Programme
Conference venue:
Chemistry Department, Lower Mount Joy, South Rd, Durham DH1 3LE. Please make sure you use the entrance facing Rose Street.
Scarborough Lecture Theatre (CG93), 21st and 22nd of March
Lecture Theatre (CG85), 23rd of March
Day 1, 21.03.2024, Department of Chemistry, Scarborough Lecture Theatre (CG93)
13.00 - 13.40 Registration and Coffee for Speakers, Chairs and Registered Participants
13.40-14.00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks (Alberto Rigolio, Roy Gibson, Francis Watson, Mara Nicosia, Andy Hilkens)
British Scholars and Manuscript Collections, pt. 1. Chair: Francis Watson (Durham)
14.00-14.25 David Taylor (Oxford), ‘Jessie Payne Smith: Syriac scholar and Suffragist’
14.25-14.50 John W. Watt (Cardiff), ‘Without William Wright, where would we be? Why we should celebrate his great Catalogue but only archive his Short History’
14.50-15.00 Discussion
Chair: Mara Nicosia (Durham)
15.00-15.15 Dan Batovici (Cambridge/KU Leuven), ‘J.B. Lightfoot and the Syriac Apostolic Fathers’
15.15-15.30 Maroun El Houkayem (Duke), ‘Retelling the Story: Claudius Rich’s Syriac Manuscripts’
15.30-15.45 Claudia Simonelli (Venice), ‘A statement about the writing method of Syrians found in a work by Christian Ravis’
15.45-16.00 Discussion
16.00-16.30 Coffee Break for Speakers, Chairs and Registered Participants, Scarborough Café
British Scholars and Manuscript Collections, pt. 2. Chair: David Taylor (Oxford)
16.30-16.55 Sebastian P. Brock (Oxford), ‘The significance of the Mingana Collection of Syriac manuscripts’
16.55-17.20 Erica Hunter (Cambridge), ‘Syriac Manuscripts in the Erpenius Collection of the University Library, Cambridge’
17.20-17.45 (online) Chip Coakley (Jericho Press), ‘Service-books of the Church of the East printed by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s mission press’
17.45-18.00 Discussion
Chair: Alberto Rigolio (Durham)
18.00-18.15 Shafiq Abouzayd (Oxford), ‘The Contribution of the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies to Syriac Studies in the UK’
18.15-18.20 Discussion
Day 2, 22.03.2024, Department of Chemistry, Scarborough Lecture Theatre (CG93)
Digital Humanities, Manuscripts and Archaeology, pt. 1. Chair: Andy Hilkens (Oxford)
9.15-9.40 George Kiraz (IAS/Princeton/Beth Mardutho), ‘The SyrCOM People: The Oxbridge-based Volunteers behind Syriac Computing, 1992-1996’
9.40-10.05 David Michelson, William Potter and research group* (Vanderbilt), ‘Re-Writing Wright: Introducing A New Digital Edition of Wright's Catalogue (1870-1872)’
10.05-10.15 Discussion
Digital Humanities, Manuscripts and Archaeology, pt. 2. Chair: George Kiraz (IAS/Princeton/Beth Mardutho)
10.15-10.30 Michael Erdman (British Library), ‘From Bar Hebraeus to Binary: The British Library’s Digitisation of Syriac Manuscripts’
10.30-10.45 Virginia Sommella (Bilkent), ‘Periphery of an empire, center of a world: a landscape perspective on Syriac studies in the Ṭūr ‘Abdīn (ca.350-ca.700)’
10.45-10.55 Discussion
10.55-11.30 Coffee Break for Speakers, Chairs and Registered Participants, Scarborough Café
British Scholars pt. 1. Johan Lundberg (Oxford)
11.30-11.55 Salam Rassi (Edinburgh), ‘Syriac and the Scottish Reformation: Andrew Melville (1545-1622) and His Legacy’
11.55-12.20 Lindsey Davidson (Bristol), ‘Bristol Syriac Studies: De Lacy Evans O’Leary (1872-1957)’
12.20-12.45 Alison Salvesen (Oxford), ‘Michael Weitzman (1946–98) and his contribution to Syriac Studies’
12.45-13.00 Discussion
13.00 – 13.45 Conference Lunch for Speakers and Chairs, Scarborough Café
13.45 – 14.30 Poster Session, Scarborough Café and Atrium
Jan Gehm (RU Nijmegen), ‘Syriac Orthodox Religious Education: official teaching material in the German context’
