The Byzness, 30th November 2025
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 30th 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,
We’ve made it to 8th week! I hope that everyone is looking forward to the holiday season, and manages to get some rest.
Abstract submissions for the 28th International OUBS Graduate conference have officially closed. We’ve received a huge number of abstracts, all of an extraordinarily high quality. Thank you to everyone who has submitted, we are certain that our reviewers are going to have a particularly difficult time deciding on their selections this week.
If you have submitted, please expect to hear back from us at some point later this week regarding the outcome of your submission.
As a reminder, the conference will be held in Oxford & online on February 28th and March 1st 2026.
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.
The BRIA Project Website Announcement
The BRIA Project is an international, multidisciplinary initiative aiming to redefine landscape continuities in the historical region of Thrace, currently divided among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. It brings together scholars and students from leading universities and research institutions in Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, North America, and Canada.
We are pleased to announce that the BRIA project website is now available at: https://briaproject.com/
The website provides an overview of the BRIA project, its mission, team, and activities, along with resources for scholars interested in Byzantine and Medieval Thrace. Visitors will find information on past and upcoming workshops and field activities, an interactive map, a photographic archive, selected bibliographies, and links to related projects. The website also features the documentary “The BRIA Expedition: A Roadtrip to Medieval Thrace,” and it will be regularly updated with news and new resources.
For any questions or collaboration inquiries, please feel free to contact us at ad...@briaproject.com
We invite you to explore the website and share it within your networks.
More information on the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies
Dear colleagues and friends,
Below, you will find updated information from Prof. Dr. Claudia Rapp on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies. I kindly ask you to share this information with all your members:
With less than 280 days until the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Vienna, 24 to 29 August 2026, I am writing with an update from Vienna, in the hope that you will share it widely.
The opening session takes place in the morning of Monday, 24 August and the closing session is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, 29 August.
Our website is continuously updated with information that will help you plan for your time in Vienna.
Early Bird registration for presenters and other participants is open until 31 December 2025. After that, the prices will go up.
With your registration number, you will be able to log in again later, for example to sign up for the cultural program that will be publicized in the spring.
On the website, you will find information about the following:
The University of Vienna’s a selection of hotels that registered participants can book.
The Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of the Scots (Schottenstift) offers a number of rooms free of charge for male and female monastics of any Christian denomination, plus the opportunity to book further rooms at a reduced rate.
The Organizing Committee of the ICBS 2026 in Vienna invites motivated students to apply for paid assistant positions during the congress. For administrative reasons, this is only available for students with EU citizenship.
Interested publishers are welcome to request exhibition space to display their publications to congress participants.
Currently, only the Inaugural Lecture, the Plenary Lectures, the Round Tables, and the Thematic Sessions are featured on the website. The full program, including Free Communications and Posters, will be made available in early 2026. All these offerings will contribute to a varied program on a wide range of topics. Indeed, we count on hosting ca.1400 presentations. The congress constitutes a unique opportunity for scholars to gather, make new contacts, exchange research results and germinate new ideas. For this reason, we do not offer any online options but will conduct the congress in presence only.
We look forward to welcoming you to Vienna.
— Claudia Rapp on behalf of the Organizing Committee
2. CALL FOR PAPERS
CfP: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2026 ‘Sounds and Silence’
The Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference Committee invites paper submissions for the upcoming conference on the theme of ‘Sounds and Silence’ on the 23rd and 24th of April 2026 at the Maison Française d’Oxford.
Submissions are welcome from all disciplinary perspectives, including historical, literary, musical, archaeological, linguistic, and interdisciplinary approaches. Papers may address any geographical focus or subject related to the medieval period on the broad topic of ‘Sounds and Silences.’
Areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:
Vernacular song and folk music
Representations of sound and silence
Liturgical traditions
Monastic worship and silence
(Non)verbal (mis)communication
Taboo and censure
Vocalizations and orality
Linguistic change
Cultures of listening
Material culture of sound
Architecture and acoustics
Noises of nature
Soundscapes
Cosmological harmonies
Somatic and sensory experience
Epistemologies of sound
We welcome applications from graduate students at any university; a limited number of travel bursaries will be available to accepted presenters. We ask that all presenters attend in person, with hybrid participation available for attendees who cannot travel to the event.
Submission Guidelines
Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes. Please submit abstracts of 250 words to oxgra...@gmail.com by 8 December 2025.
