James Cogbill

Research Topic

Byzantium Beyond the Emperor: Imperial Relatives and Early Palaiologan Political Culture, c. 1258-1341

My project advances the ongoing reassessment of the Late Byzantine period through an interdisciplinary examination of the extended imperial family between 1258 and 1341. My thesis seeks to demonstrate that Late Byzantine imperial relatives were a politically, socially, and culturally significant group with often decisive influence over imperial decision-making. Rather than operating as autocrats as is commonly understood, I argue that the freedom of action of emperors was frequently constrained and subject to negotiation in a fluid, messy, and multipolar political landscape. This research is generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Clarendon Fund, and All Souls College.

Thanks to the award of a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellowship, I will spend the 2024/25 academic year at Princeton University.

I previously received a BA in Ancient and Medieval History from the University of Birmingham and an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from the University of Oxford, the latter funded 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. I am a member of the executive and publications committees of the UK's Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, and also created and ran the online Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar for three years, hosting sixty-four early career speakers across eleven countries and twenty-seven institutions. 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 have also contributed to the teaching of the following papers:

• History of Byzantium (MSt/MPhil Late Antique and Byzantine Studies)

• History of the British Isles 2 (Prelims): c. 1000-1330

• European and World History 1 (Prelims): The Transformation of the Ancient World, 370-900

• European and World History 5 (Finals): The Late Medieval World, 1300-1525

• 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