The Byzantine World

The Byzantine World presents the latest insights of the leading scholars in the fields of Byzantine studies, history, art and architectural history, literature, and theology. Those who know little of Byzantine history, culture and civilization between AD 700 and 1453 will find overviews and distillations, while those who know much already will be afforded countless new vistas. Each chapter offers an innovative approach to a well-known topic or a diversion from a well-trodden path. Readers will be introduced to Byzantine women and children, men and eunuchs, emperors, patriarchs, aristocrats and slaves. They will explore churches and fortifications, monasteries and palaces, from Constantinople to Cyprus and Syria in the east, and to Apulia and Venice in the west. Secular and sacred art, profane and spiritual literature will be revealed to the reader, who will be encouraged to read, see, smell and touch. The worlds of Byzantine ceremonial and sanctity, liturgy and letters, Orthodoxy and heresy will be explored, by both leading and innovative international scholars.Ultimately, readers will find insights into the emergence of modern Byzantine studies and of popular Byzantine history that are informative, novel and unexpected, and that provide a thorough understanding of both.

Paul Stephenson studies the early and middle Byzantine periods (A.D. 300-1204). His published work has focused on middle Byzantine political and cultural history; the history and historiography of Southeastern Europe, medieval to modern; and religious warfare. Currently he is: completing a cultural history of a Byzantine monument, the Serpent Column; researching late antique and Byzantine views of sacred warfare and spiritual combat; editing separate volumes on the desire for Byzantium outside former Byzantine lands, and on the fountains of Byzantion - Constantinople - Istanbul; writing a general history of the Late Roman Empire in the East, c. 400-843, for Harvard Univ. Press and Profile Books. Stephenson has taught in the UK, Republic of Ireland, and the USA, and has held research fellowships from the British Academy (in Oxford), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (in Mainz), the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation (in Athens), and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (in Uppsala). Before coming to Nijmegen, he was for five years Professor of Medieval History at Durham University, and for six year before that the Rowe Professor of Byzantine History at Dumbarton Oaks and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. In 2011-12 he was Vassiliadis Visiting Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. Stephenson is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK).

Stephenson offers instruction across a range of areas in medieval and Byzantine history. Notably, he offers a themacollege (senior seminar) on the transition from late antiquity to Byzantium and a research seminar devoted to medieval Rome and Constantinople for the MA Roma Aeterna. He is a co-convenor of the Duae Romae seminar, and teaches core elements of the HLCS research MA. He offers lectures for the undergraduate surveys of "Medieval History" and "Europa".