Late Antique and Byzantine Studies

Dissertations in North America

This listing of dissertations in progress or recently completed resumes a survey published between 1982 and 1986 in Byzantine Studies/Études Byzantines, which lapsed when the journal ceased publication. The present listing of dissertations in Byzantine subjects undertaken at North American universities is based on information supplied to Dumbarton Oaks and makes no claims to comprehensiveness. Please send additions and notification of completed dissertations to the director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, so that the listing can be updated periodically.



Completed Dissertations

Dissertations in Progress
Art, Archaeology, and History
Amelia Brown (Amelia[at]cape.com), Cities of Sinners, Cities of Saints: Corinth, Thessaloniki and Urbanism in Late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams December 2005.
Elisabeth O'Connell (elisabet[at]socrates.berkeley.edu), Tombs for the Living: Monastic Reuse of Monumental Funerary Architecture in Late Antique Egypt, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams May 2003.
Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Vessela Anguelova (vna100[at]psu.edu), Place as Spiritual Experience in Middle and Late Byzantine Art, Ninth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Pennsylvania State University (Anthony Cutler), Exams December 2002.
Bojana Bjelicic-Miletkov (bbjelic[at]uga.edu), Monuments of Art Commemorating the Council of Ferrara-Florence, 1438–39: The Italian and the Byzantine Responses, University of Georgia, Athens (Asen Kirin), Spring 2009.
Travis Lee Clark (tlclark[at]temple.edu), Imaging the Cosmos: The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman), Exams April 2003.
Robert J. W. Crow (robcro[at]princeton.edu), The Forum Romanum in Late Antiquity: A.D. 330–638, Princeton University (Hugo Meyer), Exams October 1994.
John Michael Frey (yanni[at]berkeley.edu), Speaking through Spolia: The Language of Architecture Reuse in late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley, Exams Fall 2006.
Mary Margaret (Molly) Fulghum, The Transitive Form: the Place of Textiles in Byzantium, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou).
Sofia Georgiadou (sgeorgi2[at]uiuc.edu), Architecture and Statehood in Late Byzantium, 1204–1460: A Comparative Study of the Courts of Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Elizabeth Gittings, Architecture Representations in the Mosaics of the Church of Hagios Georgios, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou), Exams February 1997.
Ayse Henry (ayseblgn[at]gmail.com), The Pilgrimage Center of St. Symeon the Younger: Designed by angels, supervised by a saint,constructed by pilgrims, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Ashley Jones (ashley.jones[at]yale.edu), Lord Protect the Wearer',: Late Antique Numismatic Jewelry and the Image of the Emperor as Talismanic Device, Yale University (Diana Kleiner).
James Magruder (james.magruder[at]jhu.edu), Byzantine stone icons in Greece and Asia Minor, 9th–14th centuries, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Abigail G. McLaughlin, Patterns of Culture: The Origin and Development of Christian Decorative Systems in Catacombs of the Third and Fourth Centurie, Rutgers University (Archer St. Clair), Exams May 1995.
Barbara McNulty, Cypriot Donor Portraiture: Constructing the Ideal Family, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman).
Marina Mihaljevic (marmi[at]princeton.edu), Constantinopolitan Architecture of the Komnenian Era (1080–1180) and Its Impact in the Balkans, Princeton University (Slobodan Ćurčić), Exams 2002.
Elizabeth Moss (betsy.moss[at]utoronto.ca), Framing the Holy: Revetments and Frames on Byzantine Icons, University of Toronto (Linda Safran).
Maureen O'Brien (mobrien[at]loyola.edu), Art and Text in the Vienna Genesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Dorothy Verkerk), Exams April 2004.
Andrea Olsen (andreaolsen[at]yahoo.com ), The Birth and Rebirth of the Visitation in Byzantine Art, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Areti Papanastasiou (pap9[at]midway.uchicago.edu), Gendered Stories and Middle Byzantine Art, University of Chicago (Robert S. Nelson), Exams June 1993.
