Alice-Mary Talbot
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Alice-Mary Talbot (born May 16, 1939) is director of
Byzantine studies Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. T ...
emerita,
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...
. Her particular expertise is the social context of Byzantine religious practices, including hagiography, monasticism and gender studies. Much of her work has focused on the edition and translation of Byzantine texts.


Education and career

Talbot received a
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in Classics from Radcliffe College. She completed her
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
and PhD (1970) in Byzantine and Ottoman History at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Her doctoral thesis was entitled ''The correspondence of Athanasius, patriarch of Constantinople (1289–1293; 1303–1309) with the emperor Andronicus II'' (two volumes). Her PhD supervisor was Ihor Ševčenko. Talbot taught at several colleges in
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, as well as being a junior fellow of Byzantine studies (1966–1968) at
Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...
. She was a senior fellow of Byzantine studies (1978–1983) at Dumbarton Oaks, and a Byzantine studies visiting senior research associate (1991–1992). She was the advisor for the Hagiography Project (1992–1997) and the advisor for Byzantine publications (1996–1997). From 1997 to 2009 she was director of Byzantine studies and editor of ''
Dumbarton Oaks Papers Dumbarton Oaks Papers (DOP) is an academic journal founded in 1941 under the auspices of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection for the publication of articles relating to Byzantine society and culture from the 4th to 15th century in ...
.'' She was a senior fellow (ex-officio) of Byzantine Studies (1997–2008). She was the Executive Editor of the
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzant ...
, published in 1991. Talbot's scholarship profoundly influenced the field of Byzantine studies in America and Europe. She has authored four books, is the editor or co-editor of four further books, and is the author of more than seventy articles.(xxi) She was president of the
Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...
during 2011–12.


Honours

In 2010, Talbot was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. In 2012, Talbot was honoured with a
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
, ''Byzantine Religious Culture: Studies in Honor of Alice-Mary Talbot'', published by
Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
. This featured twenty-five contributions, and was edited by Denis Sullivan, Elizabeth A. Fisher, and Stratis Papaioannou. Talbot received an honorary doctorate from the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
in 2015. In his laureation address, Tim Greenwood commented on Talbot that 'in a career spanning more than fifty years, she has profoundly transformed the study of religious culture in the world of Byzantium, both through her own scholarly output and her selfless support of others.'


Selected bibliography


Books

* (edited, translated and commentary by Mary-Alice Talbot) ''The Correspondence of Athanasius I, Patriarch of Constantinople: Letters to the Emperor Andronicus II, members of the imperial family, and officials'' (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1975) * ''Faith Healing in Late Byzantium: The Posthumous Miracles of the Patriarch Athanasios I of Constantinople by Theoktistos the Stoudite'' (Brookline, Mass.: Hellenic College Press, 1983) * ''Women and Religious Life in Byzantium'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001) * (translated with Scott Fitzgerald Johnson) ''Miracle Tales from Byzantium'', Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 12 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012) * (Denis F Sullivan; Alice-Mary Talbot; George T. Dennis) ''The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century'' (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 2017)


Edited works

* (edited with
Alexander Kazhdan Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan (russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Кажда́н; 3 September 1922 – 29 May 1997) was a Soviet-American Byzantinist. Among his publications was the three-volume ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', a com ...
, et al.) Executive Editor of ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', 3 vols. (New York, 1991) * ''Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation'' (Washington D.C, 1996) * ''Byzantine Defenders of Images: Eight Saints' Lives in English Translation'' (Washington D.C, 1998) * (edited with
Arietta Papaconstantinou Arietta Papaconstantinou is Reader in Classics at the University of Reading and Associate Faculty Member in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. She is an expert in the religious, social and economic history of Egypt and the Near ...
) ''Becoming Byzantine: Children and Childhood in Byzantium'' (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2009) * (edited with Richard P. H. Greenfield) ''Holy Men of Mount Athos'', Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 40 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016)


References


External links

*
Academia Profile Page

Lecture by Alice-Mary Talbot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot, Alice-Mary 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians American Byzantinists Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Radcliffe College alumni Living people 1939 births Scholars of Byzantine history Women Byzantinists Women medievalists