Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Jaś Elsner will present “Vrt‘anēs K‘ert‘oł and the Dynamics of Iconoclasm in Seventh Century Armenia.”

This paper explores the seventh century response to iconoclasm made by the Armenian prelate Vrt‘anēs K‘ert‘oł — a text with interesting ramifications for the bigger history of the cult of images and the resistance to images in the early Christianities of the East.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 29th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce our Spring 2016 schedule. All workshops will meet in CWAC 152 on Tuesdays at 4:30 PM.

March 29 – Jaś Elsner will present “Vrtanes Kertogh and the Dynamics of Iconoclasm in Seventh Century Armenia”

April 5 – Matthew Milliner will present “A Madonna of the Future: Rethinking the “Afterlife of Icons”

April 12 – Nathan Leidholm will present “The Representation and Appropriation of the Persian Past in Middle Byzantine Court Rhetoric”

April 19 – Carlos Grenier will present “To String the Pearls of Orthodoxy”: Vernacular Sunni Apologetics in Fifteenth Century Gallipoli in its Borderland Context”

May 3 – Leonidas Pittos will present “Aesthesis and Aesthetics in Nicholas Kabasilas’ Mystagogic Works”

May 10 – Kelly Andino will present “The Holy Sepulchre until the Siege of Jerusalem: An Examination of the Relevant Patristic Texts, Archaeological Evidence, and Material Sources”

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Deborah Deliyannis (Indiana University Bloomington) will present “Material Culture: Late Antique or Early Medieval?”

Please join us on Wednesday, March 9th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Nathan Hardy will present “Portraying Prototypal Presence: The Image of Edessa as an Exemplum of ‘Presence’ in John of Damascus and the Narratio de Imagine Edessena.”

This paper examines two descriptions of the famous Image of Edessa (later, the Mandylion), in John of Damascus’ On Divine Images I.33 and in the Narratio de Imagine Edessena, respectively, and tries to show how the Image functioned as an explanation of the concept of Prototypal Presence. In particular, the paper aims to articulate three strategies used in the Narratio to explain this rather abstract concept.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 8th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium in conjunction with the Islamic Studies Workshop is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Jessica Mutter will present “Evolving Depictions of Religious Transformation in Eighth-Century Greater Syria.”

This paper addresses the various shifts in religious identities and boundaries that occurred in Syria after the Muslim conquests, and how religious conversion was portrayed in Syriac and Arabic historical sources during the seventh, eighth, and early ninth centuries CE.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 1st, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Elena Boeck (DePaul University) will present “Byzantine Beholders and Justinian’s Bronze Horseman in the Middle Byzantine Period.”

This presentation charts the key biographical transformations in the life of Constantinople’s greatest monument (the equestrian monument of Justinian) during the middle Byzantine period, when it became a discursive battleground between imperial and Orthodox perspectives of Justinian’s legacy.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 9th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Alexander Beihammer (Notre Dame) will present “Byzantine-Turkish Coexistence, State Building, and the Emergence of Islam in Asia Minor in the Age of Alexios I (1081-1118).”

Please join us on Wednesday, February 3rd, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 152.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is proud to announce our Winter 2016 schedule. All workshops unless otherwise noted will meet in CWAC 152 on Tuesdays at 4:30 PM.

**Unusual time** Wednesday, February 3, 4:30 pm – Alexander Beihammer will present “Byzantine-Turkish Coexistence, State Building, and the Emergence of Islam in Asia Minor in the Age of Alexios I (1081-1118)”

February 9 – Elena Boeck will present “Byzantine Beholders and Justinian’s Bronze Horseman in the Middle Byzantine Period”

**Unusual place and time** Wednesday February 24, 3:30 pm – John Hope Franklin Room SS224 – Anthony Kaldellis will present “The Byzantine Loss of Asia Minor in the Eleventh Century: Causes and Models.” (jointly held with the Ancient Societies Workshop)

March 1 – Jessica Mutter will present “Evolving Depictions of Religious Transformation in Eighth-Century Greater Syria” (jointly held with the Islamic Studies Workshop)

March 8 – Nathan Hardy will present “Portraying Prototypal Presence: The Image of Edessa as an Exemplum of ‘Presence’ in John of Damascus and the Narratio de Imagine Edessena”

**Unusual time** Wednesday, March 9, 4:30 pm – Deborah Deliyannis will present “Material Culture:  Late Antique or Early Medieval?”

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Tasha Vorderstrasse (University of Chicago) will present “Reliquary Crosses in the Middle Byzantine Period.”

Please join us on Tuesday, December 1st, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 156.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Brian Salas (bwsalas@uchicago.edu).

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is pleased to announce its next meeting.

Richard Payne (University of Chicago) will present “The Making of Turan: The Fall and Transformation of the Iranian East in Late Antiquity.”

Contemporaneously with the fall and transformation of the Roman West, the Iranian Empire yielded its East to Hun – and later Turk – conquerors. The paper will trace the development of post-Iranian regimes through the dynamic interplay of nomadic and sedentary political institutions in the fourth through early seventh centuries. The conquerors adopted Iranian institutions, integrated the Iranian aristocracy, and presented themselves as the legitimate heirs of the kings of kings in a manner reminiscent of post-Roman rulers. At the same time, however, the Huns and the Turks retained the superior military resources of nomadic imperialism, included the Iranian East in trans-Eurasian networks, and distinguished themselves as ruling ethno-classes tied to the steppe. The resulting hybrid political culture came to be known as Turan.

Please join us on Tuesday, November 17th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 156.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Brian Salas (bwsalas@uchicago.edu).