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PODCAST

Byzantium & Friends

Byzantium & Friends

Conversations with experts in the history of Byzantium and surrounding fields, hosted by Anthony Kaldellis.

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All Episodes

01:03:11

25. Disability in Byzantium, with Christian Laes

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/06/04

A conversation with Christian Laes (University of Manchester) on how to study disability in Byzantium. What might count as a disability in a Byzantine context? What social consequences did it have? How was it represented in texts? How did people try to cope with their disabilities? The conversation is based on a number of his publications, including 'Power, Infirmity, and "Disability": Five Case-Stories on Byzantine Emperors and their Impairments,' Byzantinoslavica 77 (2019) 211-229; and 'How does

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01:10:45

24. Social class in Byzantium, with Efi Ragia

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/05/21

A conversation with Efi Ragia (Hellenic Open University) on coming to grips with social class in Byzantium, a society without a fixed social hierarchy, at least not fixed in terms of hereditary groups. Claims to high (or low) social standing were often rhetorical and fluid. Who were "the powerful"? By what criteria could they be recognized, and how might others aspire to that position? The conversation is based on her article ‘Social Group Profiles in Byzantium: Some Considerations on Byzantine

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01:05:03

23. Digital humanities and Byzantium, with Kuba Kabala

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/05/07

A conversation about digital humanities in Byzantine research, with Kuba Kabala (Davidson College). How did digital humanities emerge from traditional (analog) modes of research? What new approaches do they enable? What new findings do they make possible?

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01:08:10

22. Social distancing in early Byzantium, with Ellen...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/04/23

What did it take, and what did it do to you, to avoid the company of others in Byzantium? How far did you have to pare your life down, and how reliant were you still on networks of support and supply? A conversation with Ellen Muehlberger (University of Michigan: see episode 2) and David Brakke (Ohio State University: see episode 13) about trying to live alone in early Byzantium. We focus on ascetics, but not only on them.

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01:11:17

21. Coping with pandemics, with Tina Sessa and Kyle...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/04/09

A conversation with Tina Sessa (Ohio State University: see episode 4) and Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma, author of The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire, Princeton University Press 2017) on the Byzantine reactions to pandemics. What was the threshold of social visibility for a pandemic anyway? What could the government do to help? What imaginative and social resources were activated in times of pandemic?

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01:17:37

20. Carolingian and Byzantine practices of empire...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/03/26

A conversation with Jennifer Davis (Catholic University of America) on the study of empire in a medieval context, contrasting the different ways in which Charlemagne and the Byzantine emperors ran theirs. What do we mean by empire after all? The discussion is based on her book Charlemagne's Practice of Empire (Cambridge 2015).

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01:02:07

19. ”Get out of the way, Battal Gazi is Coming!”:...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/03/12

A conversation with Buket Kitapçı Bayrı (Koç University) about Turkish films that prominently feature Byzantine characters and settings, especially the films about Battal Gazi. For links to these films, see the Textual Appendices to the podcast's host platform: https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.com (on the right). For Buket's work in this area, see her articles 'Contemporary Perception of Byzantium in Turkish Cinema: The Cross-Examination of Battal Gazi Films with the Battalname,' Byzantine and

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01:09:05

18. Byzantine soft power in an age of decline, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/02/27

A conversation with Cecily Hilsdale (McGill University) about the coping strategies that late Byzantium used to counter, ameliorate, and reverse its imperial decline. We talk about the concepts of decline and soft power, and how art, literature, scholarship, and religious identity were deployed strategically to win over potential allies and disseminate a prestige Byzantine "brand." The conversation is based on her book Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline (Cambridge University Press

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01:07:10

17. The peoples of the Caucasus between Rome, Iran,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/02/13

A conversation with Garth Fowden (University of Cambridge) about how the peoples of the Caucasus (Armenians, Georgians, and Albanians) coped with living between two empires, how those empires sought to intervene in their region, and the cultural and religious changes that took place there during the first half of the first millennium. This episode demonstrates the illuminating ways in which global and regional history can be combined.

