James Cogbill

Research Topic

Late Byzantine Imperial Relatives: Roles, Activities and Political Culture, c. 1261-1461

My doctoral project explores the mutually-inscribing interconnectivity of the premodern ruling family and ‘political culture’ – the framework of structures, practices and expectations within which a polity’s political actors operate – in the Late Byzantine period (c. 1261-1461). By seeking to understand how power was conceptualised, negotiated and deployed in Late Byzantium, my research aims to contribute to an understanding of premodern authority with implications for, and beyond, the late medieval Mediterranean.

I received my BA in Ancient and Medieval History from the University of Birmingham, and then moved to Oxford for an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. My MPhil thesis was a comparative study of eleventh- and twelfth-century monasticism in the Greek East and the Latin West.

In January 2021, I established the Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar, which hosts eight graduate or early-career speakers each term. I was previously Treasurer and Secretary of the Oxford University Byzantine Society (2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively), co-organising two international graduate conferences. In addition, I co-organised the 2021 and 2022 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conferences.

I am also a Graduate Associate of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, and a member of its executive and publication committees.

My doctoral research is generously funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership, the Clarendon Fund and All Souls College.

I have contributed to the teaching of the following undergraduate papers:

• European and World History 1: The Transformation of the Ancient World, 370-900
• Special Subject: Byzantium in the Age of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, 913-959
• Special Subject: St. Augustine and the Last Days of Rome, 370-430

Supervisor: Professor Catherine Holmes