Seeing Through Byzantium: celebrating the career of Leslie Brubaker

‘Seeing Through Byzantium’ celebrates the career and scholarship of Prof. Leslie Brubaker, Professor Emerita of Byzantine Art History and Director of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham. Focusing on three key themes which have been central to Prof. Brubaker’s research —Vision and Meaning, Iconoclasm, and Gender — the conference will feature a selection of speakers who will reflect on the importance of her research for their own subjects and areas of scholarship.

‘Seeing Through Byzantium’ encapsulates many of the ideas and themes which have made Prof. Brubaker one of the most eminent experts of the field. On the one hand, it recognises her pioneering contributions to our understanding of how the Byzantines utilised and understood images and visual media, both as a means of communication and as a reaction to their world. On the other, it acknowledges how her work on gender, poverty, and family life have yielded new critical perspectives on the Byzantine world when it is seen through the eyes of the ‘other’. Finally, it reflects on the importance of Prof. Brubaker’s work in championing the unique importance of Byzantium as a lens through which to understand contemporary issues of global history, iconoclasm (past and present), gender and the power of the image.

This will be a hybrid event which will take place on the University of Birmingham campus and on Zoom.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

University of Birmingham, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom