| Reports by SPBS Members |
Conferences
held in 2007 |
40th SPRING SYMPOSIUM OF BYZANTINE STUDIES The Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies returned to the University of Birmingham to celebrate its 40th year on the site of its original home, over a weekend of record-breaking weather. It was truly a spring symposium; the campus daffodils were well advanced. Attended by 110 participants from 14 countries, the symposium opened with a joint meeting – the first in 28 years -- with the Classical Association. Margaret Mullett addressed the audience, surveying the changes and developments in our subject since she and Roger Scott were symposiarchs of the Thirteenth Spring Symposium in 1979, ‘Byzantium and the Classical Tradition’. Over the next 3 days, 17 papers were given in four sessions, each under the patronage of an author of a well-known statement on literature or history: David Lodge, Anna Komnene, Henry Ford and Steven Runciman. The speakers explored the ways in which literary analysis of historical narratives can change our perception and ‘use’ of the texts as history. Chronicles, histories and metaphrases of the 6th to the 14th centuries were discussed, as was the pictorial narrative of the Madrid Skylitzes and the Alexander Romance. The papers were framed by a survey of historical writing that aimed to uncover audience and a closing lecture on the aesthetics of History. Symposiasts lived and ate in Manor House, a former Cadbury family home 4 km. from the campus. They were entertained at a reception at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts where they also viewed two coin exhibitions. Student assistants gave invaluable help at all times and communications too. Generous financial support of the symposium made possible reduced rates and grants for students as well as the participation of speakers from Australia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Russia, and the U.S. |
The Medieval Friendship Workshop Series (MFWS) Since the 1990s, when gender studies, the province of feminism, started becoming a popular interdisciplinary field, gendered emotions and relations, such as friendship and kinship have become issues of inquiry. The investigation of such matters has been also undertaken by medievalists, who have become interested in the ways in which medieval people treated human emotions and relations. One of the human relations that captured the interest of medievalists is that of friendship. So far there is a considerable number of studies dealing with friendship in medieval culture (the most controversial of which being The Friend [2003] by Alan Bray). However, the subject has not been exhausted. There are many questions concerning medieval friendship, which have not even been posed yet. The British Academy Network for ‘Medieval Friendship Networks’ (2004-2010), an international network of western medievalists and Byzantinists (www.univie.ac.at/amicitia), has undertaken to both pose some of these questions and look for possible answers. The scholars involved in the medieval friendship network organize international conferences and workshops taking place in various countries. One of the network’s next workshops will be hosted by the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus (2-3 November 2007). This workshop with the theme Representing Friendships: Narrative Uses of Friendship in the Middle Ages proposes to explore the literary constructions of medieval friendship. The workshop will consider questions, such asthe following: Dr. Stavroula Constantinou, Nicosia, Cyprus |
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