Summer School
“Reconstructing Imaginary and Real Byzantium: Historical and Cultural Legacys that Divide and Integrate Europe”
to be held 16th-29th August, Ohrid, Macedonia
The Summer School “Reconstructing Imaginary and Real Byzantium: Historical and Cultural Legacys that Divide and Integrate Europe” will explore the complex and fascinating phenomenon that is Byzantium and its legacy, striving to go beyond the established approach in the study of Byzantine history and culture. The objective of the Summer School is to create distance from the stereotyped application of “Byzantinism” and to introduce the Real instead of Imaginary Byzantium. Apart from the historical analysis of the origins of Byzantium and its development as a separate political and cultural entity that dominated Eastern Mediterranean for more than a millennium, various questions concerning the interpretation/misinterpretation of the Byzantine legacy in the conceptualization of European civilization will be discussed. The Summer School will explore Byzantine studies in the Western Europe and “put them in a dialogue” with those taking place in Southeastern Europe. Its main goal is to stimulate the critical understanding of Byzantium and its heritage not just as a factor of the East-West division, but as an integrative civilizational bridge between the Balkans/Southeast Europe and Western Europe.
The Summer School is integral part of Ohrid Summer University (OSU) which is an academic program for young faculty, PhD candidates, postgraduates, researchers and professionals, which offers intensive, problem oriented and research based courses from the domain of social sciences and humanities.
Resource persons:
Prof. Dr Paul Stephenson, University of Durham, UK
Prof. Dr Koray Durak, Bogazici University, Turkey
Prof. Dr Elizabeta Dimitrova, University of St. Cyril and Methodius, Macedonia
Prof. Dr Andrew Roach, Glasgow University, UK (Joint session – from the Summer School on Bogomilism)
ACADEMIC PROGRAMME OF THE SUMMER SCHOOL
Resource persons:
Prof. Dr Paul Stephenson, University of Durham, UK
Prof. Dr Koray Durak, Bogazici University, Turkey
Prof. Dr Elizabeta Dimitrova, University of St. Cyril and Methodius, Macedonia
Prof. Dr Andrew Roach, Glasgow University, UK (Joint session)
FIRST WEEK 16-20 AUGUST
16 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Andrew Roach, University of Glasgow, UK (Session from the Summer School on Bogomilism)
Joint morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Deconstructing the Bogomils (09:30-11:00)
Format: Interactive lecture
Break: 11:00-11:30
Topic: Did east meet west?: the problem of Bogomil influence on Cathars (11:00-11:30)
Joint afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Bogomils in the West: the Western sources
17 AUGUST
Course title: "THE BALKAN HERITAGE IN THE BYZANTINE ARTISTIC PRODUCTION: From Church Cannons to Artistic Imagination"
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeta Dimitrova, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, R. Macedonia
The course will examine Byzantine artistic production within the context of a complex socio-political and ethnic structure of the Balkan lands. Composed of different nations that spoke a number of languages and were of diverse ethnic backgrounds, Byzantine society had one unifying feature: the Christian Orthodox faith and the luxurious artistic production as its reflection in the sphere of creative expression. Thus, religious art and architecture carried significant weight in defining cultural and political identity of both separate nations and the Empire as a whole. Therefore, the goal of the course will be to present a picture of the Byzantine Balkans as a fertile and most productive soil of artistic production in the Medieval era and to analyze the relationship between local and global trends by examining a wide variety of religious monuments: from individual icons, through monumental painted arrangements to monastic complexes. Thus, the lectures will give an insight into the specific stylistic, iconographic, and architectural features of the Byzantine monuments in the Balkans, creating an “imaginary” horizont of the most influential works of art produced in the period from the dawn of the Empire to the dusk of the Medieval times.
