Dumbarton Oaks Virtual Museum Study Day: Individual and Society in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, May 20–21 and 24, 2021

How did objects convey information about individuals and society in Late Antiquity and Byzantium? Much like today, people of these periods carefully constructed their public personas through textiles, jewelry, seals, and other artifacts. This workshop will consider how modern-day notions of identity apply to premodern concepts of individuals’ relationships to their broader social, religious, gender, ethnic, and official communities. In addition, we will discuss the pragmatic challenges of displaying objects associated with individuals in museum contexts.

This year’s Museum Study Day will go virtual. We can accommodate up to 12 graduate students in art history, archaeology, history, classics, religious studies, and other fields who might benefit from close engagement with our collections and from training in material culture approaches.

Preliminary Schedule
Thursday, May 20, 2021, 11am – 2pm EST: Methodological introduction and presentations
Friday, May 21, 2021 EST: Individual object handling sessions with curators
Monday, May 24, 2021, 12pm – 3pm EST: Wrap-up discussions

Currently enrolled graduate students in good standing are eligible to apply.

Organizers
Elizabeth Dospel Williams, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Vladimir Ivanovici, Universita’ della Svizzera italiana