Authority in Byzantium

Authority in Byzantium

A conference open to all, to be held on the Strand Campus, King’s College London15-17 January 2009.Organised with the support of the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's College London, the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise (LCACE) and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.
This conference is stimulated by two events. One is the retirement of Judith Herrin as Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King’s College. The other is the presence at the Royal Academy of the first major international exhibition in London on Byzantium. Both events encourage us to reflect on the astonishing progress in Byzantine Studies in recent decades, which has enabled us to ask new questions, and review old assumptions. In this spirit, we wish to explore the conventional but resilient view of Byzantium as a society constrained by authority which was rarely questioned. We propose to investigate both the ways in which authority was presented, but also how it was modified through a process of interpretation and remodelling; in this investigation, we will be calling upon insights from Byzantine scholars, and also scholars of the western middle ages.

Programme
Thursday, 15 January2.00 onwards: RegistrationLucas Theatre, Strand Building14.30 Welcome: Judith Herrin15.00-17.00
Session I: The authority of the stateChair: Susan Reynolds (Institute of Historical Research, London)Dr. Jonathan Shepard, (Oxford), Authority and the monopoly of violenceDr. Ruth Macrides, (University of Birmingham), On whose authority? Trial by ordeal in ByzantiumDr Sergei Ivanov (Academy of Sciences, Moscow), The Emperor's Name Tag: Labeling Rulers' Images from Antiquity to Byzantium.17.00-17.30
TEA17.30-19.00
Session II: Authority in the market-placeChair, Professor Chris Wickham (University of Oxford) Professor Cécile Morrisson (Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Paris), Image and inscription. Displaying the emperor’s kharakter on the marketplace Professor Johannes Koder (Austrian Academy/ University of Vienna), The eparch's authority in the marketplaces of ConstantinopleFriday, 16 JanuaryGreat Hall10.30-12.30
Session III: The authority of the ChurchChair, Professor Miri Rubin (Queen Mary College, University of London)Dr. Jane Baun (University of Oxford), Coming of Age in Byzantium: Agency and Authority in Rites of Passage from Infancy to Adulthood.Professor Guenter Prinzing (University of Mainz, Germany), The authority of the church in uneasy times: the example of archbishop Chomatenos in Epiros 1216-1236.Professor Henry Maguire (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA), Byzantine Art and the Authority of Relics.12.30-14.00
LUNCH14.00-16.00
Session IV: Authority within the familyChair, Professor Dame Janet Nelson (King’s College London)Dr. Christine Angelidi, (Hellenic Research Centre, Athens), Bonds of kinship and relations within the household in the Middle Byzantine periodDr. Anne Alwis (University of Kent, Canterbury), Spousal Authority in Continent Marriage Professor Claudia Rapp (University of California Los Angeles, USA), Alternative Family Strategies: Some Thoughts on the Origin of Ritual Brotherhood (adelphopoiesis)15.30-16.00
TEA16.30 Maria Vassilaki (University of Volos, Greece, co-curator of the exhibition), Exhibiting authorityThe Royal Academy exhibition, Byzantium 330-1453, will be open until 10 pm: those wishing to visit are advised to book tickets in advance, online.
Saturday 17 January
Great Hall10.00-12.00
Session V: The authority of knowledgeChair, Professor Alexander Murray (University of Oxford) Professor Paul Magdalino (University of St Andrews) Knowledge in authority and authoritarian historyDr. Dennis Stathakopoulos (King’s College London) Dealing with an übermeister: worshiping/censoring Galen in ByzantiumProfessor Charalambos Bakirtzis (University of Thessaloniki) , The Authority of Knowledge and the Authority of Mimesis 12.30-13.30
LUNCH13.30-15.30
Session VI: The authority of textChair: Professor David Ganz (King’s College London)Professor A. Berger, (University of Munich), Believe it or not – authority in religious textsDr. Alicia Simpson, (Athens), From the Workshop of Niketas Choniates: The Authority of Tradition and Literary MimesisProfessor M. Lauxtermann (University of Oxford) 'And many, many more': a sixteenth-century description of private libraries in Constantinople and the authority of books15.30-16.00
TEA16.00-18.00 Session
VII: Authority in Byzantine studiesChair, Professor Dame Averil Cameron (Keble College, Oxford)Professor Ljubomir Maksimovic (Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Belgrade), George OstrogorskyProfessor Vera von Falkenhausen (University of Rome Tor Vergata), Hans-Georg Beck Professor Elizabeth Jeffreys (University of Oxford), Robert Browning

www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/bmgs/authority.html