In association with the Maison Française d’Oxford and Oxford Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
CfP: Woodworking in the Roman Imagination - Call for Papers
Groningen, Netherlands, June 18–19, 2026
Deadline: Jan 15, 2026
Wood was an omnipresent resource in the Roman world, ingrained in every human’s life, from those living in the most precarious circumstances to the richest and most powerful in the empire. Wood has been extensively studied in terms of its economic and logistical importance, contributing major advances in our understanding of the technology and organisation of Roman woodworking (Meiggs 1982, Ulrich 2007, Scherrer 2011, Absmeier 2015, Visser 2025). This workshop aims to bring such insights into dialogue with Roman discourses surrounding woodworking in literature, epigraphy and visual culture from the Roman Republic to Late Antiquity. In light of recent reconsiderations of trees beyond strict resources (Hunt 2016, Armstrong 2019, Hallett 2021, Fox 2023, Nichols 2024) and a rising interest in the narration of craft processes in Greco-Roman antiquity (Fanfani/Harlow/Nosch 2016, Webb 2018, Geue 2024, Reitz-Joosse 2024, Rogers 2024), we aim to explore Roman conceptions of living and laboring with wood, relying on, yet transcending, technical questions of how wood was worked in Roman antiquity.
Individual papers will approach depictions of woodworking and human-wood interaction in artistic, literary and epigraphic media. Together, we seek to trace Roman ideas about human-wood entanglements from arboriculture and tree-felling to the production of ships, buildings, tools and other wooden artifacts. This workshop will contribute to a multi-faceted understanding of the many meanings of woodworking in ancient Rome. It forms part of the ERC-FACERE project which investigates discourses of making in the Roman world.
Topics to be addressed might include, but are not limited to, the following:
- How did ideas about woodworking as transmitted through art and literature influence Romans’ experience of wooden artifacts?
- How were different types of wood depicted and valued, in terms of their practical application, aesthetic appeal and symbolic potential?
- How does woodworking relate to the religious sphere in the Roman world? What interactions with trees might be considered transgressive or sacrilegious?
- How and where are mythical woodworkers depicted and how do such depictions open up questions about artisans’ position and moral boundaries?
- To what extent was woodworking considered a distinct practice in the Roman world, and in what ways did it relate to, and interact with, other types of making and craft?
- How can we investigate Roman woodworkers’ experiences, drawing e.g. on experimental archaeology and modern artisans’ perspectives?
- What are the narrative and literary functions of depictions of woodworking (e.g. the making of a plough, shipbuilding or construction processes), and what can they reveal of Roman notions about woodworking?
- Which woodworking metaphors are prominent in Roman texts, what domains do they occur in, and how can they help us to understand the meaning of woodworking in ancient Rome?
- (Self-)Representations of Roman woodworkers: what are the characteristics of woodworkers in literature and art? Where do they appear? What do they make and how does their crafting influence the experience of the spectator?
- How did woodworking relate to Roman notions about the environment? What can depictions of woodworking tell us about Roman perspectives on deforestation, sustainable materials, and human-nature entanglement?
Practicalities
The workshop will take place in Groningen, the Netherlands on June 18 and 19, 2026. Abstracts (ca. 300 words) must be submitted no later than January 15, 2026 via FACER...@gmail.com and should be accompanied by a short bio (max. 150 words). FACERE will be able to make a contribution to travel and accommodation costs. We look forward to welcoming Roger B. Ulrich and Carole Newlands as our keynote speakers.
CfP: Rediscovering Fulgentius: Beyond the Shadow of Augustine
International Conference | University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany | 1-2 October 2026
This conference invites scholars to reexamine Fulgentius of Ruspe’s life, works, and intellectual legacy from theological, historical, and literary perspectives. By bringing together specialists in Late Antiquity from diverse backgrounds, we aim to reassess the place of Fulgentius within the broader continuum of African Christianity and late antique intellectual culture.
Possible themes include (but are not limited to):
Fulgentius and the Augustinian tradition: grace, predestination, Christology, and the Trinity
Scriptural interpretation and rhetorical strategies in his sermons and letters
Exile, identity, and political theology under Vandal rule
Relations with contemporaries and interlocutors: Augustine, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Greek theologians and others
The monastic and ascetic dimensions of Fulgentius’s thought
Transmission, manuscript culture, and reception history in the early Middle Ages Fulgentius’s Latin style, literary form, and theological language
North African intellectual networks in the sixth century
Historical and Scholarly Background
Fulgentius of Ruspe (c. 467–533) stands as one of the most significant voices of the post- Augustinian Latin Church. Writing amid the turbulence of Vandal rule and Nicene exile, Fulgentius articulated a theology of grace, Trinitarian unity, and ecclesial identity that bridged the worlds of Augustine and the early medieval West. Yet despite his profound influence on Western theology, his thought, rhetoric, and historical context remain understudied compared to those of his contemporaries.
