Digital Approaches to Post-Byzantine Inscriptions, University of Cologne and online, December 4–7, 2023

The Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Cologne invites applications for the International Workshop “Digital Approaches to Post-Byzantine Inscriptions”, organised in the framework of the project “DiBS – Creating a Sustainable Digital Infrastructure for Research-Based Teaching in Byzantine Studies”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. 

Associate Professor Tsvetan Vasilev and Dr. Dimitar Iliev from the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia will introduce the audience to the fascinating world of post-Byzantine church murals and their accompanying texts. Topics like the place of the text in the iconographic programme of an Orthodox religious building, text reuse and intertextuality, church inscriptions as a part of cultural code and group identity on the Balkans during the Ottoman period, language contact and multilingualism, etc., will be discussed. The participants will also be introduced to the digital methods of encoding and visualisation of such inscriptions, including EpiDoc XML, front-end tools, indices and authority files.

Structure
The workshop will be hybrid and will take place from December 4th to 7th at the University of Cologne. Remote participation is not only possible but strongly encouraged. To ensure the workshop runs smoothly, the number of participants is limited to 15.

Eligibility
Postgraduate (Master or PhD) students in the fields of Byzantine Studies, Classics, Medieval History, or Digital Humanities, or early career  researchers (less than three years since defense of the thesis) in the same fields. Prior training in epigraphy is not a prerequisite, though desirable.