Absolutely. Always glad to commiserate with a fellow Byzantinist.
Unfortunately, the one class I'm short is the "Classics Major Senior Seminar" course that majors are required to take... the
fall of their senior year. I wasn't able to fit it into my schedule (and, on top of that, didn't realize it until several weeks into the semester), so I'll have to settle for a History major, concentrating on Medieval Studies, with a whole heck of a lot of classics courses.
Of course, to make up for it, I
am writing an honors thesis for my History degree. My thesis is about the imperial ideology of the Emperor Justinian, and in particular how it related to / affected his domestic policies and especially his decisions to launch campaigns of reconquest in Africa and Italy in the first half of the sixth century. Despite that, in graduate school I would like to focus on Byzantine history during the age of the crusades, particularly from the mid-11th century (pre-Battle of Manzikert) until 1204 (the sack of Constantinople courtesy of a misguided Fourth Crusade), and potentially beyond into the period of the Latin kingdom. Any particular period of focus for yourself?
I'm not really sure how I got into Byzantine history... my college doesn't offer any classes on it, but it seems to "pop up" in a lot of the medieval history courses (like courses on the Vikings, the Christianization of Europe, the First Crusade, and so forth). Given that it seemed to be such a constant peripheral player, I ended up writing several research papers on its influence and experience, and just got drawn in. Part of it is the mystique of "continuing" the old Roman Empire, part of it is straddling the boundaries between the West and the East, and part of it is interest in what has seemingly, at least in America, been cast to the fringes of history despite its substantial importance.
Cheers.
Re: So EB players and team members , where do you go to school or what is your degree
Originally Posted by Landwalker
I'm a senior undergraduate at Williams College, in Massachusetts. Next year, I'll be beginning graduate PhD work in Medieval/Byzantine history, although I'm not yet sure where I'll be--Harvard, Notre Dame, Princeton, or Oxford (in England) are all possibilities at the moment.
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but my job has only little to do with that (I am running a book shop 
).
Re: So EB players and team members , where do you go to school or what is your degree
Languages, for one, have been a source of charm for me and I try to learn some, at least about some, whenever I have the chance. Currently studying Kurmanji Kurdish and Greek.
And occasionally I post on stuff here at the org.
)
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