Stephanie Payne (spayne[at]mail.utexas.edu), Forming Friendship and Fraternity in Byzantine Monasticism: Illustrating the Romance of Barlaam and Joasaph from the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries, University of Texas at Austin (Glenn Peers), Exams October 2006.
Brandie Ratliff (br135[at]columbia.edu), Image and Relic at Byzantine Pilgrimage Sites, Columbia University (Holger Klein), Exams March 2001.
Brooke Shilling (Brooke.Shilling[at]jhu.edu), Three Apse Mosaics of the Virgin in Early Byzantine Cyprus, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Galina Tirnanic (gtirnani[at]midway.uchicago.edu), The Art of Punishment: The Spectacle of the Body on the Streets of Constantinople, University of Chicago (Robert Nelson), Exams September 2001.
Cristina Toma (cris_st04[at]yahoo.com), Everyday Life and Cultural Exchange: The Evidence of Material Culture from Rhodes, Cyprus and Crete from the Thirteenth through the Sixteenth Century, University of California, Los Angeles (Sharon Gerstel).
Fusun Tulek (Fusuntulek[at]kocaeli.edu.tr ), Late Roman/ Early Byzantine Floor Mosaics of Cilicia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Henry Maguire), Exams December 2001.
Christine Zitrides, Carthage in Transition, Late and Post-Roman Habitation AD 400–800, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
History
Aslihan Akisik (aslihan_1071[at]yahoo.com), Self and Other in the Fifteenth Century: Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Late Byzantine Intellectuals, Harvard University (Angeliki Laiou and Cemal Kefadar).
Silviu Anghel (sa588[at]columbia.edu), Burying the Gods: Protecting statues from Christians in late antiquity, Columbia University.
Michael Bjornlie (bjornlie[at]princeton.edu), The Variae of Cassiodorus Senator: Circumstances of Political Survival, ca. 540–545, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Robert Kaster).
Catherine Burris (cburris[at]email.unc.edu), Solomon the King: Reception and Transmission on Extracanonical Traditions in the Christian East, University of Missouri, Exams May 1999.
Craig Caldwell (ccaldwell[at]princeton.edu), Society in a War Zone: Civil Wars and Their Effects upon the Provinces of Southeastern Europe in the Fourth Century A.D., Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Rangar Cline (rhc115[at]psu.edu), Negotiating Heaven and Earth: Angel Veneration in Late Antiquity, Pennsylvania State University (Dr. Paul B. Harvey Jr.), Exams Spring 2002.
Aurélie Goudal, Cases of possession and exorcism in primitive Byzantine hagiography (IV–VII century), University of Montréal (Pierre Boglioni).
Kevin Kalish (kkalish[at]princeton.edu), Learning to Write Poems in Late Antiquity: the Codex of Visions from the Bodmer Papyri and the Emergence of a Christian-Byzantine Poetics, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Daniel Heller-Roazen).
Young Richard Kim, The Imagined Worlds of Epiphanius of Cyprus, University of Michigan (Raymond Van Dam).
Dusan Korac (dkorac[at]wam.umd.edu), The Political Ideology of Serbian Emperors: A Survey of Serbian Imperial Charters, University of Maryland (George Majeska), February 1996.
Ian Mladjov (imladjov[at]umich.edu), Basileia Refracted: Adaptation of Byzantine imperial ideology beyond Byzantium by the Empire's Northern Neighbors in Medieval Bulgaria, University of Michigan (John V.A. Fine).
Richard Payne (rpayne[at]princeton.edu), Creating Christian Aristocracies in Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq, Princeton University (Peter Brown, John Haldon), Exams May 2006.
Srdjan Rajkovic†, Byzantium and the Fall of Constantinople under the Ottomans in 1453, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp).
Daniel Sarefield (sarefield.2[at]osu.edu), Burning Knowledge: Studies in Religious Violence and Book burning in the Late Roman World, Ohio State University (Timothy Gregory).
