FEMALE FOUNDERS in Byzantium & Beyond

Vienna, September 23-25, 2008
Institute of Art History
University of Vienna

CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS

This international colloquium celebrates the achievements of women founders,
patrons and donors in Byzantium and in neighbouring regions. It arises out of
the award to the University of Vienna of a professorial chair in Gender
Studies by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research in
recognition of the University's record in support of women scholars. During
the 2007-2008 term, courses and lecture series on Women, Men and Eunuchs; Sex
and The City; The Muses; pro-seminars on Women and Power; Women and Sanctity;
and The Byzantine Body; and graduate seminars on Female Founders have
prepared the way for a three-day event with the international scholars most
closely associated with the world-famous treasures commissioned by the female
founders of Byzantium and housed in the Austrian National Library and the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Students and scholars are invited to submit proposals on economic,
historical, art historical, archaeological, and literary aspects of gender
and patronage in Byzantium and neighbouring regions. Themes related to the
following topics will be most appreciated:

- Individual founders, patrons, donors
- The economic power and legal position of women
- Women and spirituality
- The processes of patronage
- Monasteries, churches, tombs and their decoration
- Texts, textiles, ivories, manuscripts, icons, jewellery, seals
- "Kleine Stiftungen": light, bread, labour, etc.

Please submit proposals for 15-minute papers, including a brief abstract (ca.
300-500 words) and a short CV as email attachments no later than May 31,
2008, to the project coordinators:
matthew.savageunivie.ac.at or galina.fingarovaunivie.ac.at

We look forward to welcoming you to Vienna,

Lioba Theis, Margaret Mullett, Michael Grünbart
Institut für Kunstgeschichte,
Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik
der Universität Wien