2025

Friday, January 31, 2025

Queer Fragments of Byzantium

Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine

Abstract

In modern art and popular culture, Byzantium is rarely represented and when it is, it appears through cursory allusions. This talk will look at the fragments of Byzantium in modern popular culture to study the ways in which queer artists and authors deployed the period to imagine an alternative to the western Middle Ages.

Friday, January 24, 2025

A Byzantine Order for Today?: Renewing the Orthodox Christian Office of Deaconess for the Twenty-first Century

Carrie Frederick Frost, Western Washington University

Abstract

The first Orthodox Christian deaconess of the twenty-first century was ordained in 2024 in Zimbabwe in answer to decades of calls from around the world to renew the ancient order of deaconess and in response to local needs in the African setting. The ordination of Deaconess Angelic Molen and her current liturgical and pastoral roles overlap but also depart from the rites and roles of a Byzantine deaconess. Why might the roles of a deaconess be different today compared to her Byzantine predecessors? What might this ordination mean for the rest of the Orthodox world? In this public lecture, Orthodox scholar Carrie Frederick Frost of Western Washington University will describe and frame the recent ordination, which she witnessed, within the larger context of the conversation about women’s roles and deaconesses in the Orthodox Church and will address the complexities and significance of renewing a Byzantine order for today. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

Playing Gods: Portrayals of Greek Mythology in Contemporary Board Games

Nina Houle, Simon Fraser University

Abstract

Greek mythology is a point of fascination across popular culture, including within board games. Many games go beyond using mythology as a simple aesthetic theme, weaving ideas from ancient Greek epics, poetry, and theatre into their mechanics and rule systems. A close investigation of 21st century board games such as Santorini, Minotaur, and Cyclades reveals parallels between the process of gameplay and repeated story elements from ancient primary sources, including the Odyssey and the Argonautica. Through detailed depictions of interactions between gods, heroes, and monsters, these games create an interactive sense of mythological and fantastical antiquity. The process of playing them encourages a close, detailed reception of ancient Greek myth and storytelling.