News
Liminal Spaces in Byzantium and Beyond
The International Conference “Liminal Spaces in Byzantium and Beyond. Perceptions, Performativity and Placemaking” took place at the Swedish Institute at Athens on April 27-29, 2023, as part of the activities of the Section of Byzantine Studies in the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala
10 May, 2023Stories in Stone: Exploring the Eastern Mediterranean and its Byzantine heritage
My project, The Byzantine Legacy, aims to make the heritage of cities and monuments around the Eastern Mediterranean more accessible. It showcases Byzantine cultural heritage on a website that documents various sites using my photos, accompanied by plans, historic images, and texts reviewing academi
10 March, 2023
Call for Applications: KUDAR – SRII Joint Fellowship
Koç University Mustafa V. Koç Maritime Archaeology Research Center (KUDAR) and The Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII) offer a short-term fellowship focusing on connections between the Byzantine and Nordic worlds Applications, including include a cover letter, curriculum vitae with list of
28 February, 2023Call for Papers: The Language of Violence
The KOINet pleased to announce the workshop The Language of Violence, which will take place from the 10th till the 12th of April 2024 in Visby (Gotland/Sweden). Papers from humanities and sciences that can provide example of expressing, experiencing or witnessing violence are welcome. Send the lectu
28 February, 2023
Statement of Solidarity with Victims of Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
The members of the Retracing Connections programme express their deepest condolences to everyone who lost their loved ones in the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, as well as their firmest solidarity with everyone affected by these tragic events. While the rescue efforts continue and the care
14 February, 2023
RC AB Member Karin Kukkonen receives an ERC Consolidation Grant
Our warmest congratulations to our advisory board member Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo), who has received an ERC Consolidator Grant for the research project JEUX – Literary Games, Poetics and the Early-Modern Novel . The project offers a valuable continu
14 February, 2023
Babel: translation and alternate worldmaking in a recent novel
Last spring, our research programme reading group focused on translation theory and translation studies, reading our way through a rather long list of essays, articles and books. One of them was Jacques Derrida’s “Des tours de Babel” (1985), in which Derrida dwells on the problems that translation c
24 January, 2023
New research school: Early Languages, Digital Philology (DigPhil)
A research school in early languages and digital philology has been awarded funding from The Swedish Research Council (2023–2027), hosted by the Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University and coordinated by Ingela Nilsson. The profile of the research school partly overlaps with the interests of Retr
17 January, 2023Siri the Viking – a narrative cosmonaut returns to Constantinople
Have you come across Siri the Viking girl yet? If you have, you can now look forward to a fourth book and her return to Constantinople. If you haven’t yet made her acquaintance, you have something to look forward to! Siri is a feisty Pippi Longstocking kind of girl, presented in words and images tha
11 January, 2023Gustav Karlsson Lecture on Byzantine Cultureand Literature 2022: Stratis Papaioannou
The Swedish Institute at Athens and the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul present the Gustav Karlsson Lecture on Byzantine Culture and Literature, given by Stratis Papioannou (University of Crete & Swedish Institute at Athens), on the topic of Readerly Pleasures in Byzantium. The lect
16 December, 2022
The Reuse of Ancient and Late Antique Narratives in the Medieval Middle East and Beyond
Retracing Connections organizes a one-day hybrid workshop together with the ERC project Novel Echoes under the title The Reuse of Ancient and Late Antique Narratives in the Medieval Middle East and Beyond, on January 31, 2023 hosted by Ghent University. You can find the program and register here.
14 December, 2022Seminar Lecture Series in Changchun
Three of our team members, Christian Høgel, Daria Resh and Stratis Papaioannou will participate in the 6th Interantional Byzantine Seminar Lecture Series at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC) at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun (China), under the general theme
17 October, 2022A Tale of Telling – A week with and among Sami-Kurdish writers
Scene 1: Day, inside After walking in the spring rain through the narrow streets of Pera, we finally reach Kiraathane – the Literature House in Istanbul. We sit around the big table in a rather cramped room, a room literally full of writers. The dark clouds of the sky reflect the conversation: faces
05 July, 2022Stratis Papaioannou in a Podcast on Byzantine Literature
Before approaching Byzantine literature in translation, we need to face the question of what Byzantine literature is in the first place. How do we deal with a modern term in the Byzantine context? Stratis Papaioannou discusses what we mean by “Byzantine” and by “literature”,
30 May, 2022
The Winding Roads of Storytelling (Research Discussion)
On May 8, 2022 from 13.30 to 16.30, a group of Retracing Connections researchers will present their individual and group research to Stockholmers Medelhavsmuseet in Swedish, Danish and English. Some stories seem to be particularly suitable for being translated and adapted. They are distributed
25 March, 2022
Kosovo and the UN, National Interests and Ethnic Conflicts
Kosovo and the UN, national interests and ethnic conflicts – an evening of political and personal reflections with a point of departure in the book by Karin Rudebeck, Kosovo och FN – Ögonblicksbilder från en dagbok (2020). A conversation in Swedish among the author Karin Rudebeck and political
25 March, 2022Narratives on the Move: Byzantine Storyworlds, Space and Liminality (Ingela Nilsson, Myrto Veikou)
On May 9, 2022 at 15.00, Ingela Nilsson and Myrto Veikou are presenting a part of their research from the Retracing Connections programme at the Stockholm’s University Medieval Seminar. Find more information and the zoom link here.