Morning session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: "The Imaginary Byzantium in the eyes of the beholder: the edifice, the image, the vision (09:30-11:00)
Format: interactive lecture
Break: 11:00-11:30
Topic: The Byzantine Balkans: the domain, the peoples, the monuments (11:30-13.00)
Lunch Break: 13:00-15.00
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Topic: Macedonia – the wonderland of Byzantine artistic innovations
Format: interactive lecture
18– 20, 23 AUGUST
Course title: EUROPE'S BYZANTINE PAST / BYZANTIUM'S EUROPEAN FUTURE
Resource person: DR. PAUL STEPHENSON, UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, UK
Duration: Four days
Description of the course: This course will devote two days to discussing the Byzantine World in 'Europe', its culture and institutions, and its relations with neighbours to the north and west; and two days to discussing the manner in which Byzantium has been adopted into European cultural history (c. 1800-1945, and 1945 to today).
Course Outline and Key Questions: This course is concerned first with the Byzantine World in its imperial centuries, between the accession of Constantine I (CE 306) and the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade (CE 1204); and second with the modern and contemporary interpretations and representations of Byzantium. Our gaze will fall principally on the European lands of an Eastern Mediterranean empire ruled from Constantinople, known to later scholars as the Byzantine Empire. That terminology will be explored, and alternative designations (East Roman Empire, Byzantine Commonwealth, Byzantine World, etc.) will be discussed. We shall also attend to lands to the north and west of Constantinople, which at times were occupied and ruled by Khazars and Rus, Slavs and Bulgars, and others.
The geographical range of our interest will be wide, and a good amount of political history must be mastered in advance of the discussion. While interesting for its own sake, this will be treated primarily as the framework for the closer study, in lectures and in discussion, of several key themes. Although we shall speak of various 'medieval peoples', our interest is not principally in ethnicity, nor the study of ethnogenesis, which has so occupied scholarly discussion in recent decades. Rather, in the first lecture and discussion, we shall pose such questions as: when was Byzantium? Who were the Byzantines? Was Byzantium a European civilization? In the second lecture and discussion, we shall consider the rise and triumph of Christianity, and its role in defining 'Byzantine culture'; the rhetoric, image and reality of imperial power, and its projections; Byzantine relations with others to the north and west, through war and diplomacy.
In the second part of the course, our attention will turn to modern representations of Byzantium, from the nineteenth century to the present day. We shall focus on representations by western European scholars, notably those from Great Britain, France and Germany. Our discussions will embrace the formation of nation states in the period of Ottoman decline; the formation of the scientific discipline of history; the staging of exhibitions and congresses devoted to Byzantium. Our key questions will be: How have Byzantinists, in the past two centuries, located Byzantium in broader political and cultural discussions? How have they emphasized commonalities or diversities? What place does Byzantium currently have in current narratives of European history and culture? Is this an accurate reflection of the role Byzantine culture and civilization has played? Our ultimate questions will be: Was Byzantine culture a European culture, or is this too narrow a definition? How might the European Union embrace Byzantine culture, or should it not do so at all?
18 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Paul Stephenson
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Europe's Byzantine Past, I: introduction and definitions; what is Byzantium?; the Roman and Byzantine civilizational zones; 'how European is Byzantium'?
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Related to the title of the lecture
19 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Paul Stephenson
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Europe's Byzantine Past, II: the 'empire', the 'oikoumene' and the 'commonwealth'; Byzantine influence on neighbouring cultures.
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Related to the title of the lecture
20 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Paul Stephenson
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Byzantium's European Future, I: Rediscovering the Byzantine past in nineteenth-century Europe.
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Related to the title of the lecture
WEEKEND 21-22 AUGUST
Social activities / Tours
SECOND WEEK 23-27 AUGUST
23 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Paul Stephenson
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Byzantium's European Future, II: Byzantium in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Europe.
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Related to the title of the lecture
24-27 AUGUST
Course title: AN EASTERN WINDOW: BYZANTIUM AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Resource person: DR. KORAY DURAK, BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY, TURKEY
Duration: Four days
Description of the course: This course will be devoted on the history of Byzantium’s relations with its eastern neighbors from the 7th to the 15th centuries. The period covered in the course starts from the rise and expansion of Islam in the seventh century to the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. By the end of the course, students will have a solid perspective that does not treat the Byzantine state and society in isolation, but within a broader Eastern Mediterranean context, especially the Muslim sphere. This means that the course emphasizes political, social, religious, cultural, and economic interactions, as well as warfare between the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Near Eastern polities.
