Leslie Brubaker (born 1951) is an expert in

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

illustrated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s. She was appointed Professor of

Byzantine Art Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...

at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 2005, and is now Professor Emerita. Her research interests includes female

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s and the

cult of the Virgin Mary In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This s ...

. She was formerly the head of Postgraduate Studies in the College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham. Professor Brubaker is the Chair of the

Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (SPBS) is a scholarly society established in 1983 "with the object of furthering study and knowledge of the history and culture, language and literature of the Byzantine Empire and its neighbours" ...

. Her work is widely stocked in libraries around the world.

Biography

Brubaker was educated at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, USA, where she obtained her BA in 1972 and then an MA in 1976. Brubaker continued on to complete her PhD at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. Her PhD thesis was entitled 'The Illustrated Copy of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. gr. 510)' (in two volumes). Brubaker was simultaneously employed as an instructor in the Department of Art,

Wheaton College, Massachusetts Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts. Wheaton was founded in 1834 as a female seminary. The trustees officially changed the name of the Wheaton Female Seminary to Wheaton College in 1912 after receiving ...

between 1981 and 1983. She became an Assistant (1983-1990) and then Associate Professor (1990–93) in the Department of Art, Wheaton College, while also serving as Chair at the college in 1993-94. In 1994, Brubaker moved to the

in England, where she has continued her research and teaching career up until the present day; in 2005, she was appointed as Professor of Byzantine Art History. She arranged to share the position with Dr

Ruth Macrides Ruth Iouliani (Juliana) Macrides (1949 – 27 April 2019) was a UK-based historian of the Byzantine Empire. At the time of her death, she was Reader in Byzantine Studies at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Greek Studies at the University of B ...

, so enabling both women to do research and "have a life". From 2003, she has served as the Director of the Centre Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies (founded by

Anthony Bryer Anthony Applemore Mornington Bryer (31 October 1937 – 22 October 2016) FSA FRHistS was a British historian of the Byzantine Empire and founder of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham. Bio ...

) at the University of Birmingham, and from 2005 to 2009 as the Assistant Director (Research) of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity. In 1990, she married Professor

Christopher Wickham Christopher John Wickham, (born 18 May 1950) is a British historian and academic. From 2005 to 2016, he was Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford: he is now emeritus professor ...

, an early medieval scholar.

Research

Brubaker began as an expert in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, writing a pathbreaking book on one manuscript, Paris Grec. 510, in her ''Vision and Meaning''. Her interests have extended since to the cultural history of

Iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...

and the development of the cult of icons, on which she wrote two now-basic books on the subject with John Haldon. She has written substantially on the relationship between material culture and its visual expressions, and other aspects of cultural history, including visual and textual representations of gender, and female patronage. She has been fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, first in 1980-81 as a Junior Fellow, a Summer Fellow in 1984 and a Spring Fellow in 2001 and 2016. Her research into icons, relics and the proliferation of the cult of the Virgin Mary (known as the

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...

) in Byzantium developed into a major research project subsidized by an

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts an ...

grant and the International Iconoclasms network, led by Brubaker with Dr Richard Clay (University of Birmingham), in collaboration with the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

. 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 ...

in her honour was published in 2011. In November 2022, an event will be held, ‘Seeing Through Byzantium’, that celebrates the career and scholarship of Brubaker as Professor Emerita of Byzantine Art History and Director of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies.

Publications

Monographs

* ''Vision and meaning in ninth-century Byzantium: Image as exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999). Pp 489. Reprinted 2001. Re-issued in paperback edition 2008. * ''Byzantium in the Iconoclast era (ca 680 - ca 850): The Sources'' (Aldershot, 2001), with JF Haldon. Pp 307. * ''Gender and the Transformation of the Roman World, 300-900'' (2003) * ''Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004), with J Smith. Pp 333. * ''Byzantium in the Iconoclast era ca 680 – ca 850: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011), with JF Haldon. Pp xxiv + 917. * ''The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images'' (Ashgate, 2011), with M Cunningham. * ''Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm'' (2012)

References

External links