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SPBS statment on the war in Ukraine

The Executive Committee of Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies strongly condemns Russia’s military assault on Ukraine. We stand with the people of Ukraine and with the people of Russia who oppose this war. In light of the repeated justificatory use of Byzantino-Rus history and monuments by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, we at the SPBS wish to affirm our support for scholars and scholarship of the Byzantine World that defies partisan, imperialist, and nationalist objectives. The study of early Rus has a long history in the United Kingdom, pioneered by figures such as Professor Dimitri Obolensky, and we at the SPBS are committed to promoting publications and scholarly exchanges on all aspects of the Byzantine World, including early Rus. As such, we have a compiled a short list of academic books by international authors (highlighting those from Ukraine) on early Rus, which may be of use to those interested in the academic study of this topic:

An introductory bibliography of early Rus…

  • Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, and Monica White (eds.), Byzantium and the Viking World (Uppsala, 2016)
  • Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750-1200 (London, 1996)
  • Sean Griffin, The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus (Cambridge, 2019)
  • Dimitri Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1500 (London, 1971)
  • Ricardo Picchio and Harvey Goldblatt, Aspects of the Slavonic Languages: Formation and Development, vol. I and Church Slavonic – South Slavic – West Slavic, vol. II (New Haven, 1984)
  • Christian Raffensperger, Reimagining Europe. Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World (Cambridge, MA, 2012)
  • Sophia Senyk, A History of the Church in Ukraine. vol. I: To the End of the Thirteenth Century (Rome, 1993)
  • Jonathan Shepard, “Rus’,” in Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus’ c. 900-1200 (Cambridge, 2007), 369-414
  • Oleksiy Tolochko, Очерки начальной Руси (Kyiv, 2015)
  • Oleksiy Tolochko, ‘The Primary Chronicle’s ‘Ethnography’ Revisited: Slavs and Varangians in the Middle Dnieper Region and the Origin of the Rus’ State,’ in Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe (Brepols, 2008), 169-189.
  • Tatiana Vilkul, Люди и князь в древнерусских летописях середины XI-XIII вв. (Moscow, 2009)

The SPBS is committed to providing a platform for international scholars of Byzantine History, including those from Ukraine and Russia, and will continue to act as a venue for the peaceful exchange of ideas. During times of war the severing of ties between people is most acute and it is at this precise moment that academic collaboration must be maintained. The SPBS invites membership from international scholars, including those not resident in the UK.

We would also like to draw your attention to our on-going Solidarity Fund, which aims to provide full coverage for scholars based in Turkey (of any nationality) wishing to attend the 2022 International Byzantine Studies Congress in Venice/Padua: https://www.byzantium.ac.uk/solidarity-fund/ Applications from early career scholars resident in Turkey will be sent to the AIEB which will disburse the fund.

— Dr Alexandra Vukovich for the SPBS

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Update: Spring Symposium

Dear Colleagues, dear Friends,

We are writing with an update on the upcoming 2022 SPBS Spring Symposium on Material Religion in Byzantium and Beyond.

After much consultation and deliberation, we have decided to postpone this year’s Spring Symposium to the Spring of 2023. Although we regret not being able to meet this year, continuing COVID19-related uncertainties and restrictions in the UK and beyond put the feasibility of meeting in person in doubt, and it has proved impossible to organise a viable hybrid format at this relatively short notice. We will post an announcement of the revised dates shortly.

Mindful that the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies meets in August 2022, the SPBS Executive Committee has agreed that there will be no symposium this year, and we are especially grateful to the organisers of the Spring Symposium scheduled for the year after Oxford (Kent, with Anne Alwis as Symposiarch) who have generously agreed to defer their meeting to 2024.

We are looking forward to welcoming you all in Oxford in the Spring of 2023.

