OxByzList: Trinity Week 2 Oxford Listings, 3 - 9 May
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Monday
04/05/2026, 16:30 - Robert Beddard Room, Oriel College, Oriel Square, OX1 4EW
Patristics Research Seminar - Phillip Quinn (Oxford): Dionysius on the God-world relation, contra Perl
04/05/2026, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, High St, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Research Seminar - Nancy Thebaut (St Catherine’s College, Oxford): When Christ Turns Away: Representing the Ascension ca. 1000
Tuesday
05/05/2026, 13:00 - First Floor Seminar Room, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Byzantine Epistles and Prosopography: Mapping the Lost Byzantine Generations of the Thirteenth Century
The fragmentation of Byzantium into a multitude of states from 1204 and until the Palaiologan reconquest of 1261 represents a terra incognita for current prosopographies of Byzantium. Outside of the chronological coverage of both the Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) and the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (PLP) research initiatives, these two/three generations of Byzantine society are not detailed in any currently published database.
The information to connect the two established research tools lies in the vast and often overlooked corpora of some 500 letters produced in the thirteenth-century Balkans. These texts detail how peoples navigated a liminal life between the Byzantine successor-states, Latin Crusaders, and Slavonic-speaking powers. Often demonstrating the survival or reconstitution of imperial institutions and offices beyond the collapse of central authority, this seminar series is designed as a means to read these letters. The focus will be on identifying the individuals either written to or described, and placing them within a chronological and geographical window.
With the aid of digital mapping and database management, these individuals can be brought to light and contextualised and a black hole of digital humanities in Byzantium slowly filled. We will be working initially on the dossier of Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid (1216–1236), foremost legal mind of his day.
All welcome. Interested participants should contact Nathan Websdale at nathan....@history.ox.ac.uk.
05/05/2026, 16:00 - Rector’s Drawing Room, Exeter College, Turl Street, OX1 3DP
Byzantine Literature Lectures - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): “The View from the Margins: Byzantine Literature of the Provinces (9th to 13th century)"
No knowledge of Greek is required.
Topics:
May 5: Syro-Palestine, Constantinople, Italy I: Saints at the Limits
May 12: Syro-Palestine, Constantinople, Italy II: Rite and Sacred Song
May 19: Monastic Networks: Mt. Athos and Mar Saba
May 26: Provincial Portraits: Cappadocia, Antioch, Paphos, and Trebizond
June 2: The “Western” Frontier: Sicily, Southern Italy, and Learned Literature
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
05/05/2026, 17:15 - Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
The Lyell Lectures - Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid): Muslim Book in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe.
Booking required. For more information visit visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures-2026.
Wednesday
06/05/2026, 12:15 - Lecture Room, Campion Hall, OX1 1QS
Syriac Lunch Seminar - Chloé Agar: A History of Violence: Tracing Merkourios Through Syriac, Greek, and Coptic Hagiography
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.
06/05/2026, 15:15 - Rector’s Drawing Room, Exeter College, Turl Street, OX1 3DP
Byzantine Text Seminar - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): Readings from a variety of genres and texts (4th-15th c.)
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
06/05/2026, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - Ekaterini Vavaliou (Oxford): Dissecting a Medieval Frontier: The Fortifications of Eastern Central Greece
Thursday
07/05/2026, 17:00 - Dorfman Centre, St Peter’s College, OX1 2DL
After Roman and Further East Seminar - Jack Tannous (Princeton): Lost Worlds: Syriac Literature between the Roman, Sasanian, and Islamic Empires
07/05/2026, 17:15 - Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
The Lyell Lectures - Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid): Muslim Book in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe.
Booking required. For more information visit visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures-2026.
07/05/2026, 17:15 - KRC Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Khalili Research Seminar - Suna Çağaptay (Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University): Reading Between the Lines: The Maritime Landscape of Anaia on the Byzantine-Genoese and Aydinid Cusp
Friday
07/05/2026, 17:15 - Memorial Room, Queen’s College, High Street, OX1 4AW
Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar - Shaahin Pishbin (Queen’s, Oxford) & Thomas Newbold (Asian University for Women, Chittagong): Muhajir Manuscripts: Field notes from the Alia Madrasa Library in Dhaka;
Jaimee Comstock-Skipp (New College, Oxford): What’s in a Nisba? Manuscript makers and Migrations in 16th-century Central Asia
Kind regards,
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com