A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies, University of Edinburgh
Making a dynamic start, the first A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies, Niels Gaul, appointed in August 2015, was awarded a five-year ERC Consolidator Grant to examine classicising learning in the medieval Byzantine and Chinese imperial systems from a crosscultural perspective – a programme starting in 2017 in collaboration with senior sinologist Curie Viràg (Toronto/Budapest) and two postdoctoral students. Professor Gaul also published the proceedings of a 2014 conference, entitled Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium, in cooperation with Averil Cameron (Oxford), while also becoming a network partner in a new Leverhulme Trust funded International Research Network on Ancient and Byzantine Greek emotions, led by Professor Douglas Cairns (Edinburgh) and involving colleagues from London (KCL), Nicosia, Odense and Vienna. The Edinburgh Classics Department also submitted volume 8 in the Edinburgh Leventis Studies series (Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After, edited by Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns) for publication in October 2016 and appointed its tenth A. G. Leventis Visiting Professor, Professor François Lissarrague (EHESS, Paris), who will take up the position in September 2017.
Grants given:
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
