Three Steps Towards Comparing Networks of Learning in Byzantium and the ‘Latin’ West, c. 900–1200, lecture by Niels Gaul (Central European University/Dumbarton Oaks), Harvard University, Boylston Hall 237, March 13, 4:00pm

Niels Gaul teaches Byzantine history, culture and rhetoric from c.600 to 1453, as well as Greek palaeography and current literary and discourse theory at Central European University and is currently a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks. He is particularly interested in the later Byzantine empire; his recent work has looked at various social performances – be it in the form of rhetorical ‘theatre’ or (staged) miracles – and at the scholarly networks permeating late Byzantine society. He has recently finished a monograph on the social and political ramifications of Byzantine paideia (‘learning’) in the early fourteenth century, Thomas Magistros und die spätbyzantinische Sophistik (2011), and is embarking on two new projects: a handbook of Greek palaeography & Byzantine manuscript studies; and a monograph on the connection of mimēsis, (rhetorical) self-fashioning, and the revival of civic spirit from the middle through the late Byzantine periods. Gaul taught at the universities of Oxford, Cologne, and Bonn prior to joining CEU. He is a member of the editorial board of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library/Byzantine Greek series.