Early scholarship on Fulgentius (F. Wörter, 1899; F. di Sciascio, 1941) generally portrayed him as a mere reiterator of Augustine’s doctrine. This dependence was later reaffirmed by H.-J. Diesner (1966), R. J. H. Collins (1983), and T. A. Smith (1999). More recent studies, however, have begun to emphasize the originality of Fulgentius’s theology (C. Micaelli, 1985; R. H. Weaver, 1996; F. X. Gumerlock, 2009; D.B. Janssen, 2024). Apart from Piras (2010), no comprehensive attempt has been made to synthesize these approaches in a single volume, particularly in English. Fulgentius’s extant works were edited by Jean Fraipont (CCSL 91 and 91A, 1968), and while modern-language translations exist (e.g., R. B. Eno, 1997), his writings have received relatively little sustained attention in contemporary scholarship (cf. Gumerlock, 2024).
Publication
Selected papers will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed volume or journal special issue dedicated to Fulgentius and the late antique African tradition.
Submission Guidelines
Abstract length: 250–300 words
Presentation length: 30 minutes (with 15 minutes for discussion) Language: English
Submission Deadline: 30th January, 2026
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Dr. Uta Heil, University of Wien
Organizers
Dr. David Burkhart Janssen, University of Tübingen, david-burkhart.janssen@uni- tuebingen.de
Martina Carandino, University of Oxford, carandin...@history.ox.ac.uk
Call for History Papers for publication in Carnival XXV
ABOUT CARNIVAL
Carnival is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal, published online with the support of the International Students of History Association (ISHA). Carnival is directed by a committee of international graduate students and early career researchers in History and related fields. The Journal is published open access, and charges no fees from authors.
SUBMISSIONS
The editorial board of Carnival opens its Call for Papers for edition XXV. We welcome submissions for articles (± 7000- 8000 words), short essays (± 2500 words) and book reviews (± 1500 words). Interested authors can send in their abstracts (300- 500 words) and short biographical notes (ca. 150 words) to ishacarni...@gmail.com by December 21 2025, 23:59 CET.
DECEMBER 21 2025 Abstract submission deadline.
JANUARY 25 2026 Acceptance notification.
MARCH 2 2026 Full paper submission.
MARCH-JUNE 2026 Two rounds of peer-review.
AUGUST 2026 Publication.
Send your abstracts to ishacarni...@gmail.com.
More information: Carnival – International Students of History Association.
CFP: QUEER FRAGMENTS Breaking, repairing, transforming
4-5 JUNE 2026 | FLORENCE, EUI
ORGANISERS: QUEER FEMINIST STUDIES WORKING GROUP; QUEER BUDAPEST; QUEER,TRANS, INTERSEX STUDIES COLLECTIVE; POLITESSE.
FORMAT: IN-PERSON AND ONLINE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH+ (ACCORDING TO PARTICIPANTS’S PREFERENCES)
Setting the scene: context, content, and rationales
We are living through hard times. Wars, social conflicts, worsening life conditions and poverty, resurging authoritarianism, and an ongoing genocide sweep the entire globe. Faced with this grim reality, queer observers note how old and new fascisms are gaining traction by building on so-called “anti-gender” and anti-trans sentiments and agendas (Butler, 2024). LGBTQIA+ rights and lives are facing full-frontal attacks, erasure from mainstream discourse and defunding of queer education and research. Examples from countries such as Hungary show how far-right populism, homo-and transphobia, and the anti-gender rhetoric intersect and are used as a practice of state power over citizens (Rédai, 2024). At the same time, queers are also triggered by how, in times of tensions, risks, and polarisations, queerness is domesticated and instrumentalised, abused and coopted, be it to pinkwash genocides or to save existing social, political, and economic hierarchies. Queer identities in non-Western countries and regions are often portrayed as victims who need liberation through “Europeanisation”, a narrative that positions international institutions and organisations based in Western Europe as role models of humanitarianism, queer rights, and modernity (Rexhepi, 2016).
What to do with these contrasts, what to think of them? Are these times not queer, or are these times where queers should revitalise their struggle, embrace their fragmented selves and turn them into instances of disruption, deconstruction, radicality, repair ‒ in a word: transformation? Building on the collaboration of different realities working on (and with) queer topics, the Queer Fragments conference was conceived as both a joyful and enraged call to action, bringing together people from different backgrounds and professions, with different identities and statuses, to live, think, feel, and create together a meaningful personal, social, political, and theoretical experience.
