The Byzness, 25th January 2026
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 25th January 2026
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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,
I hope that term is getting off to a wonderful start for everyone!
TheOUBS 28th International Graduate Conference, Decline and Flourish, is this term! We could not be more excited to meet all our speakers and attendees in Oxford at St. Peter’s College and online on February 28th and March 1st.
Over this 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.
Summer School on the languages of the Christian East in Rome
We are delighted to announce the third edition of the Summer School on the Languages of the Christian East, organised by Syriaca - The Italian Association for Syriac Studies and the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.
The Summer School will be held, as usual, in the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, from July 6th to July 17th, 2026. Just like previous editions, the School will offer a variety of language classes, which will take place in the morning, as well as many seminars on literature and culture in the afternoon. Participants will receive a certificate of 6 ECTS at the end of the two weeks (with 90% of attendance achieved).
This year, we have expanded our teaching offer, which now amounts to 12 courses:
Arabic 1, Arabic 2;
Armenian 1, Armenian 2;
Ethiopian 1;
Georgian 1;
Hebrew 1, Hebrew 2;
Syriac 1, Syriac 2, Syriac 3;
Vernacular Greek.
Unsure of which language to pick, or simply curious to know what will be learned in each course? Take a look at the brief videos with info about our courses and their teachers: https://www.syriacastudisiriaci.it/scuola-estiva/
Participants will be able to attend only one language course, but are strongly encouraged to let us know, upon registration, whether they would be interested in attending any other course that we offer. Participants will be provided with the materials and tools that will be necessary for their morning classes and afternoon seminars. Though in-person participation is highly recommended, the possibility of attending the Summer School online will be provided upon specific request. The School will be held in Italian, but all language teachers are available to switch to English if requested.
Registrations are now open! Participants will enjoy the reduced fee for early birds (420 € in person, 520€ online) until 15/03. If you register between 15/03 and 01/05, there will be no reduction (480 € in person, 580 € online). Registrations close on the 1st of May 2026. A limited number of on-campus ensuite rooms are available for Summer School participants, on a first come first served basis. Participants will be informed of the accommodation pricing based on their requests.
To register, please email us at summerscho...@gmail.com, stating which language course you wish to attend (+ a backup option), and attaching a brief description of your academic background and interests (5-10 lines). Do not forget to add whether you need on-campus accommodation for the Summer School.
More info on the website: https://www.syriacastudisiriaci.it/scuola-estiva/
The Ghand-e Parsi 2025 Winter School is a seasonal program designed to offer learners from all backgrounds a rich, structured, and immersive experience of the Persian language and Persianate culture. With carefully designed courses at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels, the Winter School provides a comprehensive learning pathway—from building foundational communication skills to engaging deeply with historical, literary, artistic, and mystical Persian texts.
In addition to the core language levels, the program includes a diverse selection of cross-level courses that open interdisciplinary perspectives, such as Digital Humanities, Persian through Arabic, and Persian through Music. Taught by distinguished instructors including Mohammad H. Naraghi, Peyman Eshaghi, Domenico Arturo Ingenito, and Mehdi Rezania, the Winter School brings together language learning, cultural exploration, and scholarly expertise in a unique and intellectually enriching environment.
All course sessions are fully recorded, allowing participants to review materials and watch sessions outside of live class hours.
