The Byzness, 27th April 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 27th April 2025
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1.
NEWS AND EVENTS
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
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1. NEWS AND EVENTS
‘Justinian East and West’ – Virtual Talk by Peter Sarris, hosted by CLAMS
Friday, 2nd May, 17:00 (BST)
The Circle for Late Antique and Medieval Studies (CLAMS) invites you to a virtual talk by Professor Peter Vincent Sarris, Faculty of History, Cambridge University, entitled “Justinian East and West”.
To register for the talk via Zoom, please see here.
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Deadline extended: International Congress "Intercultural contacts in 4th century literature"
Deadline Extended – Call for Papers: International Congress "Intercultural contacts in 4th century literature" / "Contactos interculturales en las literaturas del siglo IV" Universidad de Salamanca. 9-11 October 2025
This conference invites scholars to explore the vibrant and diverse literary traditions that thrived within the multicultural and polycentric landscape of the 4th-century Roman Empire. Whether in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, or Coptic, our aim is to bring together perspectives that examine how these traditions intertwined, responded to, or even challenged one another.
The concept of literatures—intentionally plural and inspired by Even-Zohar’s theory of polysystems—is understood in its broadest sense as any form of written production. This inclusive framework opens the door to a wide array of themes and approaches, including (but not limited to):
- Intertextual or personal connections between authors of different linguistic backgrounds
- Adaptations and contextual variations of genres (e.g., autobiography, hagiography, philosophical dialogue, panegyric)
- Cultural "translations" of literary genres or ideas (e.g., Plotinian, Christian, and Jewish mysticism)
- Circulation of works in translation
- Exegesis of foreign literature
- "Wandering poets" and multicentric systems of patronage
- Intercultural controversies and shifting identities
- Bilingualism and hybrid literary forms (e.g., biblical epic, paraphrase)
- Literary representations of the "other"
Confirmed Speakers
- Philip Hardie (University of Cambridge)
- Marco Formisano (Ghent University)
- Aaron Pelttari (University of Edinburgh)
Submission Guidelines
If you would like to participate, please send an abstract (200–300 words) as an email attachment to:
- Ana Isabel Blasco Torres – anaib...@usal.es
- Vicente Flores Militello – Vicente.Flo...@ugent.be
Please include a short bio with your abstract.
Presentation Details
- Presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.
- Papers may be delivered in English or Spanish.
- We warmly welcome proposals from senior scholars, early career researchers, and PhD students alike.
Copyist of their Text, Author of their Copy: Writing between Gesture and Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (University of Liège, 22nd-23rd January 2026)
The Centre de Documentation de Papyrologie Littéraire (CEDOPAL) from the University of Liège (Belgium) is pleased to invite abstracts for the colloquium "Copyist of their Text, Author of their Copy: Writing between Gesture and Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages" (University of Liège, 22nd-23rd January 2026).
Whether it was traced on papyrus or parchment, engraved in a clay or wax tablet, or craved on stone, every text represents the product of both an intellectual and a manual act. Several people could be actively involved in the process of textual creation and transmission, especially the author, the scribe and the copyist. Although their role seems fairly well defined, according to a consensus that is too rarely questioned: on one side, the author’s inspiration, research and will, and, on the other side, the scribe’s and the copyist’s technique and subordination as agents of the opus seruile. This dichotomy cannot capture the complex and shifting reality of the ancient and medieval textual production, nor the interactions between the numerous actors taking part in this process (secretary, engraver, reader/user/recipient, corrector, teacher/student, literary circle, patron, commentator, guild…), which the materiality of the sources reveals. This two‑day colloquium aims at analyzing the relationships between these writing figures through ancient documentary, literary and material sources, of any language, that the cultures preceding the invention of the printing press have passed down.
