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Dear colleagues, 

Since our call for applications came out amidst the summer vacations, the deadline to send in your applications for participating in this interesting seminar has been extended to the 15th of September. There are only a few spots available!

All the very best from Cologne and looking forward to hearing from many of you,

Martina (Filosa)

Call for applications

International Seminar 
"Approaching Byzantium Through Seals: A Digital Exhibition"
University of Cologne

The Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Cologne invites applications for the International Seminar “Approaching Byzantium through seals: a digital exhibition”, organised in the framework of the project “DiBS – Creating a Sustainable Digital Infrastructure for Research-Based Teaching in Byzantine Studies”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Byzantine seals have emerged lately as a valuable resource for the study of Byzantium. This course aims to bring together students from various parts of the world and provide them with the skills to analyse and use seals as a source for understanding Byzantine society and culture, without requiring an extensive background in sigillography.  At the same time, the students will contribute to the creation of a digital scholarly exhibition, which will revolve around some themes related to the topic of the Seminar.

Structure: Two introductory sessions (17.11.2023 and 24.11.2023) after the end of which students will be handed out assignments with the aim of analysing seals under the prism of specific questions and topics, such as identity, relation between text and image, expressions of piety, and individual representation. At the end of the semester there will be a week-long workshop (19.02.–23.02.2024) with presentations and discussion of the commentary and the texts prepared by the students.

Aims: The participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the creation of an online exhibition that is intended to serve as reference to the wider scholarly community and public, by introducing seals as a crucial source for the society and culture of Byzantium. The exhibition will consist of texts on topics related to the history and culture of Byzantium, focused on a set number of seals selected out for this purpose. These texts will be produced by the students and the instructor during the course.

Application: Please fill in the application form and the motivation statement (no longer than 500 words) describing the academic achievements, the scholarly interests, and the reasons for applying to this course. The deadline for applications is 15 September 2023. Successful applicants will be informed by late September/early October. Please address any queries to: c.malatras@uni-koeln.de.  

The full call for application is here https://uni.koeln/5RZFF as well as attached to this message.

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Martina Filosa, M.A.

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

ANR/DFG DigiByzSeal - VolkswagenStiftung DiBS

Universität zu Köln
Institut für Altertumskunde
Abteilung Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
D-50923 Köln