Below you will find the list of courses offered this winter:
Elementary Courses
Elementary Persian (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Intermediate Courses
Intermediate Persian (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Intermediate Persian through Short Stories (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Intermediate Persian through News Websites in Simple Persian (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Persian for Heritage Speakers (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Advanced Courses
How to Read Persian Poetry: From Ferdowsi to Forugh Farrokhzad (Domenico Arturo Ingenito)
Advanced Persian through Mystical and Sufi Texts (Peyman Eshaghi)
Advanced Persian through Persian Codicology Texts (Peyman Eshaghi)
Advanced Persian through Safavid Texts (Peyman Eshaghi)
Advanced Persian through South Asian Persian Texts (Peyman Eshaghi)
Advanced Persian through History of Art Texts (Peyman Eshaghi)
Cross-Level Courses
Persian Language and Culture through Iranian Cinema (Peyman Eshaghi)
Bridging Arabic & Persian: Learn Faster, Remember Better (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Digital Humanities and Persianate Studies Bootcamp (Peyman Eshaghi)
Learning Persian Through Songs: Language, Poetry, and Culture Across the 12 Dastgāh (Mehdi Rezania)
Persian for Everyday Conversation (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
We warmly invite you to join us for this Winter School and take part in a meaningful journey into Persian language and culture. Whether you are continuing your studies or joining Ghand-e Parsi for the first time, we hope this program will be both inspiring and rewarding.
Learn more about all courses: https://www.ghandeparsi.com/winterschool
Register here: https://forms.gle/RLeytfi9nMU5RpdXA
Apply: „Riwaq Prize for Research and Culture“
Nominations of Outstanding Recent Monographs in Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies, and Related Middle Eastern Studies Invited for the „Riwaq Prize for Research and Culture“ by "The Divan – Arab Cultural Centre" (Berlin) and the "Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB)”
The prize is awarded in three language categories (Arabic, English, German). Monographs in the fields of philosophy, history and cultural studies, art and architecture, literature, linguistics, and translation studies published in their original language between 1 January 2022, and 31 January 2026, are eligible for nomination.
The Riwaq Prize for Research and Culture is a joint initiative of the Divan – The Arab Cultural House (Berlin) and the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB). It honours outstanding monographs that contribute to the further development of their discipline through innovative research approaches and critical perspectives. Works in the humanities and social sciences with a focus on Arabic cultures and societies are eligible for nomination. The prize is awarded every two years and alternates between the humanities and social sciences.
The prize is awarded in three language categories (Arabic, English, German); each of the three categories is endowed with €1,000. The winner in each category is selected by a jury consisting of three renowned scholars.
Deadline for nominations: 31 January 2026. Information: https://riwaqbookprize.com/en/
SBPS Online Workshop | Byzantium and Bloomsbury | 01.04.2026 | 10:00-17:00
This one-day online workshop is open to all at a small fee, with reduced rates available for students and members of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies and the British School at Athens.
Date: 1 April 2026
Time: 10am-5pm
Full information & registration: https://www.byzantium.ac.uk/byzantium-and-bloomsbury-a-one-day-online-workshop-1-april-2026-10am-5pm-organised-by-the-society-for-the-promotion-of-byzantine-studies/
2. CALL FOR PAPERS
Extended Abstract deadline / CfP: Conference "The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice (6th -15th century)
Due to the significant interest received for the International Conference "The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice (6th -15th century)", Bologna, 17-19 June 2026, we are pleased to announce that the deadline for abstract submission has been extended to January 26, 2025, at 12:00 PM (GMT+1).
Please note that notifications regarding abstract acceptance will be sent by mid-February 2026.
“The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice
(6th – 15th century)”
(Bologna, June 17-19, 2026)
The conference might be of interest to many Late and Medieval Hellenists and Latinists, and will explore how theoretical and technical knowledge of natural properties was shaped through transmission, translation, and adaptation, as well as the impact of its practical applications in crafts and artisanal practices. By tracing these trajectories across time (6th – 15th century), space (Mediterranean area, Near East, Iran and Central Asia), as well as cultures and languages (Greek, Latin, Arabic, Middle Persian and Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Turkish), the conference seeks to illuminate the pathways of transmission through which mediaeval understanding of natural properties and their applications was shaped and circulated.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
· Theories of properties: explicit formulations or implicit theories, encoding, the conceptual space of properties within the study of nature.
