BelSU speakers at international conference on Byzantine studies

More than 50 participants from Russia, Italy and Georgia arrived to take part in the conference jointly organized by Sevastopol State University,Historical and Archaeological Laboratory for the Comprehensive Study of the Byzantine Black Sea Region and the National Committee of Byzantinists of the Russian Federation.

At the conference opening, Rector of Sevastopol State University, Doctor of Science in Politics Vladimir Nechaev, and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Sergey Karpov underlined the importance to replenish, preserve and disseminate historical knowledge about Byzantium.

The BelSU delegation consisted of the teachers of the Department of General History (Institute of Pedagogy) under the supervision of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Nikolai Bolgov. The delegated represent at the University the scholarly field of the Classical and Byzantine Tradition.

This time, Professor Nikolai Bolgov and Associate Professor of the Department of General History, PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, Anna Bolgova spoke on the cities and microregions of early Byzantine Crete.

Elena Litovchenko, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology, discussed gifts as part of late antique epistolary communication system.

Irina Denisova, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Director of the Centre for History of BelSU, spoke about women philosophers in the intellectual life of late antique Athens.

Maria Rudneva, Candidate of Historical Sciences shared the results of her research into the features of the water supply system of Alexandria in the early Byzantine period.

Sergey Prokopenko, Candidate of Historical Sciences discussed the role and significance of the Attius Philip wall and its role in the fortification system of late antique city of Side.

As part of the conference, the All-Russian Byzantine Club held a meeting at Crimean Federal University named after Vladimir Vernadsky in Simferopol to discuss the Byzantine and ancient heritage of Crimea as the basis for the formation of the civilizational identity of Russia. The club touched upon the issues of preserving ancient and medieval monuments. The BeSU delegates also participated in the meeting.

The Belgorod branch of the Byzantine Club, created at BelSU in 2016, is successfully working under the supervision of Prof. Nikolai Bolgov.

According to him, participation in the conference is an important link in the post-project activities of the scientific team that has successfully implemented the project Byzantine Tree: Roots of Orthodox Spirituality and Morality (2021-2024) under the Priority-2030 Programme. It has been several years that the special course on Byzantine foundations of the national civilization tradition is integrated into master’s degrees programmes at the BelSU Faculty of History and Philology.