Conference Booklet
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O nd O X F O R D U 22 C E N T R E f o r B Y Z A N T I N E B International R E S E A R C H G r a d u a t e Oxford Centre for S C o n f e re n c e Late Antiquity H I S T O R Y FACULTY The State Between OXFORD Liminality, Transition 2 8 - 2 9 & Transformation FEBRUARY 2 0 2 0 in Late Antiquity & Byzantium The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s XXII International Graduate Conference The State Between: Liminality, Transition and Transformation in Late Antiquity and Byzantium 28th -29th February 2020 History Faculty, Oxford Was conceived and organised by Daniel Gallaher (President) Lorenzo Saccon (Secretary) Josh Hitt (Treasurer) In collaboration with Aikaterini Vavaliou And made possible through the generous support of The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR) www.ocbr.ox.ac.uk The Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity (OCLA) www.ocla.ox.ac.uk Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS) https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/oxford-medieval-studies The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) https://ahrc.ukri.org/ The Oxford Research Centre for Humanities (TORCH) www.torch.ox.ac.uk History Faculty, Oxford www.history.ox.ac.uk/home With thanks to the organising committee Cover Image Credit: Chloé Agar Cory Johnson Alberto Ravani Background Photo: Mosaic of Theodora - Basilica of San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy) Philip Atkins John-Francis Martin Sofia Simões Coelho © Petar Milošević / CC BY-SA James Cogbill Callan Meynell Rebekah Wahnon-Pym Graphic Design: Aikaterini Vavaliou for the OUBS Miranda Gronow Raymond Ngoh Julian Wood 2 3 Welcome The conference committee wishes you all a very warm welcome to the Oxford University Byzantine Society’s 22nd International Graduate Conference. For many centuries, Byzantium was characterised in historiographical narratives as a transitional state: a retrospective bridge between antiquity and modernity. However, while Byzantium undoubtedly acted as an intermediary between these worlds and eras, it is important to recognise the creativity, originality, and vitality which characterised this empire and its population. Much as Late Antiquity has been reframed as a period of evolution rather than decline, so too can the Byzantine world be viewed in a new light through the lens of liminality. This conference aims to explore the fluid and the unfixed, periods of transition and ambiguity; the state of being ‘betwixt and between’. Including contributions on political, social, literary, architectural and artistic history, and covering geographical areas throughout the central and eastern Mediterranean and beyond, this conference aims to provide a kaleidoscopic view of the Late Antique and Byzantine world. We hope the next two days will raise as many questions as they will resolve. But most of all, we aim to provide a forum for interdisciplinary discourse on Late Antiquity and Byzantium. We look forward to listening to and engaging with your research. Best wishes from the committee, Daniel Gallaher, Lorenzo Saccon, and Josh Hitt 4 5 The State Between: 11:30 Coffee Break 3b The Literary and the Liminal The State Between: 6a Thresholds of the Divine Ólafur Haukur Árnason Chair: Alberto Ravani Chair: Julian Wood (Corpus Christi College, Oxford) Liminality, Transition & Liminality, Transition & Armenian and Byzantine Ecclesiastics in Anna Trento Natalia Turabelidze 12:00 Sessions 2a & 2b 11th-century Iceland Transformation in (Università degli Studi di Padova) Transformation in (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University) Late Antiquity & Byzantium 2a Settlements in Transformation Literary Sources on Monastic Settlements in Late Antiquity & Byzantium Personification in Medieval Chair: Katerina Vavaliou Palestine and Sinai in the 6th-7th centuries G e o r g i a n M o n u m e n t a l P a i n ti n g : Raymond Ngoh Murals of the Ishkhani Cathedral (Keble College, Oxford) The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s Vasiliki Arkoumani The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s Barbarians and ‘Imperialisation’: nd 22 International Graduate Conference (National Technical University of Athens) Chloé Agar 22nd International Graduate Conference A Comparison of Liminal Identity across The Transformation of the Urban Character of (St Cross College, Oxford) Zarifa Alikperova Eurasia in Late Antiquity (Wolfson College, Oxford) 28th -29th February 2020 Cydonia (Chania) under Venetian Rule Transition and Transformation in Coptic th th Hagiography 28 -29 February 2020 ʿAlam al-Dīn Qayṣar and His Shrine for Rūmī History Faculty, Oxford History Faculty, Oxford 16:00 Coffee Break Jonathan Query (Durham University) Ekaterina Rybakova Ivan Alekseev (Russian State University of the Humanities) Friday, 28th February 