Thematic examples:
- Definition of the concept of “author” in different manuscript cultures;
- Contexts of textual production and transmission;
- Creation and writing process of a (literary or documentary) text, genetic criticism;
- Autography;
- Role, status, interaction and sociopolitical position of the actors of the world of antique or medieval writing;
- Copyists’, readers’, grammarians’ and commentators’ interventions in the textual transmission process;
- Marginalia and paratexts;
- Sociology of reading and writing in the ancient and medieval world.
The selected papers are expected to be published in a peer-reviewed collective volume in the Papyrologica Leodiensia series (Presses universitaires de Liège), https://presses.uliege.be/publications/collections-thematiques/papyrologica-leodiensia/.
Interested researchers are invited to send an abstract (200-300 words) and a brief academic presentation (max. 150 words) in PDF format to marie.ch...@uliege.be by 16th May 2025. Papers should last 20 minutes (followed by a 10-minute discussion). Accepted languages are French, English, Italian and German. Results notifications will be sent by 16th June 2025.
Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the organizers. If you have any questions, please contact marie.ch...@uliege.be.
“The Mediterranean: The Land of the Vine and…” The Mediterranean Seminar Fall 2025 Workshop (11 & 12 September: Aix-en-Provence)
The Mediterranean Seminar in conjunction with The American
College of the Mediterranean announce “The Mediterranean: The Land of the
Vine and…,” the Mediterranean Seminar Fall 2025 Workshop to be held
on 11 & 12 September in Aix-en-Provence, a meeting made
possible thanks to the generous support of The American College of the
Mediterranean.
The workshop will feature two keynote speakers, three workshopped papers and
round-table sessions.
Keynote speakers:
Paulina Lewicka (University of Warsaw)
Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)
Fernand Braudel famously characterized the Mediterranean as a landscape of the
vine and olive. The earliest established origin of wine (as well as beer and
distilling) was in the Mediterranean region. More than merely a foodstuff or
intoxicant, wine became a crucial element in social, medicinal, cultural and
religious practices around the region, and consequently grape production become
a pillar of local economies and of regional and transregional trade. It was
produced since the pre-historical era and disseminated by the Phoenicians, wine
became emblematic of Mediterranean culture in Antiquity and constitutes a key
commercial sector today. Distilled grape pomace flavoured with anise (anis,
pastis, sambuca, ouzo, raki, arak) is also consumed around the region,
alongside fermented distillates of fig, palm and dates. Hashish and other
narcotics were consumed through much of the region. Nevertheless, intoxication
was regarded with ambivalence – both as a medium of euphoria and transcendence
and indiscretion and a threat to the rational and moral order. For Christians
and Jews wine came to be an essential element of observance. For Muslims grape
wine was generally considered forbidden; nevertheless grapes and wine continued
to be produced by minority communities, and consumed widely (and often openly)
by Muslims. The Islamic wine party became a secular ritual, while genres of
secular and religious poetry across the Abrahamic faiths celebrated wine and
intoxication.
We invite papers that deal with any aspect of the production, distribution,
regulation and consumption of grapes, wine, and other intoxicants in the
Mediterranean world from Antiquity to the present, together with depictions,
rituals, and attitudes to wine and intoxication, whether literal or metaphorical,
historical or imagined, as seen from disciplinary perspectives as diverse
economic, social, cultural, or political history, literature, history of
philosophy, history of science and medicine, art and art history, musicology,
anthropology or any related humanities and social science disciplines.
Proposals are welcome from scholars of all ranks from across all disciplines of
the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, as are papers from the Sciences,
that engage in the broadest sense with social, historical and cultural aspects
of the Mediterranean language, linguistics, literature, culture, society, art,
and social, economic and political history, as well as anthropology, sociology,
and other related humanities and social science disciplines. Junior scholars,
graduate students, contingent faculty, scholars of underrepresented
communities, and those whose work engages with historiographically marginalized
groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
Papers may address either specific case studies or larger historical, cultural,
artistic or historiographical dynamics and apparatuses. Comparative,
interdisciplinary, and methodologically innovative papers are of particular
interest. Our Mediterranean world is construed as the center of the historical
West, including southern Europe, the Near East and North Africa and stretching
into continental Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Black Sea and Central Asia,
and the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean. While our primary laboratory is
the premodern Mediterranean, we welcome proposals from across historical eras,
as well papers which focus on other regions in which analogous or related
processes can be observed.
