Dr Mike Humphreys
Departmental Lecturer in Byzantine History
I work primarily on the history of Byzantium, especially the period 500 to 1000. I was educated at the University of Cambridge, where I also held a Research Fellowship at St John’s College (2013-17) and was a University Lecturer.
Research Interests
My main research interest lies in the transformation of Byzantium, ca.600 to 900. While interested in every facet of the period, my research has focused on two strands. First, the controversy over religious imagery known as iconoclasm. Second, what the legal sources can tell us about this period.
Currently I am examining criminal law and especially the use of various mutilations, such as blinding, removal of the nose, and punitive shaving. I am attempting to place these penalties within a broader context within the wider late antique and early medieval world, and to ask what they say about Byzantine attitudes to the body, gender, power, justice, and much else.
