Dumbarton Oaks will again offer an intensive four-week course in medieval Greek and paleography in the early summer of 2016. Approximately ten places will be available, with priority going to students without ready access to similar courses at local or regional institutions.

Course Offerings

The principal course will be a daily 1 ½ hour session devoted to the translation of sample Byzantine texts. Each week texts will be selected from a different genre, e.g., historiography, hagiography, poetry, and epistolography. Two afternoons a week hour-long sessions on paleography will be held. In addition each student will receive a minimum of one hour per week of individual tutorial. Thus approximately eleven hours per week will be devoted to formal classroom instruction. In the remaining hours of the week students will prepare their assignments.

Students will also have the opportunity to study inscribed objects in the Byzantine Collection, and view facsimiles of manuscripts in the Dumbarton Oaks Rare Books Collection, as well as original manuscripts in the Byzantine Collection. Any extra time may be used for personal research in the Dumbarton Oaks library, but support for the summer school is intended first and foremost for study of Byzantine Greek language and texts.

Faculty

Alexander Alexakis, University of Ioannina
Stratis Papaioannou, Brown University

Accommodation and Costs

No tuition fees will be charged. Successful candidates from outside the Washington area will be provided with housing at no cost and lunch on weekdays. Local area students will not be offered accommodation, but will receive free lunch on weekdays. Students are expected to cover their own transportation expenses.

Requirements for Admission

Applicants must be graduate students in a field of Byzantine studies (or advanced undergraduates with a strong background in Greek). Two years of college-level ancient Greek (or the equivalent) are a prerequisite; a diagnostic test will be administered to finalist applicants before successful candidates are selected.

Application Procedure

Applicants should send a letter by February 1, 2016, to Dr. Michael Maas, Director of Byzantine Studies, describing their academic background, career goals, previous study of Greek, and reasons for wishing to attend the summer school. The application should also include a curriculum vitae and a transcript of the graduate school or undergraduate record. Two letters of recommendation should be sent separately, one from the student’s adviser, and one from an instructor in Greek, assessing the candidate’s present level of competence in ancient or medieval Greek. Principles of selection will include three considerations: previous meritorious achievement, need for intensive study of Byzantine Greek, and future direction of research. Awards will be announced in late February 2016, and must be accepted by March 15.

Please send all required materials to:

Dumbarton Oaks
Byzantine Studies Program
1703 32nd Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

Tel.: 202-339-6940 FAX: 202-298-8409, Email: Byzantine@doaks.org