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Dr. Zakarian Participates in “Armenia & Byzantium” Workshop at the University of Oxford, February 7-8

By Staff Report

Mar 19, 2025

ASP Archive

Armenia and Byzantium conference

‘Armenia & Byzantium without Borders V: Disruption and Resilience’ – Graduate and Early Career Workshop, Univ of Oxford

Dr. David Zakarian reports:

In 2018, as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford, I had the opportunity to participate in a transformative academic experience – the “Armenia & Byzantium” without Borders workshop. Organized by Prof. Claudia Rapp and Dr. Emilio Bonfiglio at the University of Vienna within the framework of the Moving Byzantium: Mobility, Microstructure, and Personal Agency project, this two-day event introduced an innovative format designed to foster scholarly exchange.

Participants submitted their papers in advance to senior academics who served as respondents, providing structured feedback and prompting in-depth discussions after each paper’s presentation. As an early-career scholar, I found this experience invaluable. My respondent, Dr. Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, offered profound insights, highlighting aspects I had overlooked or had been unaware of, significantly enriching my research.

At the conclusion of the workshop, Prof. Claudia Rapp and Dr. Emilio Bonfiglio invited me, along with Prof. Theo Maarten van Lint, the Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at Oxford, to explore the possibility of expanding the workshop into a long-term collaboration between Oxford and Vienna. What began as a single event soon grew into a regular academic initiative, strengthening ties between institutions and fostering a new generation of scholars in Armeno-Byzantine studies.

Since its inception in Vienna, the workshop has been held in Oxford (2019, 2023) and Vienna (2021), continuously expanding its reach. Today, the event is a collaborative effort between the University of Oxford, the University of Vienna, the University of Hamburg, and California State University, Fresno.

The 2025 workshop opened on February 7 at Oxford’s Radcliffe Humanities Building with a public keynote lecture by Dr. Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, titled “Disruption and Resilience: Environmental Histories of Armenia and Byzantium between Two Little Ice Ages and Two Plagues.” The evening concluded with a wine reception, allowing participants and attendees to engage in further discussions in a more informal setting.

The second day, February 8, featured four thematic sessions, each chaired by distinguished scholars and followed by formal respondent feedback and open discussions:

I had the pleasure of chairing the second session, entitled “Entangled Histories between Armenia and Byzantium.” It featured research on figures such as Philaretos Brakhamios and Armenian noble alliances, presented by Nathan Websdale (University of Oxford) and Samvel Grigoryan (UCLA/Austrian Academy of Sciences), with responses by Dr. Preiser-Kapeller.

The workshop concluded with an engaging discussion moderated by the organizing committee – Prof. Theo Maarten van Lint, Prof. Claudia Rapp, Dr. Emilio Bonfiglio, and myself – where we reflected on the insights gained and the future directions of the initiative. The event continues to evolve, strengthening academic networks and encouraging inter-disciplinary research in this dynamic field.