Michaelmas Week 8 Oxford Listings (30 November - 6 December)
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Week 8
Monday
1/12/25, 14:00 - Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Course: Introduction to Arabic Palaeography - The Marinids and their neighbours
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.
1/12/25, 15:00 - Lecture Room, Institute of Archaeology, 36 Beaumont St, OX1 2PG
Medieval Archaeology Seminar - Aleks Pluskowski: ‘Re-thinking the “Green Revolution” in the Medieval Western Mediterranean (6th-16th Centuries)’
1/12/25, 16:30 – Location TBD
Patristics Research Seminar - End of term pub trip
1/12/25, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Seminar - Robert Swanson (University of Birmingham): ‘Margins, Marginality, and Marginalisation: Drawing Lines within and around Late Medieval Catholicism’
Tuesday
2/12/25, 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) - The Future of Classics and AI, Discussion Panel
Ryan Heuser (Cambridge), ‘Generative Formalism: On formal stuckness in AI verse'
Leo Impett (Cambridge), ‘Digital Art History and Critical AI studies’
Mark Bell (The National Archives), ‘Lessons learned from an AI based transcription project’
2/12/25, 17:00 - Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College, OX1 3TD
Medieval Church and Culture Seminar - Antonia Anstatt (Merton): ‘Saints and Emotions’
Wednesday
3/12/25, 16:00 - Online via Teams, link here
Oxford University Numismatic Society Lecture - François de Callataÿ (Royal Library of Belgium): ‘A fresh look at productivity of ancient coin dies’
3/12/25, 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 - Olivier Delouis (Paris): ‘Byzantium in Correspondence: 171 Letters of Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus to Non-Greek Byzantinists (1875–1911)’
3/12/25, 17:15 – St Peter’s College Chapel, New Inn Hallst, OX1 2DL
Dorothy Whitelock Lecture 2025 - Jane Roberts: ‘Guthlac: What the Early Medieval Records Tell Us’
Booking required: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dorothy-whitelock-lecture-tickets-1368622870849
Thursday
4/12/25, 14:00 - Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, Waltonst, OX1 2HG
Reading Group: Jewish Magical Texts from Antiquity and the Cairo Genizah - Magical Recipes from the Cairo Genizah
For inquiries, please contact Prof. Meron Piotrkowski: meron.pi...@ames.ox.ac.uk
4/12/25, 16:00 - Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College, OX1 AJF
Late Roman Seminar - Susannah Belcher (Independent Researcher): ‘Ammianus Marcellinus and the Last Classical Historian’
4/12/25, 16:00 - Somerville College, OX2 6HD (Meet in lodge)
Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar - Poetic Exchanges (Including poems by Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Muhja bint al-Tayyani, Tecla de Borja and ‘Vayona’)
We are an informal, friendly reading group, meeting to discuss everything to do with women’s writing in the Middle Ages. We will meet on Thursdays of weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8 at 4- 5pm at Somerville College, meeting at the lodge and walking together to the seminar room. Please email costas....@some.ox.ac.uk if you would like to find out more and/or receive reading materials in advance. All are welcome!
4/12/25, 17:00 - Online via Zoom; register here
All Souls Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music - Kerry McCarthy (Independent scholar): Title Voice-parts and voice-types in Tudor England
Discussants: David Skinner (University of Cambridge), and Andrew Johnstone (Trinity College, Dublin)
‘What part syngest thou? Qua voce cantas?’ John Stanbridge (1463-1510), master of Magdalen College School in Oxford and author of several innovative pedagogical books, taught his young pupils to ask that question. It is still a relevant question today. Tudor voice-parts and voice-types (both before and during the Reformation) have attracted some controversy in recent generations. This study addresses the issue from a less conventional angle. Rather than starting with questions of sounding pitch, transposition, or vocal production, it draws on a wide range of documents to revisit the five standard English voice-parts (bass, tenor, contratenor, mean/medius, treble/triplex) in what might be called ‘anthropological’ or ‘ethnographic’ terms, as specialised functions and roles exercised by participants in a complex musical culture. This approach, I would argue, also equips us to think more freely about practical matters of pitch and transposition as Tudor singers experienced them in their working lives.
4/12/25, 17:00 - Mary Sunley Lecture Theatre, St Catherine’s College, OX1 3UJ
Medieval Visual Culture Seminar - Kristine Tanton (University of Montreal): ‘Seeing Anew: Digital Methods and the Return to the Medieval Object’
Friday
5/12/25, 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
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.
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com