MEDIEVALIA - 2

How was virtue defined for women and men in Byzantine society? How did the role of eunuchs in Byzantine society change over time? How did Byzantine women use existing norms to their advantage to achieve social and economic gains?

This pocket-size book, written in the style of a lunchtime conversation, aims to discuss the appropriate behavioral patterns that the people of the Byzantine Empire, or the medieval Roman Empire, expected of women and men. While discussing gender norms in Byzantine society, Neville also explains how some prejudices and stereotypes about Byzantine culture developed over time. Furthermore, she guides readers on the importance of accurately evaluating Byzantine sources—taking into account the intentions of those who wrote them—for a better understanding of Byzantine society.

Leonora Neville received her PhD from Princeton University in 1998 and is currently a professor at the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She specializes in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. His research focuses on gender, religion, the religious aspects of political culture, and historical memory and historiography. Neville serves on the History Advisory Board of the Global Ukrainian History Initiative and is a senior researcher at Dumbarton Oaks. He is also an editor for Cambridge’s Elements in Rethinking Byzantium, Palgrave’s New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture, and Arc Medieval Press’s Long Roman Empire book series.

Berke Çetinkaya completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Boğaziçi University, Department of History. Since 2023, he has been pursuing a doctorate in Byzantine Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he also serves as a teaching assistant. His research focuses on the social and intellectual history of Byzantium and the perception of the Byzantine legacy in late Ottoman and Republican Turkey. He teaches courses on Byzantine history and pre-modern Middle Eastern history and makes translations from Greek, Classical Arabic, and English.