Kosta Gligorijevic (Leipzig), ‘A New Edition of the Syriac Buch der Naturgegenstände’
Joachim Jakob (Salzburg), ‘The Syriac works of Nonnus of Nisibis (d. after 862): Edition and annotated translation’
Sara Daiane José (SEEDF), ‘The Syriac Orthodox Missionary Church in Brazil’
Studies on Syriac Authors. Chair: Lucy Parker (Nottingham)
14.30-14.45 (online) Ya'el Nu’emah-Kremer (Oxford), ‘Hagiography at a Crossroad: Jacob of Serugh’s Homily on the Maccabees’
14.45-15.00 Matthew Fairhurst (Cambridge), ‘Isaac of Nineveh and Modern Theology’
15.00-15.15 Bert Jacobs (UCLouvain), ‘Biblical Commentary and the Formation of Theological Summae: The Case of Moses bar Kephā’
15.15-15.30 Discussion
British Scholars pt. 2. Chair: Alison Salvesen (Oxford)
15.30-15.55 Kristian Heal (BYU), ‘Ephrem in English: From Morris to Murray’
15.55-16.20 Francis Watson (Durham), ‘The Acts of Thomas: F. C. Burkitt and Syriac Priority’
16.20-16.30 Discussion
16.30 - 17.00 Coffee Break for Speakers, Chairs and Registered Participants, Scarborough Café
Syriac Identities and People, pt. 1. Chair: Ted Kaizer (Durham)
17.00-17.15 Bruce Longenecker (Baylor), ‘Differentiated Identities in the Dura Europos Christ Assembly’
17.15-17.30 Daniele Reano (SNS Pisa), ‘Student mobility in the Syro-Mesopotamian area between the 4th and the 5th centuries: some preliminary reflections’
17.30-17.40 Discussion
Syriac Magic. Chair: Salam Rassi (Edinburgh)
17.40-18.05 Siam Bhayro (Exeter), ‘Syriac Medicine and Magic: Past Prejudices and Future Prospects’
18.05-18.20 Marion Pragt (KU Leuven), ‘Giving up the ghost: Necromancy in late antique biblical Interpretation’
18.20-18.30 Discussion
19.30 Conference Dinner for Speakers and Chairs
*Alexys Ahn, Stephanie Carter, Claire Chen, Andrew Draper, Haelee Kim, Erfan PapariDianat, Kurt Urban.
Day 3, 23.03.2024, Department of Chemistry, Lecture Theatre (CG85)
Syriac Identities and People, pt. 2. Chair: Susan Harvey (Brown)
9.00-9.15 Lucy Parker (Nottingham), ‘Women and Syriac Christianity’
9.15-9.30 Bogdan Draghici (AKU), ‘“Even in their Eucharist they sin”: Orthopraxy as a Polemical Weapon in Medieval Polemics’
9.30-9.45 Philip Wood (AKU), ‘Religious boundary-making in the Scholion of Theodore bar Koni’
9.45-10.00 Discussion
Syriac Christianity and Books. Chair: Jennifer Griggs (FSCIRE)
10.00-10.15 Sofia Puchkova (Oxford), ‘Turning a Theological Book into a Spiritual Notebook: Marginal Notes in the MS Mingana Syr 561’
10.15-10.30 Alexander Sherborne (Oxford), ‘Synthesis Beyond St. Catherine’s: Transmission of Syriac Apocalyptic and Popular Legend into Medieval Georgian Historiography’
10.30-10.45 Andrew Hochstedler (Oxford), ‘Rediscovering the Syriac Book of Mary. A Reflection on the Heritage of English Scholarship in Syriac Dormition Studies’
10.45-11.00 Discussion
11.00-11.30 Coffee Break for Speakers, Chairs and Registered Participants, Scarborough Café
Syriac Law. Chair: Philip Wood (AKU)
11.30-11.45 Rafail Zoulis (Yale), ‘Syriac ecclesiastical procedural law and its Sasanian influences: Documents, seals, and oaths in Ishoʿbokht’s Corpus Iuris’
11.45-12.00 Seth Stadel (Leicester), ‘The Slave Laws in the Law Book of Isho‘ bar Nun’
12.00-12.15 Discussion
The Shape of the Field. Chair: Sebastian Brock (Oxford)
12.15-12.40 John Healey (Manchester), ‘Syriac in Contexts, Ancient and Modern’
12.40-13.05 Susan Harvey (Brown), ‘Here and There: A View from Two Sides’
13.05-13.15 Discussion
13.15-13.30 conclusion
13.30 End
The conference is generously supported by the Durham Centre for Early Christianity, the Department of Classics and Ancient History (Research Theme 2023/24) at Durham University, and the British Academy
