Hellenic Studies Graduate Students off to 44th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference

Beginning October 4th, scholars of Byzantium will be descending upon San Antonio, Texas for the 44th Byzantine Studies Conference for three days of panels and events to exchange the latest research on the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium. The conference is held annually under the auspices of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America and is this year being organized by Dr. Annie Labatt of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies has been an active participant in Byzantine Studies since its establishment in 2011, and has mounted several conferences in the field, including the 40th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference held in Vancouver in 2014. This year, we’re thrilled to be sending three of our graduate students to present papers under the watchful eye of their supervisor, Dr. Dimitris Krallis, an expert on eleventh-century social and intellectual Byzantine History.

The Centre’s newest PhD student, Cahit Mete Oguz, who joined us last month from Boğaziçi University, will be presenting on the Byzantine Social History panel, alongside Nathan Leidholm and Leonora Neville. His paper is entitled “The Conditions and Perception of the Byzantine Peasantry in Narrative Accounts form the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.”

On Saturday, our senior PhD candidate, Aleksandar Jovanović, will be presenting his paper entitled “The Afterlife of Megas Domestikos Andronikos Palaiologos: Palaiologian Propaganda in Laskarid Thessaloniki” on the Late Byzantine Culture and Society panel. Alex is joined by fellow presenters Elias Petrou, Matthew Kinloch, and Kerim Kartal.

Later that same day, PhD student Jovana Andjelkovic will be presenting her paper at the Literary Studies and Personalities panel with fellow panelists Alexander Petkas, Rachele Ricceri, and John Duffy. Her paper is entitled “Writing with a Rhetorical ‘Credo’ – The Use of Persuasion and Compulsion in a Discourse on Monomachos’ Reign” and maps out a rhetorical key for decoding Mauropous’ critique of Monomachos’ hubris.

We’re looking forward to hearing all the latest research news when you get back!