Queer Fragments calls to researchers, thinkers, workers, and artists who deal with fragments, fragmenting, and fragmentation: fragments as sources and inspirations; fragmenting as an instance of deconstruction and radical imagination; fragmentation as a posture to think through reality and practice change. Queer Fragments invites its participants to question implied wholes and totalities; to disrupt narratives while celebrating addenda, palimpsests, shreddings; to ask, once again, why are queer lives made dispensable, triable, unlivable. In short, Queer Fragments aspires to be an opportunity to start thinking and acting from the fragments.
Guiding Questions and Keywords
What stories do fragments tell? How can we read and understand pieces, shreds, leftovers, ephemera, traces, instead of totalities?
Keywords: modes of narration, traces, archives, normative bodies, resilience, division, recomposing, fabulation, memory, ephemera.
Is queerness a polarising or a uniting force in society? How to view conceptions of power, hierarchy, normativity, oppression and exploitation, justice and liberation, transformation and future through a queer lens?
Keywords: unity and conflict, allyship, queer justice, queer identities and subjectivation, intersectionality, heteronormativity/homonormativity, queer of colour critique.
What does taking a queer stance entail for the politics of knowledge production? To what extent does taking a queer position disrupt and fragment academic hierarchies and dynamics?
Keywords: methodologies, epistemologies, positionality, neutrality, privilege, complicity and silencing, research ethics, power dynamics, knowledge production, media and communication.
Submissions: what, when, how
Please send a PDF document including an abstract (up to 350 words) or a poster (combining visuals and up to 300 words), a brief biography (max 100 words), and your language preferences (including English, our main working language, and possible additional languages) to: Que...@eui.eu by 9 January 2025. Please be mindful to include the words “Queer Fragments Conference CfP” in the subject of your email. Participants will receive a notification of acceptance by 16 February 2025
We encourage contributions advancing novel and diverse perspectives and adopting interdisciplinary approaches. We welcome queer ideas and practices challenging disciplines and fields, pushing them to their limits, (de) (re)constructing them. We invite submissions not only from scholars, but also from practitioners, activists, workers, artists, performers, journalists, and thinkers. We particularly encourage submissions from those who have yet to present their work at conferences and/or belong to underrepresented regions, institutions, and/or groups. Queer fragments warmly invites participants to join in person. While we offer a limited hybrid mode of participation, we emphasise our intention to promote a deep and engaging in-person experience. Participants should cover their accommodation and travel through their home institutions, if possible. Depending on available funds, we hope to be able to support travel and/or accommodation for a limited number of presenters without access to institutional funding.
We value inclusion and access for all participants, and we will do our best to accommodate specific needs determined by, among others, disabilities and nationality/migratory status. Especially concerning the physical accessibility of the conference venue, please find detailed information here. In all these cases, please feel free to reach out at our email (Que...@eui.eu) by adding “Queer Fragments Conference Information” in the subject of your email.
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Baden-Württemberg Early Career Rescue Fellowship Programme
Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. The university based Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Tübingen College of Fellows (CoF), and Zukunftskolleg Konstanz (ZuKo) invite early career researchers from all over the world, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA, to apply for the Baden-Württemberg Early Career Rescue Fellowships 2026-2028 (Ref. No. 2025/229) Funded by the State of Baden-Württemberg they are offering:
14 Postdoctoral Fellowships (2 years)
Fellowship Period: between July 2026 – November 2028
Application Deadline: 9 January 2026, 11:00 AM (CET)
The fellowships are available to researchers from all over the world and from any discipline represented at one if the three universities with a minimum of one year and a maximum of seven years of post-doctoral experience, who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. The aim is to provide time and space for their excellent research and open up international prospects for their future career. The programme offers a two-year research position at one of the three universities, preferred by the applicant, and local disciplinary cooperation, as well as support, resources, networks and exchange within the respective Institute for Advanced Studies with its international and interdisciplinary community of fellows.
For application, please consult the Programme and Application Manual available on the institute’s homepages and then apply under: APPLICATION FORM For further questions please contact one of the participating Institutes for Advanced Studies: FRIAS, University of Freibung: Annette Doll, fello...@frias.uni-freiburg.de, or Tübinger College of Fellows, University of Tübingen: Niels Weidtmann, in...@cof.uni-tuebingen.de or Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz: Mihaela Mihaylova, zuko-app...@uni-konstanz.de.
Apply to lead a 2027 Summer Seminar or Summer
ASCSA Summer Session and Summer Seminar Positions for summer 2027
DIRECTOR(S) OF AN ASCSA SUMMER SEMINAR
Two Summer Seminar Programs (18-day courses, dates variable June through July 2027)
Deadline: January 31, 2026
Term: Summer 2027. Two seminars are offered each summer, one in June and one in July. See more details on the website.