Pamela Gail-Berjouhie Sayre (psayre[at]hfcc.net), Lombards and Byzantines: From Pannonian Allies to Italian Enemies, University of Michigan (John V. A. Fine).
Edward Schoolman (emschool[at]ucla.edu), Civic Transformations between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Ravenna and Antioch 300–800 AD, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), Advanced 2008.
Philip Venticinque (pfventic[at]uchicago.edu), Common Causes: the Social World of Guilds and Associations in Roman and Late Antique Egypt, University of Chicago (David Martinez).
Tim Watson (twwatson[at]uci.edu), The Rhetoric of Corruption in Late Antiquity, University of California, Irvine (Michele Salzman).
History of Science
Craig Martin (cmartin[at]fas.harvard.edu), Theory and Practice in Aristotelian Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Tradition of Meteorologica IV, Harvard University (John E. Murdoch).
Language and Literature
Adam Goldwyn (AGoldwyn[at]gc.cuny.edu), A Literary History of the Trojan War from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, CUNY Graduate Center (Paul Oppenheimer).
Mark Moussa (markmoussa[at]msn.com), The Treatise 'I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels' (Discourses 8, Work 1) by Shenoute of Atripe: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Catholic University of America (David W. Johnson, S.J.), Exams October 1998.
Religion, Theology, and Liturgy
Gail Armstrong (Gail_Armstrong[at]brown.edu), Narrative Identity and Narrative Landscape: The Ancient and the Modern Acts of Mariamne and Philip, Brown University (Ross Kraemer).
Antonia Atanassova (antonia.atanassova.1[at]bc.edu), Container of the Uncontainable God: the Theotokos in the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy, Boston College (Khaled Anatolios).
Benjamin Delee (bendelee[at]ucla.edu), Niketas Byzantios and the Problem of Islam, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), advanced 2008.
Nicholas Denysenko (81denysenko[at]cua.edu), The Blessing of the Waters on the Feast of the Theophany in the Byzantine Liturgy: Historical Formation and Theological Implications, Catholic University of America (Dominic Serra).
Linda Honey, Thekla: Text and Temenos, University of Calgary.
Oleh Kindiy (okindiy[at]hotmail.com), Christos Didascalos: The Christology of Clement of Alexandria, Catholic University of America (Robin Darling Young).
Hisa Kusabu (kusabu[at]uchicago.edu), Comnenian Orthodoxy and Byzantine Heresiology in the Twelfth Century: The Study of the Panoplia Dogmatica of Euthymios Zigabenos, University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in 2008-2009.
Steven J. Larson (steven_larson[at]brown.edu), Displacing the Gods: The Christian Response to Temples, Brown University (Susan Ashbrook Harvey).
Jonathan Latham (jal10[at]umail.ucsb.edu), Making Rome Christian: Ritual Processions from Roma Aeterna to Roma Christiana, University of California, Santa Barbara (Christine Thomas).
David Michelson (dmichels[at]Princeton.edu), Philoxenos of Mabbug & the Intersection of Christian Doctrine and Praxis in Late Antique Culture, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Leonidas Pittos, Sacredly Narrating, Sacredly Praising: Theology, Encomium, Tradition, and Intellectual history in Late Byzantium [on Gregory Palamas], University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in summer 2008.
Kathleen Quinn (quinnka[at]nku.edu), Panhellenic Sanctuaries in Greece during Late Antiquity: The Impact of Imperial Edicts Against Paganism, University of Cincinnati (C. Brian Rose), Exams May 1999.
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent (Jeanne-Nicole_Saint-Laurent[at]brown.edu), Apostolic Memories: Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature, Brown University (Susan A. Harvey).
Daniel Schwartz (dlschwar[at]princeton.edu), Christian Education and Worship in the Making of the Late-Antique Church: Paideia and Cult in the Catechetical Orations of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Jack Tannous (jack.tannous[at]gmail.com), On the trail of la Syrie trilingue: Jacob of Edessa and his Circle, Princeton University (Peter Brown), Exams May 2006.