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Teaching Fellows’ Day at Dumbarton Oaks

Posted On March 02, 2016 | 10:57 am | by meredithb | Permalink

This year marked the sixth annual Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellows’ Day, an event showcasing Dumbarton Oaks’ research to the local university community. This year’s topic, “Discovering Byzantine Lives,” looked to material, visual, textual, and archaeological evidence to understand lived realities. In the morning, Teaching Fellow Elizabeth Dospel Williams opened the discussion with a talk on dress and jewelry from early Byzantine Egypt, followed by Teaching Fellow Jonathan Shea, who spoke about the evidence Byzantine seals provide about those who commissioned them. Sigillography consultant Eric McGeer looked at ideals of military leadership as a window into the lives of the Byzantine military. After lunch, students handled coins with Shea and visited the Museum galleries with Williams and Assistant Curator John Hanson. Finally, Director of Byzantine Studies Michael Maas led a student panel discussion about the value of comparing different kinds of evidence to understand Byzantine experiences. The event drew more than ninety students and faculty from four universities, a record attendance.