· Properties across genres and fields of knowledge: the technical side and application of properties in different textual genres (medicine, magic, alchemy, agriculture, crafts, fraud, etc.), its application to various purposes, erudite and popular circulation, the combination of technical and literary elements.
· Practical and artisanal applications and techniques: technical knowledge applied to the manipulation of nature, examined in connection with professionals or with specific social and intellectual groups and contexts, and from different perspectives (erudite physicians, street physicians, root cutters, apothecaries, etc.); techniques, instruments, and materials; practices of counterfeiting and adulteration; the role of replication in the study of premodern natural properties.
· Clues of transmission: Manuscripts and manuscript traditions; textual criticism (variant analysis and its impact, the study of fluid traditions); multilingual traditions; corpora, lines and clusters of transmission; authorship, and pseudo-epigraphy.
The conference is organised by Alessandra Scimone & Amine Xhakoni, with the participation of Lucia Raggetti (University of Bologna, UseFool Project), and will feature a special event for the launch of the edition of The Book of Occult Properties by Abū al-ʿAlā ibn Zuhr, as a collective research endeavour of the UseFool Project.
We invite abstracts from scholars at any stage in their academic career with a philological, linguistic, and historical background, or an expertise in premodern material culture. Poster presentations are also welcome and may be included in a dedicated session.
Abstract Submission: Abstracts of papers and posters (in Italian, English, French, Spanish or German) must not exceed 300 words (papers) or 200 words (posters) and must include: author(s)’ full name(s); title of the contribution, institutional affiliation; abstract; three to five keywords for papers, three for posters.
Presentation format: 20 minutes + 10 minutes (Q&A)
Submission deadline: 15th January, 2026. Accepted papers and posters will be announced by mid-February 2026.
Conference activities will be free of charge both for speakers and for attendees. For the speakers, travel and accommodation expenses are to be covered by the UseFool project.
Please consider submitting an abstract and feel free to share this call with colleagues who might be interested.
Further details can be found in the full Call for Papers, available at the following link: https://www.academia.edu/145294551/Call_for_Papers_The_Science_of_Natural_Properties_Knowledge_Transmission_and_Practice_6_th_15_th_century_Bologna_17_19_June_2026?source=swp_share.
If you have questions about the event, please do not hesitate to contact me or my co-organiser, Amine Xhakoni (alessandr...@unibo.it, amine.x...@unibo.it).
We are looking forward to reading your proposals!
CFP: Knowledge, Resilience and the Environment in the Mediterranean, 1-1000CE - Venice, 8-10 September 2026
I am happy to announce a call for papers for a conference focusing on Knowledge, Resilience and the Environment in the Mediterranean, 1-1000 CE, to take place in Venice 8-10 September 2026, organised as part of the ERC project SSE1K: Science, Society and Environmental Change in the First Millennium CE (ERC Consolidator Grant 101044437).
Understanding the relationships between knowledge and resilience is essential for examining complex societies and their responses to short-term events and longer-term processes of environmental change. This conference aims to address the relationships between knowledge and resilience in relation to climatic and environmental conditions in the Mediterranean in the first millennium CE, particularly focusing on how people in this period responded in different ways to environmental fluctuations and challenges.
We invite proposals for papers and posters which address issues relating to knowledge and/or resilience in relation to the environment in the Mediterranean in the first millennium CE, and especially encourage submissions which examine social and/or intellectual responses to environmental changes. We aim to open up debate about the extent to which climatic and environmental fluctuations caused significant problems for communities and societies, in order to understand better the causal links between human activity and experience and environmental fluctuations, and to consider how to move away from simple narratives of catastrophe and collapse.
Please submit abstracts for posters or 20-minute papers by 22 February 2026, using the online form. Some bursaries may be available. For more information please see the full call for papers.
CFP: “Food and Foodways across the Mediterranean World” The Mediterranean Seminar Spring 2026 Workshop (22 & 23 May: Eugene OR)
The Mediterranean Seminar, with the collaboration and sponsorship of the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages at the University of Oregon Eugene, announce “Food and Foodways across the Mediterranean World,” the Mediterranean Seminar Spring 2026 Workshop to be held on 22 & 23 May, on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene.
