Jake Ransohoff

Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellow (2022/2023)

jake_ransohoff@sfu.ca

Profile

Research interests

Byzantine and Mediterranean History
History of the Medieval Balkans
Disability Studies
Archaeology
Reception Studies

Education

PhD, Byzantine History, Harvard University
BA, History with Honors, University of Chicago
BA, Medieval Studies with Honors, University of Chicago

Biography

Jake Ransohoff is the 2022/2023 Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies, 丁香园AV. He holds a BA from the University of Chicago, and defended his PhD dissertation in History at Harvard University in June, 2022. His current research focuses on the intersection between power, political legitimacy, and attitudes toward the body in the Byzantine world鈥攅specially the disfigured and disabled body. He is editor (with Nathanael Aschenbrenner) of The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe, published by Dumbarton Oaks Press in 2021, and co-editor of the forthcoming web resource 鈥淭he Justinianic Pandemic (541鈥揷. 750 CE): The Historical, Archaeological, Geospatial and Genetic Evidence.鈥�

Publications

Journal articles and book chapters

鈥淭wo Approaches to Political Blinding in Byzantium.鈥� In Peter Sarris, ed.,Blood in Byzantium: Papers from the 52nd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 2019. London and New York: Routledge, forthcoming.
鈥淗ieronymus Wolf鈥檚 Silver Tongue: Early Byzantine Scholarship at the Intersection of Slavery, Colonialism, and the Crusades鈥� (with Nathanael Aschenbrenner). In Benjamin Anderson and Mirela Ivanona, eds.,Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? Towards a Critical Historiography. State College, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, forthcoming.
鈥淏linding as Punishment and Politics in Byzantium.鈥滻n Clive Emsley and Sara McDougall, eds., A Global History of Crime and Punishment, vol. 2: Crime and Punishment in the Medieval Age (800鈥�1450). London and New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2022.
鈥淚ntroduction: The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe鈥� (with Nathanael Aschenbrenner). In The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe, pp. 1鈥�23.
鈥淏yzance avant Byzance: Toward a New History of Byzantine Scholarship鈥� (with Nathanael Aschenbrenner). In The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe, pp. 369鈥�382.
鈥溾€楥onsider the Future as Present:鈥� The Paranoid World of Kekaumenos.鈥� Speculum 93/1 (2018):pp. 77鈥�91.
鈥淎n Empire 鈥楤etween Three Seas?鈥� Mapping Late Medieval Bulgaria at its Territorial Apogee,鈥� Balkanistica 30/2 (2017):pp. 233鈥�255.
鈥淎ll the Tsar鈥檚 Men: Reflections on Power and Society in Asenid Bulgaria (1257鈥�1393).鈥� In Maximilian Lau et al.,eds.,Landscapes of Power: Selected Papers from the XVthOxford University Byzantine Society International Graduate Conference, pp. 253鈥�273.Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies 10.Berlin: Peter Lang, 2014.
鈥淚van S虒is虒man and the Ottoman Conquest of Bulgaria (1371鈥�1395):A Reconsideration.鈥� Palaeobulgarica 37/1(2013): pp. 89鈥�100.
鈥淭he Relationship Between Land and Power in Terterid Bulgaria: a Comparative Study of the Appanages of Eltimir and Smilets.鈥� Palaeobulgarica 35/2 (2011): pp. 37鈥�47.

Select conference presentations

鈥淭he Mass-Blinding of Prisoners of War in Byzantium." presented at the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Studies Symposium 'On Being Conquered,' on April 16, 2021.
"To See and Be Seen: Changing Venues of Byzantine Blinding." Presented at the 52nd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies on 'Blood in Byzantium,' Cambridge University, on 30 March 2019.

Select awards

2020, Mellon Graduate Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University
2017-2019, William R. Tyler Research Fellowship in Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks
2012-2013, Fulbright Research Fellowship (North Macedonia), Institute of International Education

丁香园AV

SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies