, or overlap with one another, creating a complex landscape in which the interaction between human communities and the bedrock is enhanced.
Over the past decade, an international group of researchers has engaged in discussions regarding the methodological and theoretical complexities of investigating stone quarries and rock-cut sites spanning from Prehistory to the present day. The International ReseArch group on quArries and Rock-cut sites (IRAAR), started as a collaborative effort, originating in France, from two distinct research groups: one working on quarries and construction (Séminaires de recherche Carrières et construction, Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 06) and the other on rock-cut sites (Annual symposium organized in Saint-Martin-le Vieil, Aude).
This conference marks the second gathering of the IRAAR network. The first meeting, held online in 2021, focused on techniques and methods for analyzing carvings, extraction processes and traces of tools left on the rock surfaces. In this second event, the theme broadens to encompass a more extensive exploration of the landscapes and environments surrounding rock-cut structures and stone quarries. The specific discussion in this field of research begins with questions of an archaeological nature but expands to transdisciplinary encounters with connections and hybridisations with anthropology, sociology, geography, geology and ecology.
Four thematic sessions have been outlined:
– The first will focus on the stratigraphic understanding of the landscape through the study of rock-cut structures and stone quarries. This session allows us to reflect on new approaches and conceptions of stone material as a stratified archaeological palimpsest. Its integration into a historical landscape is made possible thanks to digital tools and technologies (GIS, relational database, data models). However, a challenge is presented in terms of effectively harmonizing the temporal dimension (stratigraphy) with the spatial one, landscape.
– The second will bring together researchers on stone ecology and multi-species interactions in carved landscapes. A particular emphasis will be placed on ecological aspects and the analysis of multiproxy data to gain insight into how the articulation of relationships between humans, rocks, animals and plants has evolved over the centuries.
– A third session will address landscape-scale concepts of technical environments and taskscape, bringing 20th century anthropological concepts to current anthropological research directions. This will address the issue of epistemology: the articulation, similarities and differences of notions of space and environment.
– A fourth session will focus on cultural sociology and the notion of heritage at different scales. The purpose of this panel is to open the debate on societal issues by involving sociologists, international relations researchers, geographers…
Contributions on the themes evoked in the call, and in particular abstracts with transdisciplinary aspects, are welcome. Funding will be available for students and PhD students presenting a contribution in the framework of the conference (more detailed information will soon be available).
The abstracts should be in English and no longer than 300 words.
Applications should be sent to iraar...@gmail.com by 18 December 2023.
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
The Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia, Cyprus, welcomes scholars and students specializing in archaeology, history, and culture of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean. CAARI is located in central Nicosia close to the Cyprus Museum and the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus (both with major libraries), as well as the main business and commercial district. In addition to hostel accommodation for a total of twelve residents, the institute has excellent research facilities: a 10,000-volume library, comprehensive map and artifact collections, archival material, and facilities for Internet, scanning, photography, and polarising and optical microscopes.
Recipients of fellowships are required to spend time as residents of CAARI and to submit a written report for the CAARI newsletter.
CAARI offers fellowships specifically for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and scholars at all levels. All application forms can now be found within the CAORC website grant application portal.
For more information, see the Fellowships section of the website: http://caari.org/fellowships/
Eligibility: Career musicians or researchers who are currently Ph.D. candidates or have received their Ph.D. within the last 5 years. Open to all nationalities. For research in the Gennadius Library for the full academic year.
Fields of Study: Musical composition, Music conducting, History of Music, Musicology, and related fields. Fellows will be expected to conduct a program of original research on a theme related to the collections of the Gennadius Library.
Link to online application: https://ascsa.submittable.com/submit/189405/schwarz-fellowship-at-the-gennadius-library-for-research-on-music
For more information: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/research/gennadius-library/educational-programs/fellowships
Questions? Contact: appli...@ascsa.org
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Alexander Sherborne
DPhil Candidate, Faculty of History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com