For the workshop program, we invite abstracts (250 words) for unpublished
in-progress articles or book or dissertation chapters relating directly or
tangentially to dissimulation, fakery and forgery in the premodern
Mediterranean.
To complete the form you will need a (provisional) title and abstract (±250
words) of your proposed presentation, a prose biographical paragraph (±250
words), and a 2-page CV (pdf).
The deadline for workshop proposals is 1 June 2025 via this form. Successful applicants will submit a 35-page (maximum)
double-spaced paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by 21 August 2025.
For the three round-table conversations, we invite abstracts (±250 words) for
position papers that respond to one of the prompts below.
The deadline for application proposals is 1 June 2025 via this form.
Round-table presenters will submit a 3-5 page “position paper” in response to
their round-table prompt by 30 August 2025. Position papers are informal
“op-ed” pieces with minimal scholarly apparatus.
To complete the form you will need a (provisional) title and abstract (±250
words) of your proposed presentation, a prose biographical paragraph (±250
words), and a 2-page CV (pdf).
Round-table topics
1. Production and Distribution: How did techniques of wine production
develop and disseminate across the Mediterranean world? How did production,
dissemination and consumption of wine and intoxicants shape Mediterranean
economies and how did this intersect with specific communities and
constituencies?
2. Consumption and Culture: How, why and when were wine and intoxicants
consumed? What role did they have in social and cultural practices, and secular
and religious rituals? What were the various manifestations of Mediterranean
wine culture and how did these various over time, place and across
ethno-religious communities?
3. After-Effects and Altered Perceptions: How was wine and intoxication
viewed and depicted in art and across the various genres of literature
(including fiction and non-fiction, prose, poetry, and scientific, moral or
religious texts)? How do these depictions intersect with the with the cultural,
social, religious and economic environments of the Mediterranean world? What
particular dynamics and tensions did this produce?
Given that only three workshop papers can be accepted, workshop applicants are
encouraged to also apply for a round-table (using a separate form). Applicants
are welcome to indicate more than one round-table topic if appropriate for
their proposal.
This is an in-person meeting only. The workshop language is English.
Participants agree to be present and actively participate in the entirety of
the program.
Meals and accommodation will be provided for workshop and round-table
presenters, and local ground transportation will be reimbursed. Presenters will
be responsible for inter-regional or international travel.
A separate call for non-presenting participants will go out in July.
This workshop is organized by Brian A. Catlos (University of Colorado Boulder),
William Granara (Harvard University), Sharon Kinoshita (University of
California Santa Cruz) and Anthony Triolo (ACM). It is sponsored by The
American College of the Mediterranean, together with the Mediterranean Seminar
and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group.
Call for Submissions - Symbolae Osloenses
We are pleased to announce that Issue 98 (2024) of Symbolae Osloenses: Norwegian Journal of Greek and Latin Studies has now been published.
As noted in the current issue’s editorial, the journal’s scope has been expanded to include ‘all branches of research on ancient Greek and Latin languages and literature across all periods, including medieval, early modern, and modern times’. To support this broadened focus, we have recently expanded our advisory board to include additional expertise and perspectives that will enhance the journal’s range.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that we are currently open for submissions in all areas of Ancient Greek and Latin language and literature, from antiquity to the present day. We welcome articles in English, French, German, and Italian, with the aim of fostering a rich dialogue within our field across various research traditions. The fully updated author guidelines can be found here.
If you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to reach out to the editors, Anastasia Maravela (anastasia...@ifikk.uio.no) and Han Lamers (han.l...@ifikk.uio.no).-----------------
Alexander Johnston
MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com