Eligibility: Applicants should have experience designing and leading travel study programs, preferably in Greece, and at least two years of teaching in a post-secondary educational institution. Joint applications by two scholars who have worked well together in the past are welcome. Program director(s) should have at least some knowledge of modern Greek and the ability to be engaging, organized, flexible and positive under often-demanding conditions. Qualified applicants in all areas of classical studies, including archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, and languages are encouraged to apply.
Description: The theme of the 18-day field seminars is open. Previous Seminar offerings have included: Warrior Sailors, Traders, and Alexander to Actium/Hellenistic Greece; Caves in Greece; Ancient Gender and Sexuality; Greek Sculpture, Myth on Site; Greek Warfare and Culture; Greek Religion; Finding the Spartans; Greece from the Sea; The Northern Aegean; and Greek Funerary Customs through the Ages.
The ASCSA Loring Hall serves as the main base for the program, and at least five days of the seminar are to be spent in travel outside Athens. Trips outside Athens give participants an introduction to the major archaeological sites and museum collections throughout the country. In general, the schedule of time in Athens and time outside Athens is constructed as: Athens (5 days/5 nights), trip/travel outside Athens (5-7days/4-6 nights), and ends in Athens (5-7 days/4-6 nights).
The ASCSA staff provides planning and logistical assistance, in conjunction with the program director(s). If you wish to review the “Summer Program Director Handbook,” a previous report of a past Director, and/or a list of invited speakers and actual previous trip itinerary, please contact the Programs Administrator (Alicia Dissinger, adiss...@ascsa.org).
For more on duties, compensation, and how to apply, please see the listing on the website.
DIRECTOR(S) OF THE ASCSA SUMMER SESSION
One Summer Session Program (traditional six-week program, dates variable June through July 2027)
Deadline: January 31, 2026
Term: Summer 2027. See more details on the website.
Eligibility: Applicants should have experience designing and leading travel study programs, preferably in Greece, and at least two years of teaching in a post-secondary educational institution. Joint applications by two scholars who have worked well together in the past are welcome. Programs director(s) should have at least some knowledge of modern Greek and the ability to be engaging, organized, flexible and positive under often-demanding conditions. Qualified applicants in all areas of classical studies, including archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, and languages are encouraged to apply.
Description: The ASCSA Summer Session has provided extensive exposure to Greece, ancient and modern, for generations of students of Classics and related fields. The program offers a broad introduction to Greek topography, history, archaeology, and culture. It has a strong academic component with participants researching and presenting topics on site. There are unique opportunities to interact with eminent archaeologists in the field. The group visits museums and sites from all periods of Greek history, from prehistoric to modern. The members (capped at 20 participants) tend to be serious career-minded students of the ancient world, with experience in ancient language, history, literature, and art, and aspirations to become professionals in the field.
The ASCSA Loring Hall serves as the main base for the program, and roughly half of the session is spent in travel throughout Greece. Trips outside Athens give participants an introduction to the major archaeological sites and museum collections throughout the country. When based in Athens, museums and monuments of Athens and the surrounding areas, as Marathon, Sounion, and Eleusis, are visited. The program has a fairly set schedule of time in Athens and time outside Athens, and is usually constructed as: Athens (6.5 days/6 nights), Crete (6 days/5 nights), Athens (4 days/4 nights), travel around the Peloponnese (10 days/9 nights), Athens (4 days/4 nights), travel around Northern Greece (8 days/7 nights), and ended in Athens (5.5 days/6 nights). The Summer Session Program is designed to present a comprehensive view of Greece’s rich history and archaeology.
The ASCSA staff provides planning and logistical assistance, in conjunction with the program director(s). The ASCSA staff will book all necessary components of the program, once the program itinerary is finalized and approved. If you wish to review the “Summer Session Director Handbook,” a previous report of a past Director, and/or a list of invited speakers and actual trip itinerary, please contact the Programs Administrator (Alicia Dissinger, adiss...@ascsa.org).
For more on duties, compensation, and how to apply, please see the listing on the website.
Shohet Grants for Research on the Ancient Mediterranean
Deadline: February 1, 2026
Award: Up to $30,000
The International Catacomb Society has opened applications for our 2026 Shohet Scholars grants, which support study of the ancient Mediterranean. Proposals do not have to be catacomb related, and may cover archeological field work, book research, preservation projects, and other activities. We are particularly interested in cross-cultural projects, and work on religions and belief practices in the region.
More information: https://www.catacombsociety.org/shohet-scholars/apply-here/
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Madeleine Duperouzel
DPhil in History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com