IMC 2018: Sessions
Session 318: The Late Antique Empress, II: How to Read, Write, and View Imperial Women
Monday 2 July 2018, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Women's Classical Committee / Medieval & Ancient Research Centre, University of Sheffield (MARCUS) |
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| Organisers: | Julia Hillner, Department of History, University of Sheffield Victoria Leonard, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London |
| Moderator/Chair: | Robin Whelan, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge |
| Paper 318-a | Empress, Interrupted: Writing the Biography of a Late Antique Imperial Woman (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Women's Studies |
| Paper 318-b | Women on the Move: Representations of Imperial Women and Urban Space in Late Antique Rome and Constantinople (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Geography and Settlement Studies, Women's Studies |
| Paper 318-c | Late Antique Empresses and the Queen of Heaven: On the Correlation between Sacred and Secular in the Imagery of a Female Potentate (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | Historical studies on late antique empresses have usually been biographies of well-known empresses or single dynasties. This session - the first of two proposed - offers an interdisciplinary perspective on imperial women's representation and agency. It explores three methodological approaches to the topic: biography, topography, and iconography. Paper -a assesses the benefits and challenges of the biographical approach in light of gender history, paper -b investigates how the study of public space impacts on our understanding of imperial women's role at court, paper -c analyses the relationship between the late antique empress's image and the cult of the Virgin Mary. |