23 March, 2022Call for Papers: Narrative and Narratology in Pre-modern Historiography
Aske Damtoft Poulsen, Matthew Kinloch and Ingela Nilsson are organizing a workshop aimed to bring together PhD students and early career scholars who work with issues of narrative and narratology in pre-modern historiography. The workshop will be held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 3
15 March, 2022
The Early Greek Translation of the Qur’an: Aim and Orientation (Christian Høgel)
Join us for a lecture by Christian Høgel (Odense / Uppsala) on Wednesday 23 March, at 16:15, in Humanistiska teatern, Engelska parken, Uppsala, organized by Greek and Byzantine Studies and the Retracing Connections research programme. The early Greek translation (before 870 CE) of the Qur’an is know
11 March, 2022“The story is for others, the laughter for myself” – How journalistic storytelling can employ humour in migration narratives
In both fictional or autobiographical/biographical writing, there are certain topics that are difficult to address. Abuse, violence, severe poverty or childhood traumas… They are certainly challenging, but also quite compelling, which explains their popularity in several genres. For instance,
07 January, 2022Arkady Martine and Ingela Nilsson on Storyworlds and Empires
How much Byzantium can fit onto a planet in an outer space, in a distant future? How do we build future storyworlds out of past civilizations? How would you like your entire cultural memory wrapped and handed down? Can meeting a linguistic alien make us ponder on the foundations of our own culture?
07 January, 2022Saint Nicholas is coming (back) to town
Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen follows the generous saint from Anatolia, across seas and rooftops, into a narrative rabbit hole. On 2 November 2021, the rebuilt Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox church at Ground Zero in New York was opened. The old church was completely destroyed during the terrorist attacks o
06 December, 2021The City in Song
We present Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen, one of the Narrative Cosmonauts from our Storytelling & Narratology team. His research focuses on hymnography and narratology. He is also very fond of music from the Eastern Mediterranean and an amateur performer of different kinds of traditional music. In October
30 November, 2021“Pop the top, toss the stump” – The strange dance of the ‘told’ and ‘untold’ in journalistic storytelling
The question of how that which is left untold determines the characteristics and essence of journalistic storytelling is very important and continually changing for any journalist inspired by real life informants and situations. However, it takes time to reach this comprehensive question, it takes c
12 July, 2021
Medieval Storyworlds Across Languages
In May 2021, a virtual multilingual summer school Medieval Literature Across Languages took place. It was co-organized by the Center for Medieval Literature in Odense and the Retracing Connections program. One of the participants, our PhD researcher Lilli Hölzlhammer (Uppsala) gives a graphic summar
30 June, 2021Stratis Papaioannou in a Podcast on Michael Psellos
Discover the countless worlds and faces of Michael Psellos, the intellectual whose words and stories marked our image of the eleventh century more than any others. Stratis Papioannou presents the Greek edition of his book ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΨΕΛΛΟΣ: Η ρητορική και ο λογοτέχνης στο Βυζάντιο, in the LiFO ΒΙΒΛΙΑ ΚΑ
31 May, 2021Milan Vukašinović on Heritage Management, Memory Politics and Nation-building in Serbia
Follow the exciting life of a charter, from a medieval monastery on Mont Athos to a bronze monument in central Belgrade. Why don’t the kings let the librarians do their job? How do we fit a complex life and a controversial historical figure into a monument? Can nameless beekepers also build a
13 March, 2021Living in the Midst of Storyworlds
Ingela Nilsson explains what storyworlds are, what they can do, and why we enjoy studying them so much.
16 February, 2021Call for Applications: Multi-lingual Summer School
Call for Applications for the Multi-lingual Summer School Medieval literature Across Languages, to be held online on May 17-28, 2021, organised by the Retracing Connections programme and the Center for Medieval Literature (SDU, York), is open till December 15, 2020.See all the details below or here.
26 October, 2020Public presentation of the programme
RETRACING CONNECTIONS programme had a public launching event on September 28, 2020 at the Humanities theater of Uppsala University. Ingela Nilsson presented the programme’s structure and members. Miriam Hjälm spoke about miraculous births, merciful caliphs and audacious monks in Arabic and Greek sto
14 October, 2020Zoom presentation of the programme
Instead of letting the extraordinary circumstances of the global pandemic hinder our work and isolate us in our homes, the members of the Retracing connections programme want to reach out, bring colleagues closer and inspire discussion. Join us on Friday, October 23 at 13.15 CET on zoom to meet our
14 October, 2020Sandro Nikolaishvili in a radio program on Queen Tamar
Our colleague Sandro Nikolaishvili from the Center for Medieval Literature at the University of Southern Denmark helped shed light on the life of Queen Tamar of Georgia (1160-1230) and some of the stories surrounding her rule. Dive into the world of revolutionary political decisions, choosing husban
24 September, 2020Call for applications – Funded PhD position at Uppsala University
Uppsala University, Department of Linguistics and Philology offers a four-year fully funded PhD position in Greek and Byzantine Studies, primarilly to candidates interested in joining the work of the Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic (c. 950–c.
07 September, 2020First Retracing Connections Online Workshop, Autumn 2020
MAPPING THE BYZANTINE STORYWORLDS is the first Retracing Connections Workshop, to be held online on September 28-29 & October 2, 2020. The program members will unwrap the concept of storyworlds and discuss the Life of Saint Theodore of Edessa, the pillar narrative of the programme. The guest spe
30 June, 2020Public programme presentation, Uppsala, September 2020
RETRACING CONNECTIONS programme will have a public launch of the program at the Uppsala University on September 28, 2020. Join us to meet our team members and hear about the programme! While being physically distanced, we will connect the first dots of premodern transcultural storytelling. See the i
30 June, 2020
