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Kyivan Rus’ and Byzantium

Dumbarton Oaks resources relating to Ukrainian History, Art, and Cultural Heritage

In response to the current conflict in Ukraine, Dumbarton Oaks is launching a series of initiatives to inform the academic community and to support scholars at risk in the three areas defined by the institution’s founders, Robert and Mildred Bliss: Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape studies. Through this endeavor we continue our mission to promote scholarly excellence, intellectual tenacity, and democratic thinking.


Mentorship Program for Scholars Affected by the Conflict in Ukraine

Dumbarton Oaks invites applications for a remote four-session mentorship program tailored to early-career scholars affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. This program is meant to offer professional development and workshop opportunities around a variety of topics. It is organized in collaboration with Tomasz Grusiecki (Boise State University), Suzanna Ivanič (University of Kent), Nikos D. Kontogiannis (Dumbarton Oaks), Maria Alessia Rossi (Princeton University), and Alice Isabella Sullivan (Tufts University). 

The deadline for applications is April 30, 2023. For more information, and for instructions to apply, please go here.

Research Grants for Scholars at Risk – 2023 round of applications

Dumbarton Oaks, committed to the support of scholarship around the world, is offering for the year 2023 a limited number of research grants available to those affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The grants are open to scholars active in any of the three areas of studies supported by Dumbarton Oaks, namely Byzantine Studies, Pre-Colombian Studies, and Garden and Landscape Studies. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2023. For more information, and for instructions to apply, please go here.


Lecture Series

Special Lecture Series: From Kyivan Rus’ to Modern Ukraine

Virtual Conversations on History, Art, and Cultural Heritage. A Lecture Series co-organized by Dumbarton Oaks in collaboration with North of Byzantium and Connected Central European Worlds, 1500–1700, from April through December, 2022

Ukraine’s history, art, and culture are endangered by the ongoing war. The lectures and conversation series led by experts in the fields of history, art history, religion, archaeology, heritage, and sociology, as well as museum curators and conservationists, among others, presents the region’s rich historical and cultural complexity through its objects, sites, and monuments. A focus on the medieval and early modern periods featuring Greek, Latin, and Slavic contacts brings to the fore critical evidence to counter modern misrepresentations of Ukraine’s history and cultural heritage. Presented in association with North of Byzantium and Connected Central European Worlds, 1500–1700.

For more information and to view upcoming lectures in the series, here.

Dec 15, 2022

Taste, Social Class, and Oriental Carpet Design in the Eighteenth-Century Cossack Hetmanate

A lecture about the social significance of the Orient-style Hetmanate carpets in relation to the Cossack elite as a social class
Dec 01, 2022

Anna Yaroslavna, Queen of France, in History and in Ukrainian Imagination

A lecture about the wife of King Henry I who ruled France as co-regent during the minority of her son Philip I
Nov 16, 2022

Historical Memory

A roundtable on historical memory in Ukraine.
Oct 13, 2022

The Sovereign's Image and its Site-Specificity in Kyivan Rus'

A lecture about how Kyivan sovereign's portraits concealed the questionable mechanisms of rising into power and legitimized the alleged usurpers in the eyes of the society, the Church, and Christ.
Sep 29, 2022

Displaced Cultural Heritage

A roundtable on concerns related to displaced cultural heritage, including that of Ukraine.
Sep 08, 2022

Reading the Image of Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych in Seventeenth-Century Kyiv

A public lecture about Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych and the evolution of his image from the mid-seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries by Maria Grazia Bartonlini
Jul 28, 2022

Endangered Monuments

A lecture on the endangered cultural monuments of Kyivan Rus
Jul 07, 2022

Mazepa's Women Before and After Poltava

A lecture on the strong women of Mazepa's family by Dr. Liudmyla Sharipova
Jun 16, 2022

Medieval Origins and Modern Constructs, Rus–Ukraine–Russia

A virtual lecture by Dr. Christian Raffensperger
Jun 08, 2022

The Cathedral of St. Sophia, Kyiv

Roundtable discussion with Thomas Dale, Ioli Kalavrezou, and Sofia Korol’
May 19, 2022

The Holy Rus’: Concept and Religious Art with Political Connotations

A Lecture about Pochayiv Monastery in the 19th Century by Dr. Mariana Levytska
Apr 22, 2022

Lacunae of Art History and Kyiv’s Visual Culture

A Lecture by Olenka Z. Pevny

Kolti in the Medieval Byzantine Empire

Kolti were in use throughout the Byzantine empire, including Kyivan Rus’

Ukrainian art and architecture

The Dumbarton Oaks Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives hold images of Ukrainian art and architecture across three separate collections

Kyivan Rus’ in Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Publishing scholarship on Kyivan Rus’

The Total Byzantinist

A Tribute to Ihor Ševčenko (1922–2009)

Photographs of the Cathedral of St. Sophia

A collection of eighty-one photographs of the Cathedral of St. Sophia, Kyiv, Ukraine

The Khanenko Collection

A digitized photograph album of bronze crosses and icons from the Khanenko collection