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01:06:20

16. The Parthenon mosque, with Elizabeth Key Fowden

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/01/30

A conversation with Elizabeth Key Fowden (University of Cambridge) on the Parthenon mosque and Athens under the Ottomans. When the Parthenon was done being a Christian church (which lasted from the fifth to the fifteenth century), it became a mosque, but little has been written about that phase of its history. Fascinating new sources are now coming to light. Elizabeth is writing a book on the topic; for now, see her articles 'The Parthenon, Pericles and King Solomon: A Case Study of Ottoman

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01:17:18

15. When does Roman history end and Byzantine begin?,...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/01/16

A conversation with Marion Kruse (University of Cincinnati) about his book The Politics of Roman Memory: From the Fall of the Western Empire to the Age of Justinian (University of Pennsylvania Press 2019). By what standards can anyone say that Roman history ends at some point and Byzantine history begins? Or is Byzantine history rather a phase of Roman history (namely, by far the longest one)? How did eastern authors, including Justinian, who lived in the aftermath of the end of empire in the West

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01:01:46

14. Byzantine Orthodoxy and homosexuality, with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2020/01/02

A conversation with Stephen Morris (independent scholar) about the attitudes toward (male) homosexuality in different sites of Byzantine culture and the prospects for an orthodox recognition of same-sex marriages, based on his book “When Brothers Dwell in Unity”: Byzantine Christianity and Homosexuality (McFarland & Company 2016).

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59:14

13. The case for Shenute the Great and the Coptic...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/12/19

A conversation with Sofia Torallas Tovar (University of Chicago) and David Brakke (The Ohio State University) about Coptic Egypt, the life and works of Shenute the Great, and how Coptic and Byzantine Studies can talk more with each other, just as the people they study talked to each other in the fourth-seventh centuries. For some of Shenute's works, see the Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great: Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt, translated by David Brakke and Andrew

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01:00:29

12. Byzantine Studies in Turkey 2.0, with Siren Çelik

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/12/05

A conversation with Siren Çelik (Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University) about the new generation of Turkish Byzantine scholars, and the paths by which one might come to study Byzantium in Turkey and beyond.

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55:09

11. Byzantine erotic epigrams, with Steven Smith

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/11/22

A conversation with Steven Smith (Hofstra University) about worldly and sinful epigrams from the sixth century that talk about love, sex, food, and other pleasures, based on his book Greek Epigram and Byzantine Culture: Gender, Desire, and Denial in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge University Press 2019). For a translation of a sample of these epigrams, see https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.com/p/byzantine-erotic-epigrams-of-the-sixth-century/.

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01:07:17

10. A Byzantine man of affairs, with Dimitris Krallis

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/11/07

Could one rise from a provincial town to a position of power and wealth in the capital without having a military career? How did Byzantine men of affairs in the eleventh century invest their new-found wealth and create networks of exchange internal to their estates? What was the role of the state in buttressing these "self-made" men? A conversation with Dimitris Krallis (Simon Fraser University), based on his book Serving Byzantium’s Emperors: The Courtly Life and Career of Michael Attaleiates

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50:07

9. From India to Byzantium, with Paroma Chatterjee

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/10/31

A conversation with Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan) on Indian perspectives and approaches to Byzantium. What we might be taking for granted in a field whose appeal has been traditionally limited to Europe and its offshoots? What might a global (as opposed to "ecumenical") Byzantium look like? This is the first in what I hope will be a number of conversations.

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01:06:58

8. Hagia Sophia rediscovered, with Bissera Pentcheva

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/10/24

A conversation with Bissera Pentcheva (Stanford University) about the sensory and spiritual experience of Hagia Sophia, where architecture, sound, and light met theology and prayer, based on her book Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press 2017). For the associated video, go to https://vimeo.com/365102931 (password: HS2018).

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53:20

7. The kingdom of Rus' and "medieval Europe," with...

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/10/17

A conversation with Christian Raffensperger (Wittenberg University) about the kingdom (yes, the kingdom) of Rus' and our concept of "medieval Europe," its potential and current limitations, based on his book The Kingdom of Rus' (ARC Humanities Press 2017).

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01:00:42

6. Armenian art, with Christina Maranci

Byzantium & Friends ·

2019/10/10

A conversation about Armenian art, ancient and Christian, with Christina Maranci (Tufts University), based on her book The Art of Armenia: An Introduction (Oxford University Press 2018).

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145 results

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