EAST OF BYZANTIUM WORKSHOP

Emma Loosley Leeming, University of Exeter
Lev Weitz Catholic University of America

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Studying East of Byzantium XI: Ritual is a three-part workshop that intends to bring together doctoral students and recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of
the concept of “Ritual” in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with one another and senior specialists in the field. This is the eleventh workshop held by the efforts of East of Byzantium, the partnership between the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University (from 2022–), to foster an interdisciplinary community of early career scholars engaged in the study of the diverse traditions of the medieval Christian East, including Syria, the South Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

What is a ritual in the context of the Christian East? How can studies of ritual inform discussions not only of liturgy and theology, but also of textual traditions, social history, and visual and material culture? Recent publications have highlighted the relationships between ritual and a range of other disciplines

This year we invite applications from all graduate students and recent PhDs working in the Christian East whose work considers, or hopes to consider, the theme of ritual in their own research to apply.

Workshop Format
The workshop events will be led by Emma Loosley-Leeming and Lev Weitz and facilitated by Christina Maranci and Brandie Ratliff. Meetings will be held on Zoom. The first event on October 18 will be a short introductory session where participants introduce themselves and their projects. During the second event on February 14, participants will provide a short 10-minute update on their research and have the opportunity to pose questions or problems to the group. At the final two-day event on June 5–6, each participant will deliver a 20- to 25-minute presentation based on their project. While research projects may be on any topic and need not focus specifically on ritual, the workshop theme should be the focus of the presentations. Individual presentations will be followed by a 10-minute response from Emma Loosley-Leeming or Lev Weitz and a general discussion. The timing of the workshop meetings will be determined when the participant list is finalized.

Eligibility
Doctoral students or recent PhDs studying the Christian East. All disciplines are welcome. Early career researchers should have received their PhD in 2024. Priority will be given to graduate students.

Abstracts
Interested students should submit a C.V. and a 200-word abstract no later than September 23, 2024. Papers should be based on the dissertation project. The final output may be in the form of a conference paper, a dissertation chapter or excerpt, or an article.

Complete Papers
Papers should not exceed 5,000 words in length including footnotes. Complete papers must be submitted no later than May 5, 2025.

Timeline
September 23 2024: Abstracts due
October 1, 2024: Organizers notify workshop applicants of status
October 18, 2024: Workshop, Part I (Zoom)
February 14, 2025: Workshop, Part II (Zoom)
May 5, 2025: Complete papers due
June 5 and 6, 2025: Workshop, Part III (Zoom)

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Emma Loosley Leeming studied at the University of York, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where she specialised in the art, architecture and liturgy of Late Antique Syria. She then spent several years living and working at the Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi) in Nebek, Syria, during which time she founded and directed the Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project in nearby Qaryatayn. From 2004–2013 she was lecturer in Middle Eastern Art and Architecture at the University of Manchester, before moving to the University of Exeter (2013–) where since 2019 she has been Professor of Middle Eastern and Caucasian Christianities. From 2012–2017 she held a European Research Council grant that enabled her to explore the relationship between Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity and is currently working on a book with a Georgian colleague examining the origins and development of Georgian ‘three-church’ basilicas.

Lev Weitz is Associate Professor of History and Director of Islamic World Studies Program at the Catholic University of America. Dr. Weitz is an historian of the Islamic Middle East whose interests lie in the encounters among Muslims, Christians, and Jews that have shaped the Middle East’s history from the coming of Islam to the present, which he engages in his research and in the classroom. His first book examined the multiconfessional society of early Islam through the lens of Syriac Christian communities. His current project explores how the Muslim and Christian societies in Egypt experienced global trends—the expansion of Islam, the rise of Arabic, trade and slavery across the Nile and Sahara—that transformed Afro—Eurasia on either side of the year 1000.