International conference: Female Authority and Holiness in Early Christianity and Byzantium

The conference investigates the representation of women’s authority and holiness from a diachronic perspective. By underlining the connection between early Christianity and Byzantium, it brings together texts from different periods and genres, which have traditionally been studied in isolation (e.g. apocrypha, visions, hagiography). The conference centers around the notion of time, used to indicate not only temporal passing and its articulation, but also embodied, experiential time and its construction. By looking at time as intertwined with the construction and the experience of social and gendered roles, the conference explores motifs and narratives related to the different and often varying articulation of female authority, considered against the wider background of Christian ideals of holiness. Speakers will explore the interplay between temporality and traditional gender roles, the transmission and reception of female authority and sainthood between early Christianity and hagiographical texts, and the connection between temporality and female holiness in Byzantine hagiography.

Organisation and contact

For more information please contact organiser Maria Dell'Isola: mariadellisola@sdu.dk

To register and receive zoom link please write to cml@sdu.dk

Download conference poster here including full programme here