IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 542: Fame: Patrons and Memories in Byzantium, IV

Tuesday 3 July 2018, 09.00-10.30

Organisers:	Francisco Lopez-Santos Kornberger, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, Department of Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Birmingham Jessica Varsallona, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
Moderator/Chair:	Jonathan Shepard, Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford
Paper 542-a	Memory of Dynasty: The Byzantine Attitude to Their Ruling Imperial Families (Language: English) Joseph Parsonage, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Genealogy and Prosopography, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 542-b	Empresses on the Peripheries: Creating a Basilissa outside Byzantium (Language: English) Lauren A. Wainwright, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies
Paper 542-c	Faith, Memory, and Internalisation in Khazaria: The 'Return to Judaism' in the Schechter Text (Language: English) Alex Feldman, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham Index terms: Archaeology - General, Byzantine Studies, Religious Life
Abstract	The evocation of the past in Byzantium, far from being restricted to a purely individual sphere, constitutes a collective process. It was used by groups of individuals to shape their identities, explain the current state of affairs, and legitimise future policies. When memories from the past are evoked, ongoing narratives, symbols, and conventions are reshaped and acquire new meanings, often as a way to legitimise a vision of the world and to make a point about the present. The aim of this panel is to explore, through a multidisciplinary approach, how Byzantines perceived, transmitted, and used the past. The extent to the patrons' agency is key to memory (re)formation of the Byzantine past.