The workshop will feature two keynote speakers, three workshopped papers and round-table sessions.
Keynote speakers:
Nawal Nasrallah (independent scholar and translator)
Carolyn Nadeau (Illinois Wesleyan University)
Food is fundamental to the human experience, and some would argue, a defining feature of the historical and cultural Mediterranean. After all, for Braudel, the Mediterranean was the “land of the vine and olive. Some today extol the “Mediterranean diet,” while others dismiss it as a marketing artifice. Whatever the case, what we consume is at times held to define us. Food can separate us, but it also joins us together. Religious and social rituals prescribe what is to be eaten and how, when and with whom, and what foods are not to be eaten, when and with whom. And yet food is also a leveler, joining people of diverse identities in fellowship in one of life’s most basic and pleasant activities. Feasting marks our greatest occasions. The production, distribution and consumption of food has shaped and transformed societies, economies and ways of seeing the world. It is deeply bound up in colonization and conquest and often drives diplomacy. Armies march on their bellies. The need for staples and desire for luxury food bound together the interests of the Christian and Muslim Mediterranean and their global hinterlands. While we seldom eat our enemies, we do often covet their food, and sometimes we bring our own to the feast. From the medieval Islamicate “Green Revolution” to the stream of spices coming in along the “Silk Roads,” to the culinary transformations of the Colombian Exchange, the Mediterranean has been a crucible of culinary innovation and food looms large in our image of the Mediterranean and in the mind of its inhabitants.
The Mediterranean Seminar and the University of Oregon at Eugene invite papers that deal with any aspect of the production, distribution, consumption or representation of food and foodways in the Mediterranean world from Antiquity to the present, 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 historically 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 food and foodways 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 15 February 2026 via this form. Successful applicants will submit a 35-page (maximum) double-spaced unpublished paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by 3 May 2026.
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 15 February 2026 via this form.
Round-table presenters will submit a 3-5 page “position paper” in response to their round-table prompt by 13 May 2026. 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 were crops, products, ingredients and techniques of food production developed and disseminated across the Mediterranean world? How did production, dissemination and consumption of food shape Mediterranean economies and how did this intersect with specific communities and constituencies?
2. Consumption and Culture: Was there a “Mediterranean diet”? What was it and how did it evolve? What role did food have in social and cultural practices, and secular and religious rituals? What were the various manifestations of Mediterranean food culture and how did these vary over time, place and across ethno-religious communities?
3. Perceptions and Representations: How was food 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)? 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 presenters and for round-table presenters as budget permits.
Domestic air travel will be provided for workshop presenters only (international presenters up to $1000).
A separate call for non-presenting participants will go out in July.
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Khamseen 2026 Graduate Student Presentation Award
Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online offers talks and other resources to support teaching, learning, and research in Islamic art, architecture, visual culture, and related fields. Since the website’s launch in Fall 2020, new contributions by scholars in the field have grown our catalogue.
Khamseen’s Graduate Student Presentation Award enables graduate students to feature their expertise and contribute a talk to Khamseen. This year, graduate students may partner with a mentor to collaborate on a presentation.
For this year’s Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award, we thus invite:
• PhD candidates (ABD) to submit a script of ca. 1,500 words and accompanying Powerpoint slides for a Topic presentation.
or
• A team consisting of a PhD student and a mentor (professor, curator, librarian, or more senior colleague) to submit a script of ca. 1,500 words and accompanying Powerpoint slides for a Topic, Term, or Hands-On presentation.
The award recipient(s) will work with our team to revise and then produce their presentation, and they also will receive a prize of $500 upon their talk’s launch on the Khamseen website.
