The Byzness, 2nd May 2024
Oxford University Byzantine Society
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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BYZANTINE SOCIETY
The Byzness, 2nd May 2024
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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
Silk in Byzantium (Micro Exhibit)
The George Washington University’s Byzantine Studies Club, hosted by the Cotsen Center at the Textile Museum, invites you to join them for Silk in Byzantium. Lead researcher Jenny Lowery ‘24 and several other BSC students have assembled a micro exhibit telling the story of silk in Byzantium, the first such undergraduate exhibit at the Textile Museum. This talk will explore the origins of the native Byzantine silk trade from its covert beginnings to its influence on the greater luxuries market in Constantinople and beyond.
Join online or in person Thursday May 2 at 1pm EDT, registering for either option at this link: https://museum.gwu.edu/cotsen-textile-traces-talk-smuggled-silkworms-silk-empire
Crow Week - Edinburgh Centre for Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies
Abstract: A recent publication on late antique and medieval urbanism titled ‘Cities as palimpsests?’ draws attention to the multi-layered nature of ancient cities and the nuanced perspectives which are offered for the study of evolving urbanism. But how far is this engaging metaphor relevant for understanding the city beneath our feet and as a contribution to comprehending past lifeways? By reviewing past and contemporary approaches and methodologies I aim to consider the contribution of previous observations and excavations for the topography and infrastructure of the city, with particular attention to the Byzantine remains enclosed within the circuit wall of the Topkapı Saray, the city’s first hill.
Medieval Middle Eastern Diversity Workshop
(To register for Zoom link, email thomas.a...@okstate.edu)
Monday, May 20, 2024 (by Zoom)
*All times listed in Eastern (US) Daylight Time
9:00-9:10am: Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:10-10:05: Session I
Mourad Takawi (U. Incarnate Word), “The Interreligious Context of Early Qurʾān Interpretation: Arabic Christian and Muslim Exegetes in the Early Islamic Period”
Jeson Ng (U. Chicago), “Arabic Verse in Persian Form: Medieval Experimentalisms at Play”
10:05-11:25: Session II
Sarit Kattan Gribetz (Fordham U.), “Helena of Adiabene in the Medieval Middle East”
Philip Wood (Aga Khan U.), “Religious Diversity in the Scholion of Theodore bar Koni (c.791)”
Orçun Saracoğlu (METU), “Church as a Multi-Ethnic Monument: Amida from Late Antiquity to Medieval Era”
11:35-12:30: Session III
John Zaleski (Loyola U.), “Diversity and Pluralism in the Debate of Timothy I and the Caliph al-Mahdi”
Omri Matarasso (Princeton U.), “The Confessionalization of the Medieval Middle East: Modern and Medieval Perspectives”
1:30-2:25: Session IV
Reyhan Durmaz (U. Pennsylvania), “Between Class, Clan, Confession: Reflections on Social Mobility”
Eve Krakowski (Princeton U.), “Linguistic Diversity and Religious Change after Arabization: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic among the Jews of Medieval Egypt”
2:25-3:20: Session V
Chris Mezger (Yale U.), “How Many Aramaics?: Language Shift and Social Cohesion in the Medieval Midde East”
Rama Alhabian (Hamilton Coll.), “Multilingual Worlds in Ḥarīrī’s Monolingual Maqāmāt: The Case of al-maqāma ar-Raqṭāʾ (the spotted)”
3:30-4:25: Session VI
Rachel Abdoler (U. Chicago), “Confessional Boundary Crossing in Biblical Exegesis: Butrus al-Sadamanti's use of Ibn al-Tayyib in his Tafsīr on the Passion of Christ”
Thomas A. Carlson (Oklahoma State U.), “Even the Qadi Does It: Religious Diversity, Gender, and the Vice Economy after 1000 CE”
4:25-5:00: Concluding Discussion
Lecture Series of the Department of Byzantine Studies, University of Cologne
Third Annual Academic Symposium at St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
November 13-15, 2024: Third Annual Academic Symposium at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.
This year’s symposium, titled “I Saw the Lord (Isa 6.1): Entangled Jewish and Christian Perspectives on the Encounter with God,” gathers leading Orthodox Christian and Jewish scholars from around the world, who will reflect on the manner in which theophanic texts—biblical accounts of Divine Revelation to the patriarchs and prophets—have always been and remain foundational to their respective doctrinal and spiritual traditions. For more details, see the Symposium page: https://www.svots.edu/events/symposium_2024
2. CALLS FOR PAPERS
Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel at 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies
To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 8–10, 2025. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.
Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 13, 2024.
If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided.
For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/60th-icms.
Contact Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.
Research Forum 'Ērān: West and Central Asia in the First Millennium CE'
We invite early career scholars interested in researching global Late Antiquity to take part in our initial Research Forum titled Ērān: Central and West Asia in the First Millennium CE’ which will take place at the University of Lille (France), 15 – 19 July 2024. The deadline for applications is May 15, 2024.
The Research Forum is a place for established scholars and junior researchers involved in the study of the Iranian world in the first millennium CE to come together for a dialogue of ideas, research agendas, and methods.
The Forum will last for 5 days and is set around the themes of Historiography, Languages of the empire, Religions and Cultures, Material and Visual Culture, Economy and Administration.
