Aleksandar Jovanović

Sessional, Humanities

 ajovanov@sfu.ca

 Personal webpage

Profile

Research interests

  • Thirteenth-Century Byzantine Asia Minor
  • Byzantine Social History
  • Greek and Latin Philology
  • Classical Reception in the Medieval World
  • Socio-cultural history of the Greco-Roman world
  • Perception of Antiquity and Byzantium after 1453

Education

  • PhD, History, Simon Fraser University
  • MA, Classics (Byzantine Philology), University of Belgrade
  • BA (honours), Classics, Univeristy of Belgrade

Biography

I obtained my BA and MA degrees in Byzantine Philology from the Department of Classics at the University of Belgrade, Serbia and I hold a PhD degree focusing on Byzantine history of the Laskarid period from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Publications

Journal articles and book chapters

  • “Imagining the Communities of Others: The Case of the Seljuk Turks.” Byzantina Symmeikta 28 (2018): TBA.
  • “Opis i imenovanje Turaka u Istoriji Gerogija Akropolita.” Zbornik Matice Srpske za klasične studije 15 (2013): 189–209. [“Naming and Describing the Turks in The History by Georgios Akropolites.” Journal of Classical Studies Matica Srpska 15 (2013): 189–209.]

Conference presentations

  • “Constructions of Distinct Identity in Lusignan Cyprus.” 25th Biennial Symposium of Modern Greek Studies Association. Stockton University. Galloway (New Jersey, USA). November 2017.
  • “Ioannes III Vatatzes’s Italian Venture: Imperial Agency in the Time of Decline.” 43rd Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. University of Minnesota. Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA). October 2017.
  • “By Deeds and Not Fiction: Courting the Public with Public Infrastructure in Laskarid Asia Minor.” Collectivities, Individuals, Identity, and the Polity: Imagining the Commons in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Simon Fraser University. Vancouver (BC, Canada). February 2017.
  • “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: De-legitimization of the Laskarid Dynasty in George Akropolites’s The History.” 42nd Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Cornell University. Ithaca (New York, USA). October 2016.
  • “Imagined Communities in Middle and Late Byzantine Historiography: The Case of the Seljuk Turks.” Second Annual Western Consortium for Hellenic Studies Graduate Student Conference. Simon Fraser University. Vancouver (BC, Canada). April 2016.
  • “Turks or New Persians? Seljuk Turkish Identity in Byzantine Historiography.” 41st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Columbia, Fordham, CUNY. New York City (New York, USA). October 2015.
  • “Orientalizing Byzantium: Perceptions of the Byzantine Empire in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Western European Historical Narratives.” 24th Biennial Symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association. Georgia State University. Atlanta (Georgia, USA). October 2015.
  • “Conceptions of Byzantium in the Works of Lord Byron and John Cam Hobhouse.” The 10th International Student Byron Conference. The Messolonghi Byron Society. Messolonghi (Greece). May 2015.
  • “Seljuk Turks: The Contemporaneous Persians––Usage of the Classical Ethnonym Persians in George Akropolites’s History.” Inaugural Annual Western Consortium for Hellenic Studies Graduate Student Conference. University of California San. San Diego (California, USA). April 2015.
  • “Praise of a Teacher or Periautology?: Theodore II Laskaris’ Self-Representation in the Encomium of George Akropolites.” 40th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Simon Fraser University. Vancouver (BC, Canada). November 2014.
  • “Slavs in the Commonwealth of George Akropolites.” International Scientific Symposium: Macedonia and the Balkans in the Byzantine Commonwealth. Euro-Balkan University. Skopje (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). October 2013.

Select awards

  • 2017, SFU Travel Grant
  • 2017, SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies Travel Grant
  • 2016, SFU Travel Grant
  • 2016, Graduate Fellowship
  • 2015, SFU Travel Grant
  • 2015, Modern Greek Studies Association Grant
  • 2015, A.G. Leventis Foundation Scholarship for the Medieval Greek Summer Session at the Gennadius Library
  • 2015, The Messolonghi Byron Society Travel Grant
  • 2014–present, C.D. Nelson Memorial Graduate Entrance Scholarship
  • 2014–present, Provost Prize of Distinction (PPD)
  • 2014, Graduate Fellowship (Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies)