Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium

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

David Orsbon (PhD. Student, University of Chicago) will present “The Aesthetics of Apotheosis: The Primacy of Aesthesis in Eastern Neo-Platonic Theurgy.”

This talk focuses on the concept of neo-Platonic theurgy by examining the significance of the overlap between aesthetics and ontology in neo-Platonic thought. In the course of addressing this issue, it examines the significant, and often overlooked, tensions between two different traditions of neo-Platonism: Plotinian and Iamblichan. In examining the concept of, and justifications for, theurgy within the frame of these philosophical tensions, this talk reveals how different attitudes toward theurgy lead to far-reaching consequences for the different threads of neo-Platonic philosophy and their afterlives in the Middle Ages.

Please join us on Tuesday, November 3rd, 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.

Jason Osequeda (PhD. Student, University of Chicago) will present “Boundaries of Authority between Patriarch and Emperor in Fifth Century Constantinople.”

Please join us on Tuesday, October 20th, 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 first workshop of the year.

Leonora Neville – Professor of Byzantine History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – will present “Gender & the Historian’s Voice in Anna Komnene’s Alexiad.”

Why didn’t Greek women write history before the modern era? Why was Anna Komnene able to do it?  Thinking about what cultural rules Anna broke by writing history helps us see how Anna’s self-presentation in the Alexiad works to convince her audience that she was capable of writing a reliable history, even though she was a woman, and that she was a morally virtuous woman, even though she wrote a history.

Please join us on Friday, October 9th, at 4:30 pm in CWAC 156.

Please note the exceptional meeting time.

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

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is proud to announce our Autumn 2015 schedule. All workshops unless otherwise noted will meet in CWAC 156 on Tuesdays at 4:30 PM.

**Unusual time** Friday, October 9, 4:30 pm – Leonora Neville will present “Gender & the Historian’s Voice in Anna Komnene’s Alexiad”

October 20 – Jason Osequeda will present “Boundaries of Authority between Patriarch and Emperor in Fifth Century Constantinople”

November 3 – David Orsbon will present “The Aesthetics of Apotheosis: The Primacy of Aesthesis in Eastern Neo-Platonic Theurgy”

November 17 – Richard Payne will present “Eurasian Exchange and the Formation of Iran”

December 1 – Tasha Vorderstrasse will present “Reliquary Crosses in the Middle Byzantine Period”

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

The Workshop on Late Antiquity & Byzantium is proud to announce its next meeting of Spring 2015!

Zachary Strietelmeier (M.A. student) will present “The Destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum: Phenomenology, Space and the Art of Memory-Making.”

Please join us on Tuesday, May 19, at 4:30 pm, in CWAC 152.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Jason Osequeda (jasonosequeda@uchicago.edu).

The Workshop on Late Antiquity & Byzantium is proud to announce its next meeting of Spring 2015!

Edward Schoolman (University of Nevada, Reno) will present “Appropriating Late Antiquity: The Cult of Saint Barbatianus in Post-Byzantine Ravenna”.

Please join us on Tuesday, May 12, at 4:30 pm, in CWAC 152.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Jason Osequeda (jasonosequeda@uchicago.edu).

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is proud to announce an event co-sponsored with the Early Christian Studies Workshop.

John Behr (St Vladimir’s Seminary) will be presenting “The Apocalypse of the Cross: The Gospel of John and the Beginning of Christian Theology”.

Please join us on Monday May 11, at 4:30 PM in Swift 208.

You can access the paper beforehand at this link (UChicago credentials required).

Fr. John Behr is the Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Patristics, teaching courses in patristics, dogmatics and scriptural exegesis at the seminary, and also at Fordham University, where he is the Distinguished Lecturer in Patristics.

His early work was on issues of asceticism and anthropology, focusing on St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria. After spending almost a decade in the second century, Fr John began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology, and has now reached the fifth and sixth centuries. He has recently completed an edition and translation of, and introduction to, the remaining texts of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. He has also published a synthetic presentation of the theology of the early centuries, focused on the mystery of Christ.

The Workshop on Late Antiquity & Byzantium is proud to announce its next meeting of Spring 2015!

Mohamad Ballan (PhD. Student, University of Chicago) will be presenting “Andalusi Crete, 827–961: A Reconsideration of the Medieval Arabic Literary Sources.”

Please join us on Tuesday, April 28, at 4:45 pm, in CWAC 152.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Jason Osequeda (jasonosequeda@uchicago.edu).

The Workshop on Late Antiquity & Byzantium is proud to announce our first meeting of Spring 2015!

Jas Elsner, visiting professor of art and religion at the Divinity School of University of Chicago, will be presenting “Relic, Icon and Architecture: The Material Articulation of the Holy in East Christian Art”. Co-sponsored with the Early Christian Studies Workshop.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 21, at 4:30 pm, in CWAC 152.

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Jason Osequeda (jasonosequeda@uchicago.edu).

The Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium is please to announce its Spring 2015 schedule. All workshops unless otherwise noted will meet in CWAC 152 on Tuesdays at 4:30 PM.

April 21, Jas Elsner will present “Relic, Icon and Architecture: The Material Articulation of the Holy in East Christian Art.”

April 28, Mohamad Ballan will present “Andalusi Crete, 827–961: A Reconsideration of the Medieval Arabic Literary Sources.”

**Unusual time & place** Monday, May 11, 4:30 pm, Swift 208, John Behr will present “The Apocalypse of the Cross: The Gospel of John and the Beginning of Christian Theology.” Co-Sponsored with Early Christian Studies Workshop.

May 12, Edward Schoolman will present “Appropriating Late Antiquity: The Cult of Saint Barbatianus in Post-Byzantine Ravenna.”

May 19, Zachary Strietelmeier, will present “The Destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum: Phenomenology, Space and the Art of Memory-Making.”

Persons in need of assistance, please contact Jason Osequeda (jasonosequeda@uchicago.edu).