Course Outline and Key Questions: There will be 4 modules covered in 4 consecutive days, namely: 1. Byzantine-early Islamic/Arab relations. 2. Byzantine-Turkish relations. 3. Commerce in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean world. 4. Definition and perception of the East in Byzantine literature. The first module will focus on the diplomatic, religious and cultural relations between the Byzantines and the Arab-speaking populations of the early medieval Near East. Religious polemics and frontier literature will be treated in detail. In the second module, Byzantine-Turkish relations from the 11th to the 15th centuries will be studied within the context of political and cultural changes in Anatolia and the Southern Balkans. The narrative of the “Fall of Constantinople” will be treated through the discussion of various Byzantine and some Turkish sources. The third module will deal with the commercial aspect of the Byzantine-Islamic exchanges, taking into consideration the greater Mediterranean context. Finally, the fourth module will focus on the Byzantine perception of the Muslims, and specifically on the Byzantine nomenclature used for the easterners. The readings will include a variety of primary sources (written documents left by Byzantines and Near Easterners) in English translation together with selections from the standard secondary literature.
24 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Koray Durak
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Byzantine-early Islamic/Arab relations
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Reading of Greek and Arabic sources concerning the Byzantine-Islamic relations in the middle Byzantine period
25 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Koray Durak
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Byzantine-Turkish relations
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Reading of Greek and Turkish sources concerning the Byzantine-Turkish relations in the late Byzantine period
26 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Koray Durak
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Commerce in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean world
Break: 11:00-11:30
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Reading of Greek sources (ex: Book of the Eparch) concerning Byzantine-early Islamic trade, and a discussion of economic and non-economic exhanges
27 AUGUST
Instructor: Dr. Koray Durak
Morning Session: 09:30 - 13:00
Topic: Definition and perception of the East in Byzantine literature
Format: interactive lecture
Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:00
Workshop: Reading some selected Greek sources for the definition of the terms Hagarene, Ishmaelite, Arab, Persian, and Turk in Byzantine literature (especially from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries)
The Programme consists of several features:
In regard to the high standards established by the Euro-Balkan Institute and due to its membership in the Erasmus Charter, the Summer School will grant the participants appropriate certificate with 10 credits (ECTS), applicable in the master studies of participant’s home universities.
Memorable social events on the campus and at the Ohrid Lake.
Tours of the numerous medieval churches, ancient and medieval monuments in the UNESCO protected city of Ohrid, located at the shore of the unforgettably beautiful Ohrid Lake
Eligibility and fee:
Participants should be postgraduate students (preferably MA, PhD student or young researchers) interested in exploring the issues of Byzantine Studies (not older than 36 years of age).
The Organizer provide scholarship for accommodation for 15 participants. The total tutition fee will be only 100 euro.
Participants from all countries are eligible to participate. In the selection criteria process for accommodation grant priority will be given to the applicants from the countries of Southeastern Europe.
The remaining 5 applicants who will not be selected for an accommodation grant, will have to cover accommodation costs and tutition fee.
Number of participants: 20
Working language of the Summer School will be English.
Deadline for submitting the application: June 15th 2010.
Deadline for announcing the results of the selection process: July 1st 2010.
Contact persons:
Prof. Dr. Mitko B. Panov,
Director of the Summer School
Euro-Balkan Institute
Blvd. Partizanski Odredi 63, 1000, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax. + 389 2 30 75 570
Email: mitko.panov@gmail.com
www.euba.edu.mk
Saso Trajkovski,
Coordinator
Email: sstrajkovski6@gmail.com
Please quote 10 Academic Resources Daily in your application to this opportunity!
