Fall 2014                   

Presenters' papers will be circulated 7-10 days in advance.
Additional readings will be made available on Rebecca's carrel, Rock A33.


During the 2014-15 Academic Year the Mellon Workshop will run concurrently with the seminar "Borders and Boundaries in the post-Classical Mediterranean," organized by Reyhan Durmaz and funded by the Graduate International Colloquium Fund.
Friday, September 12
12:00-2:00 pm
Scott DiGiulio, "Libraries in the High Roman Empire: Between Material and Metaphor"
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Friday, September 26
12:00-2:00 pm
Ian Randall, "Break out the Fine China: Material Practices and Identity Mediation on Crete, Sicily, and Cyprus from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages"
Also read:
  • Rodriguez-Alegria, Enrique. "Incumbents and Challengers: Indigenous Politics and the Adoption of Spanish Material Culture in Colonial Xaltocan, Mexico." Historical Archaeology 44 (2010): 51-71.
  • Zavagno, Luca. "Two Hegemonies, One Island: Cyrpus as a 'Middle Ground' between the Byzantines and the Arabs (650-850 A.D.)." Reti Medievali Rivista 14 (2013): 1-30.
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Thursday, October 9
2:30-4:00 pm
Suleiman Mourad, Smith College
"Complicating the Complicated: Conceptual Problems and Limitations in the Academic Study of the Crusades from the Perspective of Muslim Sources"
***Sponsored by "Borders and Boundaries"***
Please read:
  • Cobb, Paul. "Prologue: Damascus Crossroads." In his The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades (Oxford, 2014), 3-8.
  • Mourad, Suleiman, and James Lindsay. The Intensification and Reorientation of Sunni Jihad Ideology in the Crusader Period (Brill, 2013), 82-100
  • "Frederick II in Jerusalem" (pdf handout)
  • "Ibn al-Athir" (pdf handout)
  • "Ibn Jubayr" (pdf handout)
  • "Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi" (pdf handout)
  • "Usama Ibn Munqidh" (pdf handout)
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Friday, October 17
12:00-2:00 pm
Stephany Hull
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Friday, October 31
12:00-2:30 pm
Carlin Barton, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Part I: "Imagine No Religion"
Part II: "Consecration of Fear"
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Friday, November 14
12:00-2:00 pm
Rebecca Falcasantos
"Constantinople and the Production of a Christian Cultural Identity under Theodosios II"
Please read:
  • McEvoy, Meaghan A. Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455 (Oxford, 2013), 1-47.

Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies
Friday, December 5
12:00-2:00 pm
Reyhan Durmaz, "From Paul and John to Faymiyūn and Ṣāliḥ: Holy Men between Christian and Islamic Hagiography"
Also read:
  • Mourad, Suleiman. "Christian Monks in Islamic Literature: A Preliminary Report on Some Arabic Apothegmata Patrum." Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies 6.2 (Autumn/Winter 2004): 1-18.
  • Mourad, Suleiman. "Christians and Christianity in the Sīra of Muḥammad." in David Thomas and Barbara Roggema, et al., eds., Christian Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History I (Brill, 2009), 57-71.
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Religious Studies

Spring 2015               

Thursday, January 29
3:00-5:00 pm
Andrew Tobolowsky, "Chapter 6: Conclusions" 
Please read:
  • Miller, James C. "Ethnicity and the Hebrew Bible: Problems and Prospects." Currents in Biblical Research 6.2 (2008): 170-213.
Location: Rhode Island Hall 109
Friday, February 13
2:00-4:00 pm
Scott DiGiulio
Please read: 
  • Genette, Gerard, et al., Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (Cambridge, 1997), Chapters 1 and 11.
  • Rigsby, Andrew M. "Guides to the Wor(l)ds" from Jason König and Tim Whitmarsh, eds., Ordering Knowledge in the Roman World (Cambridge, 2007), 88-107.
Location: Rhode Island Hall 008
Thursday, February 26
12:00-2:30 pm
Sarah Bassett, Indiana University
"Style and the City: Visual Forms and Meanings in Late Antique Urban Display"
Location: Cogut Center 003
Readings TBA
Thursday, March 12
3:00-5:00 pm
Niels Gaul, Central European University and Dumbarton Oaks
***Sponsored by "Borders and Boundaries"***
Readings TBA
Location: Rhode Island Hall 109
Thursday, April 16
3:00-5:00 pm
Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
***Sponsored by "Borders and Boundaries"***
Readings TBA
Location: Rhode Island Hall 109
Thursday, April 30
12:00-2:30 pm
Jason König, University of St. Andrews
Location: Rhode Island Hall 109
Last updated Thursday, April 7, 2016