Michaelmas Week 5 Oxford Listings (9-15 November)
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Monday
10/11/25, 14:00 - Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Course: Introduction to Arabic Palaeography - The late Fatimid period
Eight weekly reading and discussion sessions (3 hours each) on Islamic manuscripts, calligraphy and the scribal traditions of the Arabic-speaking Mediterranean (7th-14th centuries).
These sessions are aimed at students and researches affiliated with the Faculties of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval and Modern Languages, Theology and Religion, Classics, and History. A basic grounding in classical Arabic is required.
10/11/25, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Seminar - Tom Johnson (Oriel): ‘The Inscriptive Economy in Fifteenth-Century England’
Tuesday
11/11/25, 16:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Ancient History Sub-Faculty Seminar (Quo Vadis: Classics Meets AI) - Thea Sommerschield (Durham), TBC
Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (Basel), ‘Digital Papyrology in the Age of AI: How can Computational Approaches Support Ancient Historians?’
11/11/25, 17:00 - Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College, OX1 3TD
Medieval Church and Culture Seminar - Nancy Thebaut (Catz): ‘Gender, Nature, & the Limits of Art: A Close Reading of 'Two Riddles of the Queen of Sheba,’ A Late Medieval Tapestry at the Met Cloisters
Wednesday
12/11/25, 12:15 - Lecture Room, Campion Hall, OX1 1QS
Syriac Lunch Seminar - Nidanu O'Shea: ‘Lived Spaces: The Natural Environment in the Syriac Tradition (ca. 4th – 13th c. CE)’
Participation is open to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from all academic fields and is by invitation. Those interested in attending are kindly asked to contact Katherine Painter (katherin...@theology.ox.ac.uk) by the Sunday prior to the date(s) they wish to attend so that complementary lunch can be provided.
This seminar is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Campion Hall and the Dolabani Fund for Syriac Studies.
12/11/25, 15:45 - Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont St, OX1 2PH
Oxford University Numismatic Society Lecture and Coin Handling - Tim Wright (Royal Numismatic Society): ‘Travels with the Naxos Masterpiece’
12/11/25, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU; Join online via Teams, link here
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - Marlena Whiting (Groningen): ‘Hodology, Wayfinding, and Geographic Knowledge in Late Antique Pilgrimage Accounts’
Thursday
13/11/25 to 14/11/25 - Schulman Auditorium, Queen's College, OX1 4AW
Crafting Documents Colloquium - 'Heritage Science and Manuscripts from Antiquity and the Middle Ages: new directions in the study of written artifacts’
In partnership with the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures, Oxford
This event brings together historians, conservators, and material scientists to examine the latest interdisciplinary approaches to writing culture and material science. Through a series of papers and discussions, we aim to shed new light on the production, transmission, and preservation of texts across diverse historical contexts. All sessions are free to attend, and no prior registration is required. The full programme will be announced shortly.
13/11/25, 11:30 - New College, OX1 3BN
Margoulith Symposium
Arabic returned to New College as an undergraduate subject in 2024 after an absence of many years. This followed the establishment of a new fellowship in Arabic in 2023, named in honour of New College’s most famous Arabist, Professor D.S. Margoliouth (1858-1940). This symposium, organised to celebrate the return of Arabic to New College, will consider Margoliouth’s rich life and legacy.
For questions, please contact the organiser: christia...@new.ox.ac.uk
13/11/25, 13:15 - Online via Zoom; for registration please contact maren....@student.uni-tuebingen.de.
Tübingen Byzantine and Near Eastern Seminar - Hannah-Lena Hageman (Hamburg): ‘Heroes, Villains, Martyrs: Rebellion in Early Islamicate Political Culture’
13/11/25, 15:45 - Online via Zoom; to get a link please send a message to the conveners: Agata Deptuła (agata....@uw.edu.pl) or Robert Wiśniewski (r.wisn...@uw.edu.pl).
Warsaw Late Antique Seminar - Stuart Airlie (University of Glasgow): ‘Body Horror of the Empress and Dark Palaces of the Emperor: Rulers and Resentment c.400-c.1100’
13/11/25, 16:00 - Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College, OX1 AJF
Late Roman Seminar - Veronika Wieser (Austrian Academy of Sciences) ‘Apocalypse as a Moral Mirror: Jerome and the Twilight of the Roman Empire’
13/11/25, 17:00 - Online via Zoom; register here
All Souls Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music - Elina Hamilton (University of Hawai’i, Mānoa), Peter Lefferts (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Elżbieta Witkowska-Zaremba (Warsaw, Polish Academy of Sciences): ‘Theinred of Dover (fl. c. 1300): A new context for him in fourteenth-century music theory’
De legitimis ordinibus pentachordorum et tetrachordorum by Theinred of Dover has long been known to scholars but has virtually remained inaccessible until recent years: a transcription of its text, made by John L. Snyder, was mounted onto TML only in 1996, and a critical edition by Snyder published in 2006 detailed an argument that dated the treatise to c. 1150. This seminar brings together three perspectives for repositioning Theinred in the fourteenth century, a date that had been offered in the very earliest accounts of the theorist. Responding to the 12th-century hypothesis, Hamilton will argue for a fourteenth-century date based on a new evaluation of Theinred’s sources; Lefferts will present contexts for---and close readings of---Theinred’s text that draw him into a tight circle of prominent theorists of the same era, and Witkowska-Zaremba will consider Theinred’s theories in the context of Boethius’s De institutione musica, pointing to the ideas and solutions presented by Boethius in the fourth book of his treatise and their reception in England around 1300.
13/11/25, 17:00 - Riverside Lecture Theatre, St Catherine’s College, OX1 3UJ
Medieval Visual Culture Seminar - Carly Boxer (Bucknell University): ‘Abstract Figures and Bodily Change: Giving Form to Unseen Things in Late Medieval England’
Friday
14/11/25, 09:30 - Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles, OX1 3LU
Byzantine Text Seminar - Dr Bazzani: The seminar sessions will focus on the text of John Moschos's Spiritual Meadow.
To sign up and receive the work materials, email marina....@classics.ox.ac.uk
14/11/25, 14:00 - Shared Spaces Room 10.303, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, OX2 6AH
Introduction to Coptic Linguistics Seminar
No prior knowledge of Coptic is needed but either a linguistics background or some basic Coptic would be an advantage.
As always, if there are any events you would like to share with the OUBS, please get into contact with us.
Kind regards,
Nidanu
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com