Symposiarchs
Jaś Elsner, Ine Jacobs, Julia Smith

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Into The Labyrinth: a Journey into Stoudite ‘Cancel Culture’

29 November 2021, 17:00 GMT

A reminder that Rosemary Morris has kindly agreed to re-present the SPBS Autumn Lecture, Into The Labyrinth: a Journey into Stoudite ‘Cancel Culture’, on Monday, 29 November at 5 p.m. (1700) London time. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session. We have done our best to ensure that neither the lecture nor the discussion that follows will be disrupted this time round!

Zoom details are below, and please do urge anyone else whom you think might be interested to join us as well! If there are any problems with access, please contact Dan Reynolds, at D.K.Reynolds@Bham.ac.uk

Join Zoom Meeting
https://bham-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/83796231771?pwd=elcvV0RUcUMwcFZFNG8xTzNPcUVCZz09

Meeting ID: 837 9623 1771
Passcode: 277530
One tap mobile
+441314601196,,83796231771#,,,,*277530# United Kingdom
+442034815237,,83796231771#,,,,*277530# United Kingdom

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SPBS Autumn Lecture (reprise)

29th November 2021, 17:00 (GMT)

Online

Dr Rosemary Morris
Into The Labyrinth: a Journey into Stoudite “Cancel Culture”

Owing to technical problems during the presentation of our recent Autumn Lecture, the online experience was very poor and only the audience in Birmingham were able to enjoy the lecture as intended. Dr Morris has, therefore, kindly agreed to repeat her presentation on 29 November.

Please register via EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/into-the-labyrinth-a-journey-into-stoudite-cancel-culture-tickets-211974229627

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SPBS Autumn Lecture

10th November 2021, 17:15 (GMT)

University of Birmingham, Teaching & Learning Building 202 (limited spaces) and online

Dr Rosemary Morris
Into The Labyrinth: a Journey into Stoudite ”Cancel Culture’

This year’s autumn lecture will be a hybrid event. We have some limited availability for attendance in person, but we ask that you reserve your ticket in advance. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we will be unable to accommodate additional visitors in the lecture theatre on the day. The lecture will also be streamed live via Zoom and questions from both the live and virtual audience will be taken by the chair.

To register your attendance (virtual or in person), please visit Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/into-the-labyrinth-a-journey-into-stoudite-cancel-culture-tickets-185873311077

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Spring Symposium videos

Owing to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s Spring Symposium was held exclusively online. Although this is far from our preference for future Symposia, a happy consequence is that the proceedigs were recorded for the first time. We are endeavouring to bring these recordings to a wider audience, once they have been appropriately edited and we have obtained permission from the speakers. Videos will be uploaded to our new YouTube channel.

Present highlights include Dr Dimitra Kotoula’s keynote (linked to this virtual exhibition, hosted by the British School at Athens) and the tributes of friends, students, and colleagues to the dearly-missed Dr Ruth Macrides, to whose memory the Symposium was dedicated.

A new page on this website also collects all of our recorded events together in one place: https://www.byzantium.ac.uk/recordings-of-events/.

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First OEBG-SPBS Joint Lecture

25 May 2021, at 17:00 (UK)/18:00 (Austria) via Zoom

The SPBS is delighted to announce a new online joint Annual Lecture series in cooperation with the Austrian Association for Byzantine Studies.
The first lecture will be taking place on 25 May 2021 at 5pm UK time (6pm Austrian time) by Zoom.

Dr Nikolaos Zagklas (University of Vienna) will be speaking to the title:
The Power of Rhetoric in the Byzantine Classroom and Beyond: Fluid Relations and Intersections between Prose and Poetry

The Respondent will be Dr Foteini Spingou (University of Edinburgh)

All Welcome – please sign up at https://www.byzneo.univie.ac.at/veranstaltungen/first-oebg-spbs-lecture/

For full details, see the poster below:

OEBG-SPBS Lecture 2021

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Exhibition: ‘A Piece of Nature’ Arts & Crafts Perceptions of Nature and the Byzantine Monument

https://nature.bsa.ac.uk/

The relationship between nature and architecture was particularly emphasized by the Arts & Crafts members as an expression of man’s inner-relationship with his natural surroundings. Historical architecture, in particular, had a central role in this interaction between man and the physical world. Medieval architecture, primarily the Gothic cathedral, was admired for its natural forms and the close almost mystical connections that it managed to establish with nature.

