Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline?: Toward a Critical Historiography

This book explores the relationship between Byzantine Studies and European colonialism, arguing that the field is both colonial and colonized. It examines topics such as the material basis of philological scholarship, the colonial plunder of art, and the consequences for curatorial practice. The book concludes with a bibliography for a coherent and systematic critical historiography.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2023
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline?

This book aims to define the parameters of the debate surrounding the question and propose ways of thinking about what it would mean to engage seriously with the fields political and intellectual genealogies, hierarchies, and forms of exclusion.

In this volume, scholars of art, history, and literature address the entanglements, past and present, among the academic discipline of Byzantine Studies and the practice and legacies of European colonialism. Starting with the premise that Byzantium and the field of Byzantine studies are simultaneously colonial and colonized, the chapters address topics ranging from the material basis of philological scholarship and its uses in modern politics to the colonial plunder of art and its consequences for curatorial practice in the present.

The book concludes with a comprehensive bibliography that serves as a foundation for a coherent and systematic critical historiography. By bringing together insights from scholars working in different disciplines, regions, and institutions, Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? urges practitioners to reckon with the disciplines colonialist, imperialist, and white supremacist history.

In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include:

Andrea Myers Achi
Nathanael Aschenbrenner
Bahattin Bayram
Averil Cameron
Stephanie R. Caruso
Şebnem Dönbekci
Hugh G. Jeffery
Anthony Kaldellis
Matthew Kinloch
Nicholas S. M. Matheou
Maria Mavroudi
Zeynep Olgun
Arietta Papaconstantinou
Jake Ransohoff
Alexandra Vukovich
Elizabeth Dospěl Williams
Arielle Winnik

Weight: 314g
Dimension: 139 x 217 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271095264