Submission Guidelines:
Applications due: April 13, 2026
Notification of decisions: June 1, 2026
Eligibility:
PhD candidates (ABD) and advanced PhD students in their third year or above (for doctoral programs without candidacy) enrolled in a degree-granting program in Islamic art and allied fields. If submitting a collaborative presentation with a mentor, graduate students should be enrolled in a PhD program. We do not accept applications from undergraduate and Masters students.
Application Procedures:
Candidates should submit a polished script of ca. 1,500 words and accompanying Powerpoint slides for a Topic talk or, if in collaboration with a mentor, a Topic, Term, or Hands-On presentation following Khamseen’s Guidelines. Additionally, applications should include a 3-5 sentence synopsis of the Topic or Hands-On presentation (note: this is not necessary if submitting a Term presentation), a 2-page CV, and a note of support from an advisor (e.g., a dissertation committee member) if the talk is submitted solely by a PhD candidate.
Please submit materials to TeamKh...@umich.edu; notes of support by advisors and queries by candidates also should be sent to TeamKh...@umich.edu.
The 2026 BRAIS Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World
The British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) is delighted to announce the 2026 round of the BRAIS Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.
This international prize is awarded annually to one outstanding doctoral thesis. English-language submissions on any aspect of the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world, past and present, including Muslim-minority societies are accepted. Applicants can be based in any country.
Manuscripts will be assessed on the basis of scholarly quality and originality, rigour in scholarship, use of source material, contribution to the field and clarity of expression.
The award includes a cash prize of £1000 which will be officially presented at the Annual Conference of BRAIS. The selection process will be undertaken by the prize committee comprising established academics from across the field. The winning candidate will be notified by September 2026
Rules and Regulations:
- To be eligible, a submission must be a doctoral thesis which has been completed, successfully defended, and accepted no more than two years before the submission deadline. The thesis must have been submitted as part of the requirements for a doctoral degree at any university in the world.
- The subject(s) covered by the submission should fall within the remit of BRAIS. For details, see: www.brais.ac.uk/about-brais/about-us. The Prize Committee will make the final decision on whether submissions are of sufficient relevance.
- An award ceremony will be organised at the BRAIS Annual Conference.
- The BRAIS Prize is open to BRAIS members from any country. There is no age limit.
- Submissions are accepted in English only and must adhere to internationally recognised standards and conventions of academic writing, including of transliteration. Entries must include:
- Application form which can be downloaded here: BRAIS Prize 2026 Application Form
- The manuscript. The minimum word limit is 80,000 words. There is no maximum limit. The thesis must be submitted in anonymised form, with all references to the author and his/her institution, acknowledgements and any other material that might help to identify the origins of the thesis removed, within reason. This is to maximise impartiality during the review process.
- The applicant’s curriculum vitae, of a maximum of 2 pages.
- A statement, of a maximum of 750 words, summarising the submission and highlighting its originality and contribution to the field.
- 10.A scanned copy of the formal confirmation of the completion, successful defence and acceptance of the doctoral thesis from the awarding institution. If in doubt on the nature of this document, please enquire at your institution.
- 11.Items a-d should be submitted in PDF format. All files must contain the applicant’s surname in the file name. Documents must be submitted to brais...@ed.ac.uk by 5pm GMT Friday 30 January 2026.
- 12.The applicant should also arrange for the supervisor or another academic, who is more senior than the applicant and is familiar with the submission, to submit a supporting statement that highlights its contributions to the field. This should be submitted by the supervisor or senior academic confidentially and directly to brais...@ed.ac.uk by 5pm GMT Friday 30 January 2026. The full name of the applicant should be stated in the title of the email.
- 13.Failure to follow all submission requirements will result in an automatic disqualification.
All submissions are vigorously and anonymously reviewed by experts in the relevant field. The reports from reviewers help the Prize Committee to undertake the selection process.
Deadline for applications: 30 January 2026. Information: https://www.brais.ac.uk/prize
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Madeleine Duperouzel
DPhil in History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com