Early career scholars are encouraged to propose papers in their desired themes, although these might be organised across the week depending on the number of papers in each theme.
For more information, visit:
Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting (March 20-22, 2025) - Invitation for Submissions
In March 2025, the Medieval Academy of America will hold its centennial meeting on the campus of Harvard University. This three-day conference, organized by members of Harvard’s Standing Committee on Medieval Studies and scholars from colleges and universities across the Boston area, will be preceded on Wednesday 19 March by a day-long graduate student workshop as well as the annual Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI). The conference is meant not simply to celebrate the centenary of a professional organization, but to reflect on the present and future of the study of the “medieval” millennium of the human past, broadly conceived, and to welcome scholars and students working on this period who belong to professional organizations other than the Medieval Academy. We thus encourage submissions of individual papers or panel proposals before 3 June 2024. The CFP and links to submission forms are available online here. Note that we expect to offer travel subventions worth $500 to as many as 100 colleagues lacking research support, whose papers are accepted or who are chosen to participate in the graduate student workshop. If you have any questions, or would like more information about this event, please feel free to contact us.
Call for Journal Articles - The Hungarian Historical Review
The Hungarian Historical Review (https://www.jstor.org/journal/hunghistrevi; www.hunghist.org) invites submissions for its second issue in 2025, the theme of which will be Coherence of Translation Programs and the Contexts of Translation Movements, ca. 500– 1700 AD
The deadline for the submission of abstracts: June 15, 2024. The deadline for the accepted papers: December 15, 2024.
This Special Issue aims to explore the complex historical, literary, and material backgrounds that are conducive to producing translations from any source language (Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew, etc.) into Latin and from Latin into the vernaculars or local dialects from Late Antiquity until the end of the Renaissance period. The special issue investigates triggers and factors that helped produce Latin translations and eased the reception of Latin texts by non-Latin-using audiences. The variety of source and target languages creates a comparative framework that enriches our understanding of complex translating processes as historical phenomena. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): The birth of the idea of translating specific texts or corpora; The relation between geopolitical shifts and translation programs; The role of translators in pursuing programs; Translators’ development/ professionalization over the course of the centuries or within a specific epoch in pursuing specific programs; Movement and travel of translators as a trigger behind translations; Interreligious relations and cultural and economic exchange between West and East as a broader backdrop for translations; The role of patrons and audiences, systematizing tendencies of patrons; Scientific, political, educational, and religious networks behind translations; Personal initiatives and the lack of coherence behind translated texts. We welcome submissions from scholars in various disciplines, including medieval and renaissance history, literary and philological studies, art history, archaeology and material culture, and Islamic, Hebrew, and Byzantine studies. We especially encourage submissions that offer interdisciplinary perspectives and engage with current historiographical debates.
Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short biographical note with a selected list of the author’s three most important publications (we do not accept full CVs) no later than June 15, 2024. Proposals should be submitted to the special editor of the issue by email: pete...@peterbara.com
The editors will ask the authors of selected papers to submit their final articles (max. 10,000 words) no later than December 15, 2024.
The articles will be published after a double-blind peer-review process. We provide proofreading for contributors who are not native speakers of English. All articles must conform to our submission guidelines.
The Hungarian Historical Review is a peer-reviewed international quarterly of the social sciences and humanities, the geographical focus of which is Hungary and East-Central Europe.
For
additional information, please visit the journal’s website: www.hunghist.org
3. JOBS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History 2024-2026 at Kenyon College
The successful applicant will be able to teach broadly in their field. The selected candidate will teach five total classes per year at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels. Applicants should complement, not duplicate, current expertise of the department. The selected candidate may have the opportunity to provide mentorship to honors projects.
The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in hand at the time of the appointment. Candidates who are ABD with a completion date by August 2024 will be considered. Experience in teaching as the instructor of record in college-level courses is required. We seek scholars who can demonstrate a record of undergraduate teaching excellence, preferably in a liberal arts setting.
To apply, candidates should visit the online application site found at http://careers.kenyon.edu. Applications must include: 1) a cover letter describing teaching experience, research interests, teaching philosophy, and information on ways that issues and practices related to diversity, inclusion, and equity have been or will be included in teaching, 2) a curriculum vitae, 3) unofficial graduate transcript(s), 4) a list of three references with detailed contact information, including email address (at least one reference must speak to the candidate’s teaching experience). Note: references will only be contacted for those candidates who advance to the latter stages of the search.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. All applications received by May 10 will be given full consideration.
Dumbarton Oaks Mentorship Program for East-Central European Scholars
Please find here the Call for Applications for the Dumbarton Oaks Mentorship Program for East-Central European Scholars, co-organized with North of Byzantium and Connected Central European Worlds, 1500-1700.
We invite applications for a remote four-session mentorship program tailored to early-career scholars, with a special focus on those affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The four sessions will take place in Fall of 2024 (September-November) and Spring of 2025 (February-April).
We encourage historians and art historians with a specialty in the medieval or early modern visual culture of East-Central Europe to apply to this program. The successful applicants should be advanced PhD candidates (within 1 year of completion of their degrees) or junior-level scholars (up to 5 years since graduation with a doctoral degree).
The deadline for applications is May 12, 2024.
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Alexander Sherborne
DPhil Candidate, Faculty of History
President, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com