This MA programme is a full-time one-year MA for those with an interest in Byzantine art and literature and who want to do more. While it is a free-standing qualification, it also provides preparation for advanced research in the field of Byzantine Studies. It is unusual in the postgraduate structure as it requires that the first semester be taken at the Institute of Byzantine Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and the second term at the University of Sussex.

A key element of Byzantine Studies is that much of the source material is in Greek. This MA is designed to allow students to gain a basic grounding in Greek so that they can begin to read and understand Byzantine sources for themselves at first hand. Sussex does not have the specialised teaching available for this nor does QUB have a full-time specialist Byzantine art historian and Byzantium abounds in visual sources. This scheme has therefore been devised to allow students to spend a semester at the Institute of Byzantine Studies learning Greek and other research skills specifically for Byzantinists, as well as the necessary skills for reading Byzantine text, before moving to Sussex to study Byzantine art in the second term.

How the programme works

Semester 1: Institute of Byzantine Studies, QUB
These are all half modules, making a total of two full modules
Course 1: Byzantine Texts 1
Course 2: Research Methods
Course 3: Visual Sources for Byzantinists
Course 4: Byzantine Literature and Material Culture

Term 2: University of Sussex
These are full modules
Course 1: Power of Images in Byzantium
Course 2: Art and Text in Byzantium

Students will also continue to study Greek through a programme of distance learning from Belfast. This course is mandatory but not formally assessed. There will also be specific literary input into Course 2 by Belfast teachers.

Summer: University of Sussex or QUB
Dissertation. The student selects the location depending on whether his/her focus is on the art history or the texts.

How the programme is assessed
Semester 1 (making up 1/3 of marks)
Course 1 by essay, continuous assessment, oral and written test
Course 2 by practical exercises (e.g. writing a book review, writing a research proposal)
Course 3 by extended essay
Course 4 by translation, commentary and essay, or an essay showing close reading of one or more texts

Term 2
Two term papers of 5,000 words (making up 1/3 of marks)
Summer: 20,000 word dissertation (making up 1/3 of marks)

What goes on in the courses

Byzantine Texts 1
This course will introduce students with little or no knowledge of Greek to Byzantine Greek. It will teach them the bases of the Greek language – grammar and vocabulary – in the context of reading and translating Byzantine Greek texts. All language teaching is drawn from original Byzantine Greek sources. The students gain skills in understanding Byzantine Greek, acquiring the ability to translate Byzantine texts with the aid of a lexicon, and the ability to find their way around a text, identifying key words and passages. They will also be able to read Greek aloud, to interpret texts in their context.

Research Methods
In this course, students will be introduced to a range of research skills which will equip them in the field of Byzantine Studies. These include: presenting work in a scholarly fashion, how to write a bibliography, text searching, web resources, theory (including visual sources), writing a book review, writing commentaries on texts, writing research proposals, palaeography, the history of Byzantine Studies, prosopography, liturgy, numismatics, law. Students will be in possession of a basic range of research tools to assist them to undertake individual research in Byzantine Studies.

Visual Sources for Byzantinists
This course explores a small corpus of specific visual material and discusses different ways of reading it, as visual material and as evidence for the social and cultural history of Byzantium.

Byzantine Literature and Material Culture
Here students survey Byzantine literature, specifically texts pertinent to material culture. They also continue language learning and learn skills related to writing translations and textual commentaries.

The Power of Images in Byzantium
This course examines the different spheres and ways in which images carried power in Byzantium. Byzantium is the only world power to have thrown itself into chaos in a dispute over the role and place of images in society. An examination of power and propaganda will go some way to explaining the relationship between this society and its images.

Art and Text in Byzantium
This course discusses the interaction of art and text in Byzantine culture. It will look at the ways in which works of art were described by the Byzantines and consider these in the context of Byzantine art as it survives. It will be concerned with both Byzantine aesthetics and with the nature of textual description: what are the conventions and constraints of the latter in the context of the former?

Some practical details

Travel between the universities: the AHRB Centre for Byzantine Cultural History will pay for a return flight between the universities, and any other journeys between universities that the MA convenors feel necessary and appropriate.

Accommodation: in Belfast the Institute of Byzantine Studies will help in finding accommodation – you’re not on your own here! Bente Bjornholt (b.k.bjornholt@sussex.ac.uk), based in Sussex as AHRB Research Fellow in Byzantine Art, did her MA and PhD at Queen’s and would be happy to talk to anyone about life in Belfast. To find out about living in Sussex, catch Bente when she is in Belfast or talk to Dr Dion Smythe (dionsmythe@hotmail.com) who coordinates the AHRB Gender Project with Sussex.

Byzantine Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and Sussex
The Institute of Byzantine Studies at Queen’s University Belfast is one of the foremost centres for Byzantine Studies at undergraduate and postgraduate level in this country. The Director is Professor Margaret Mullett. Other faculty include Dr Dion Smythe, Dr Dirk Krausmüller, and Dr Anthony Hirst. There is a lively and energetic student body, especially at postgraduate level (check out the website, www.qub.ac.uk/ibs) and weekly seminars At Sussex, courses will be taught by Dr Liz James, together with the AHRB funded Research Fellow in Byzantine Art. Sussex too is developing a postgraduate Byzantine culture, with meetings throughout the year involving academic papers and wine-drinking.