New Critical Approaches to the Byzantine World Network

This network was funded from 2018 to 2020.
Byzantine studies have not generally tended to be at the cutting edge of theoretical or methodological innovation. A host of more prosaic, albeit essential, scholarly tasks have tended to dominate a discipline in which large bodies of text remain unedited, untranslated, and uncommented and many basic lexical, prosopographical, and typological tools are still lacking. Nevertheless, in recent years new critical and theoretical studies of Byzantium have started to emerge, perhaps most notably in the study of narrative, materiality, and intellectual history. These studies, however, remain both relatively rare and (more often than not) confined to a single sub-disciplinary field (e.g. literature, archaeology, or history).
This network aimed to promote new critical approaches to the study of the Byzantine world and to join up such approaches as exist, by cutting across the chronological, geographical, linguistic, nationalist, and disciplinary fissures that have institutionalised the fragmentation of Byzantine studies into discrete domains of enquiry. We were seeking to do this by developing a platform for engaged scholars, with different disciplinary trainings, to discuss the theoretical and methodological challenges facing them, test their own research in a supportive environment, and to exploit the opportunities that new critical approaches offer the study of the Byzantine world (broadly conceived).
Our events therefore were not starting from a disciplinary or regional core but addressed major theoretical questions that unite studies of different periods, places and bodies of materials. These conceptual spheres included but ere not limited to imperialism, colonialism and post-colonialism, questions of object/text and context, questions of gender, materialism and materiality in Byzantine studies.
The network was explicitly imagined as a collective venture. As well as testing new critical approaches in the study of the Byzantine world, we were seeking to be equally critical in rethinking the way we do Byzantine studies. In this spirit, the network understands the testing less hierarchical forms of knowledge exchange and new technologies for collaborative research to be integral elements of the network’s aims. It is led by early career researchers.
Contact
Mirela Ivanova mirela.ivanova@univ.ox.ac.uk
Matthew Kinloch matthew.kinloch@univie.ac.at
Alexandra Vukovich: alexandra.vukovich@seh.ox.ac.uk
This network was generously funded by the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and supported by TORCH.
Convenors:
Jules Gleeson
Mirela Ivanova
Hugh Jeffery
Matthew Kinloch
Nicholas Matheou
Sophie Moore
Alexandra Vukovich
New Critical Approaches to the Byzantine World

- Mirela Ivanova (University of Oxford)
- Alexandra Vukovich (University of Oxford)
- Jules Gleeson (University of Vienna)
- Matthew Kinloch (Dumbarton Oaks)
- Dr Alexandra Vukovich (TORCH, University of Oxford), Heritage (Mis)management
- Dr Milan Vukašinović (University of Uppsala), Ink, Bronze, and the Blood of the Nation
- Prof. Filip Ejdus (Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade), Stefan Nemanja and the Cracked Byzantine Helmet
- Dr Milena Repajić (Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), The (not so) Subtle Messages of Monumental Stefan Nemanja: Medievalism and the Reshaping of Historical Memory in Post-Socialist Serbia
- Prof. Marko Šuica (Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), The Challenges of Teaching Medieval History in Serbia’s New History Curriculum
- Prof. Aleksandar Ignjatović (Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade), Byzantium Perfected: Nation-building through Architectural Tropes in 19th- and 20th-century Serbia
- Dr Višnja Kisić (Europa Nostra Serbia/UNESCO Chair MA in Cultural Policy and Management), Making Serbia Great Again: The (Un)Expected Embrace of Neoliberalism and Nationalism
- Prof. Miloš Jovanović (UCLA), Historicism or the Cultural Logic of Postsocialist Capitalism in Belgrade
Research Questions & Themes
1. Empire, Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Nationalism (with Mirela Ivanova)
2. Gender & Sexuality (with Jules Gleeson)
3. Historical Materialism (with Nik Matheou)
4. Working across disciplines (with Sophie Moore)
5. Medievalism/Byzantinism & Heritage (with Alexandra Vukovich)
On-going Projects
1. Publications
2. Research Projects
- Jules Gleeson (Vienna)
- Mirela Ivanova (Sheffield)
- Matthew Kinloch (Oslo)
- Nik Matheou (London)
- Sophie Moore (Newcastle)
- Alexandra Vukovich (Oxford & KCL)