Anne received her MA and PhD from King's College, London. Her research focuses on the worlds of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, in particular, the study of Hagiography (the Lives of Saints): transmission, translation, social, literary and cultural contexts. She also has interests in Greek palaeography, Gender Studies and Narrative.

Anne is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the subject.

Postgraduate Research Supervision: I am interested in supervising students specializing in gender and sexuality, narrative and the Late Antique and Byzantine world.

back to top

Publications

'The Role of Late-Antique Art in Early Christian Worship: a Reconsideration of the Iconography of the 'Starry Sky' in the ‘Mausoleum’ of Galla Placidia', Papers of the British School at Rome 78 (2010), 193-217.

A joint article with Ellen Swift that investigates the starry sky mosaic in the ‘mausoleum’ of Galla Placidia. The sermons of Peter Chrysologus and the works of Paulinus of Nola and Damasus are investigated to help show that this mosaic could have been viewed as a concrete manifestation of the power of the saints in their intercessory role between earth and heaven and not merely as a representation of the sky.

'The Luxeuil Connection: the Transmission of the Vita of Julian and Basilissa' in C. Dendrinos, E. Harvalia-Crook, J. Herrin, J. Harris, (eds), Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides (Ashgate), 131-136.

This article explores how the transmission of the text of the life of Julian and Basilissa made its way from the eastern to the western empire by examining the clues in the text and the discovery of Julian’s relics in 1648 in Morigny, France.

Forthcoming

Celibate Marriages in Late Antique and Byzantine Hagiography (Continuum, 2011).

The monograph is a literary study of three married couples who attained sainthood and who had a sexless union. They are saints Julian & Basilissa, Andronikos & Athanasia and Galaktion & Episteme. I examine the phenomenon of a continent marriage, its presentation in hagiography and its social consequences. Texts, translations and commentaries are provided.

Re-writing virgin martyrs: S. Tatiana, S. Ia and S. Horaiozele (Liverpool University Press)

A translation-commentary volume on three little-known virgin martyrs whose lives were copied and adapted in fourteenth-century Byzantium.

'The limits of marital authority: examining continence in the lives of Saints Julian and Basilissa, and saints Chrysanthus and Daria', in P. Armstrong (ed.), Authority in Byzantium (Ashgate, 2011).

This article explores how authority is depicted in hagiographic representations of continent marriage. I investigate the lives of SS. Chrysanthus & Daria and SS. Julian & Basilissa to show how celibacy affects the social and emotional roles of husband and wife in this intriguing form of marriage.

'Men in Pain: Masculinity, Medicine and the Miracles of St. Artemios', Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (2012)

This article explores the miracles of Artemios, a remarkable saint who cured testicular hernias in seventh-century Constantinople. Using medical, anthropological and literary analysis, I create a portrait of Byzantine masculinity. Generally, our sources pay attention to the elite male (for example, the bishop or the emperor). The miracles are unusual because the men involved are ‘ordinary’ workmen, providing access to another shape of masculinity

Current Research

The Christian and the Vestal Virgin

I am examining the life of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria to ascertain the ‘reality’ of their cult.

Adaptation

I am currently transcribing, translating and contextualising a fourteenth-century Greek manuscript, which is a compendium of female saints’ lives. I am investigating the re-writing of certain lives in the compendium, a feature of the Palaeologan period.

The Metamorphosis of Sainthood

This article will explore why the Greek saint Tatiana was transformed first into the Latin story of saint Martina and then into saint Prisca. It will explain how this was done and what this tells us about the transmission and acculturation of Greek texts into the west. Lastly, it will question why the relatively unknown Tatiana was resurrected in 14th-century Byzantium.

Constantine Akropolites and the life of Horaiozele

This article will consider why Constantine Akropolites chose to re-write the story of a 1300 year-old martyr and what this implies about his ideas on hagiography, religious belief and women. It will scrutinize Horaiozele’s life to see if she held or was given any political resonance.

The Resurrection of a Saint: Makarios’ life of Ia

This article will study the transferral of Ia’s relics from Persia/Iran to Constantinople and investigate the significance of the resurrection of a remote Persian martyr 900 years after her death. It will also explore Makarios’ views on ethnicity and see if anything in the life reflects the trauma suffered by Constantinople at the hands of the crusaders.

back to top

Fellowships, Awards and Service

Fellowship, British School at Rome, 2002

SECL Young Researchers Fund, University of Kent, 2006 & 2007 (c. £3000)

Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellowship, Princeton, 2007

Editorial Board, Gender and History

Anne is Director of Undergraduate Studies for CLAS at Kent.

back to top

Teaching

Anne is teaching a variety of subjects including, Love, Sex and Society; Virgil’s Aeneid; The Civilizations of Greece and Rome and Beginners’ Greek.

Student supervisionAnne is interested in supervising students specialising in gender and sexuality, narrative and the Late Antique and Byzantine world.

back to top