Pioneer architects of the British Arts & Crafts movement, such as Robert Weir Schultz and Sidney Barnsley of the British School at Athens BRF Archive, following the example of John Ruskin, William Morris and their Arts & Crafts masters, were among the first to record, document and study surviving Byzantine monuments in the Eastern Mediterranean. Their attitude towards the remains of Byzantine heritage in the region, eloquently reflected in their recordings and, later, publications, demonstrates a pronounced concern, at the footsteps of their masters, for the multiple interconnections between a historic building and its natural surroundings. Byzantine architecture was considered an essential part of the landscape and, vice versa, nature, the physical world, its forms and qualities were reflected in the historic building both in the way it developed as well as in impressive or even minute details in its architecture and decoration.

This exhibition was created for Nature and the Environment: the 53rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, which was planned by the late Dr Ruth Macrides, and it is dedicated to her memory.

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New Journal: Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies (JLAIBS)

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new journal, Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies (JLAIBS), https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/jlaibs, published by Edinburgh University Press. The JLAIBS as a hotspot for interdisciplinary dialogue aims to disseminate new approaches and methodologies that intend to transform our understanding of broader Late Antique and Medieval phenomena, such as knowledge transfer and cultural exchanges, by looking beyond single linguistic traditions or political boundaries. It provides a forum for high-quality articles on the interactions and cross-cultural exchange between different traditions and of the so-called Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world. Thematically, the journal also welcomes submissions dealing individually with Late Antique, Byzantine and Islamic literature, history, archaeology, and material culture from the fourth to the fifteenth century.

Articles should be written in English and can be up to 15,000 words in total length (i.e. including all footnotes, bibliography and any appendices). Submissions to Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies should be formatted in accordance with the full JLAIBS style guidelines (https://www.euppublishing.com/pb-assets/Notes_for_Contibutors/JLAIBS_Style_guide-1614190487.pdf), and sent as Word and PDF files to: jlaibs@ed.ac.uk

Editors:

Dr Petros Bouras-Vallianatos (University of Edinburgh)
Dr Marie Legendre (University of Edinburgh)
Dr Yannis Stouraitis (University of Edinburgh)

Editorial board:

Prof. Peter Adamson (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Prof. Gianfranco Agosti (Sapienza Università di Roma)
Assoc. Prof. Corisande Fenwick (University College London)
Prof. Robert Hoyland (New York University)
Prof. Marc Lauxtermann (University of Oxford)
Prof. Maria Mavroudi (University of California, Berkeley)
Prof. Annliese Nef (Université Paris 1 Panthéon)
Prof. Dr Johannes Pahlitzsch (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Assoc. Prof. Arietta Papaconstantinou (University of Reading)
Assoc. Prof. Maria Parani (University of Cyprus)
Prof. Samuel Rubenson (Lund University)
Assoc. Prof. Kostis Smyrlis (National Hellenic Research Foundation/Athens)
Assoc. Prof. Jack Tannous (Princeton University)
Assoc. Prof. Alicia Walker (Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania)

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SPBS Virtual Visit to Dumbarton Oaks

5pm (UK time) 29 April 2021

SPBS would like to invite all its members and supporters to come and visit the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection in Washington DC in the company of one of its curators, Dr Elizabeth Williams. Elizabeth will be introducing highlights from the collection under the title ‘Worldly Adornments: A Virtual Object Session with Textiles and Jewelry at Dumbarton Oaks’. There will be opportunities to ask questions during and after the talk. The event will be run through Zoom. If you would like to attend, please contact the SBPS Secretary, Dr Tim Greenwood, by email [twg3@st-andrews.ac.uk] and he will supply further instructions for joining the first ever SPBS Virtual Visit.

DO visit poster