2020 Halmyris: A Fortification in Transition (Lomonosov Moscow State University) Saturday, 29th February 2020 16:30 Sessions 8a &8b ‘Pneuma’: Between Body, Soul and Mind A Cycle of Apostolic Suffering in a Chapel of the Hagia Sophia in Ohrid 8a A World Transformed 09:00 Registration Robert Hayes 09:00 Registration and Coffee Chair: John-Francis Martin (St Hilda’s College, Oxford) 16:00 Coffee Break Isabella Heinemann Between Public and Private Space in the 6b Between Armenia and Byzantium Chair: Daniel Gallaher (St Hilda’s College, Oxford) 09:30 Opening Remarks Aristocratic Residences at Mystras 10:00 Sessions 5a & 5b 16:30 Sessions 4a & 4b Mehmed II as Roman Emperor: Daniel Gallaher 5a Experiencing the Liminal Lewis Read Kritovoulos’ ‘History’ Contextualised 4a The Eastern Frontier (OUBS President) 2b Overlapping Authorities C h a i r : M i r a n d a G r o n o w (University of St Andrews) Chair: Callan Meynell Chair: Chloé Agar The Ašxarhac‘oyc‘ and the Construction of Sima Meziridou Shandra Lamaute Armenian Geo-political Space in the 7th century George Robert Luff (University of Cyprus) 10:00 Sessions 1a & 1b Nikita Bogachev (Kellogg College, Oxford) (Independent researcher) C o s m o p o l i ta n Tr e b i zo n d : (Central European University) The Kelsey Pendant: The Performative and 1a Liminality in Middle Byzantine Literature Liminality in Politics and Identity on the Lucas McMahon the City of Cross-cultural Entanglements Symeon the New Theologian Sensorial Experience of an Early Byzantine Chair: Josh Hitt Eastern Frontier of Byzantium, c.969-1071 (Princeton University) Amulet Mleh the Armenian between Constantinople Lorenzo Saccon Vasily Zagrebin Matthew Hassall and the Byzantine-Abbasid Frontier Eric Medawar (Wolfson College, Oxford) (Lomonosov Moscow State University) (University of Cambridge) Julian Wood (Princeton University) Between Turks and Latins: Apollonios of Tyana in Middle Byzantine Intertextual Political Debate in Justinian’s (University College, Oxford) Bilingual Arab-Greek Seals and the Lives of Stephanie Forrest Liminal Aspects of Greek Captivity and Their Literature Constantinople Between ‘Chroma’ and Christology: Arabs in 10th and 11th century Byzantium (University of Cambridge) Centrality in 14th-century History The Role and Function of Colour in the ‘Three Treatises’ of John of Damascus ‘Liminal’ Byzantium in the 7th and 8th Yan Zaripov James Cogbill centuries Viewed through Armenian Eyes Joaquin Serrano del Pozo 8b (St Hilda’s College, Oxford) (Worcester College, Oxford) Reframing Belief (University of Edinburgh) Chair: Raymond Ngoh Theodore Prodromos between Christian Piety The Liminality of Imperial Kinship by Choice Alexis Gorby Between Medieval Legend and Byzantine and Classical Learning in Late Byzantium (St John’s College, Oxford) 13:30 Lunch History: Emperor Heraclius’ Single Combat William Bunce Transformation of the Crossing of the Red Sea (Wadham College, Oxford) Alberto Ravani Sarcophagi Miaphysitism on Trial in the Courts of Justin II 13:30 Lunch 14:30 Sessions 7a & 7b (Exeter College, Oxford) 4b The Slavic World 7a Boundaries and Transgression ‘And Also Others Have Written “Iliads”’: Chair: Sofia Simões Coelho 5b Intercultural Dialogues Chair: Rebekah Wahnon-Pym Ben Kybett The Boundaries of the ‘Iliad’ in 12th-century 14:30 Sessions 3a & 3b Angus Russell Chair: Lorenzo Saccon (University of Cambridge) Byzantine Literature Daniil Pleshak (University of Cambridge) Claudian and Christianisation: 3a Negotiating Space Carmelo Nicolò Benvenuto (Saint Petersburg University) ‘Tamga’, ‘Myt’ and the Politics of Muscovite Fighting Religious Transformation at the Chair: Robert Hayes (Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza) Patriarchal Drag: Disempowerment and Fiscal Appropriation Late Antique Court 1b The Syriac Frontier Byzantine Dialogues with the Latins during Changing Roles in George of Pisidia’s ‘Bellum Chair: William Bunce David Williams the Comnenian Age Avaricum’ (Royal Holloway) Paolo Angelini Wojciech Nadobnik Bogdan Draghici Hagia Sophia as Built by Muhammad and (Independent researcher) (Adam Mickiewicz University) (Wolfson College, Oxford) John-Francis Martin Krisztina Ilko al-Khidr The Slavs’ Transition from Customary Law (Oriel College, Oxford) (University of Cambridge) Pagan as a Liminal Status in the Letters of ‘How Can a Son Raise against His Father?’ to Written Law Systems Theodoret of Cyrrhus Cultural, Theological and Artistic Mutations at Neither Greek nor Latin: The Cult of Saint Marina between the Outskirts of the Empire Mathilde Sauquet Cardinal Bessarion’s Encyclical to the Greeks Constantinople and Venice (Independent researcher) and the Plight of the Byzantine Pro-Unionists Benjamin Gray 18:00 Closing Remarks Islamic Influences in Norman-Sicilian Art (Balliol College, Oxford) Lora Webb Daria Jedrzejewska after Roger II ‘The Buried People’: (Stanford University) (Adam Mickiewicz