Liminal Spaces and Spatial Practices in Byzantium (Routledge Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies Series, 2026) focuses on conceptions of spatial liminality in the Byzantine world by offering a novel interdisciplinary approach—combining concepts from social anthropology (liminality) and cultural geography (space) as methodological tools for historical investigation. Co-edited by Buket Kitapçı Bayrı and Myrto Veikou, the volume stems from a conference held in April 2023 at the Swedish Institute at Athens, organized in collaboration with the research program Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic Slavonic (c. 950–c. 1100) ) (Uppsala University and Riksbankens Jubileumfond). Its main aim is to challenge binary oppositions such as inside/outside, core/periphery, isolation/connectedness, stability/instability, known/unknown, earthly/heavenly, self/other, and good/bad by presenting liminality as an epistemological tool. 

Across eleven chapters, the contributors explore whether certain types of spaces—such as rivers, deserts, islands, forests, mountains, houses, thresholds, gates, monasteries, lighthouses, and bridges—accommodate or even generate liminal situations in the perceptions of those who experience them. These spaces, along with the spatial practices and imaginings they inspire, are examined within their social and historical contexts to determine when, by whom, and why they were perceived as liminal. The volume also considers the effects of such spaces on the creation of new and alternative realities. 

Organized as a collaboration of ANAMED and the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, this event welcomes Buket Kitapçı Bayrı, the volume’s co-editor, alonside Rebecca Darley, the volume’s English copy editor and ANAMED’s current senior fellow.