OxByzList: Trinity Week 4 Oxford Listings, 17 - 23 May
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Monday
18/05/2026, 16:30 - Robert Beddard Room, Oriel College, Oriel Square, OX1 4EW
Patristics Research Seminar - Ole Vinther (Oslo): Julianic Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus and Libanius: Politics, Narratives, and Worldviews in the 4th century Roman Empire
18/05/2026, 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 - Teresa Witcombe (Wadham College, Oxford): The Spoils of War: Andalusi Captives in Medieval Castile
Tuesday
19/05/2026, 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.
19/05/2026, 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.
Wednesday
20/05/2026, 12:15 - Lecture Room, Campion Hall, OX1 1QS
Syriac Lunch Seminar - Sofia Puchkova: What William Wright Did Not Tell Us: On Grease, Readers' Notes, and Composite Manuscripts
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.
20/05/2026, 12:00 - Coin Study Centre, off Gallery 36 Japan after 1860, Floor 2, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont St, OX1 2PH
Money in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, the Medieval West (300-1100) - Julian Baker (Ashmolean): The Middle Byzantine Period, ca. 800-1100
20/05/2026, 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.
20/05/2026, 16:00 - Online & Institute Lecture Room, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont St, OX1 2PH
World Archaeology Seminar - Işılay Gürsu (British Institute at Ankara): Public Dialogues in Archaeology: Everyday Practice and the Making of Heritage in Turkey
This talk introduces my forthcoming book Public Dialogues in Archaeology: New Methodologies from Turkey, which reconsiders the relationship between archaeology and the public. Drawing on over a decade of research across Turkey—including nationwide public opinion poll, ethnographic fieldwork, and community-based projects—it asks a deceptively simple question: how do people actually relate to the material remains of the past in their everyday lives?
Challenging the assumption that appreciation of archaeology depends primarily on formal knowledge, the book proposes that public engagement is often grounded in embodied, affective, and sensory forms of understanding. By bringing together perspectives from archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, it invites a reconsideration of what it means to make archaeology “public,” and suggests that meaningful engagement may begin not with transmitting knowledge, but with attending to the forms of knowledge that already exist.
Please contact Nancy Highcock at the Ashmolean (nancy.h...@ashmus.ox.ac.uk) for further details of this hybrid talk.
20/05/2026, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - Apolline Gay (Brussels and Oxford): They Also Tell the Story: The Role of Biblical Female Figures in Images from Byzantine and Early Islamic Egypt
Online Teams link here.
20/05/2026, 17:15 - Memorial Room, Queen’s College, High Street, OX1 4AW
Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures - Roberta Mazza (University of Bologna): Beyond Provenance: Publishing Papyri and Other Manuscripts from Egypt in 2026
20/05/2026, 17:00 - Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Marston Road OX3 0EE
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies - James Wescoat (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Water Justice in Muslim Societies: Towards a Macro-Historical Geographic Perspective
Thursday
21/05/2026, 17:00 - Dorfman Centre, St Peter’s College, OX1 2DL
After Roman and Further East Seminar - Thibaut Auplat (Aix-Marseilles): Laughter in Christian-Muslim Polemics from John of Damascus to Theodore Abū Qurra: Literary Strategies and Shifting Views of Islam
21/05/2026, 17:15 - KRC Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Khalili Research Seminar - Stephane Pradines (The Aga Khan University): Islamic Archaeology in Egypt: Sixteen Years of Rescue Excavations in Cairo
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com