The Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity (CSLA) fosters interdisciplinary discussion and cooperation among University members who study the period extending from 200 to 800 CE in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Comprised of specialists in history, classics, religion, art and archaeology, and Near Eastern studies, the CSLA provides a forum for discussion among students, faculty, visiting scholars, and members of the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton Theological Seminary. The committee also organizes a program of public lectures, often in collaboration with other departments and programs.
The CSLA is under the aegis of the Council of the Humanities.
Upcoming Events
There are over 150 metrical homilies commonly attributed to the fifth-century Syriac poet, Isaac of Antioch, although in fact this corpus seems to consist of the works by four different poets named Isaac. In this lecture Prof. Becker will provide a survey of the corpus as a whole, including a discussion of its transmission history, and discuss…
This lecture distills Schmidt’s book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ (Oxford University Press, 2025), which brings to light an extraordinary connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish historian Josephus. Writing in 93/94 CE, Josephus composed an account of Jesus known as the Testimonium…
Despite the publication of the foundational studies of Erwand Ter-Minassiantz of relations between the Syriac and Armenian churches more than a century ago, contacts between Syriac and Armenian Christianities are still marginalized. In this talk I will argue the case for the emerging field of Syro-Armenian studies, addressing some key events…
Announcements
Worlds of Byzantium offers a new understanding of what it means to study the history and visual culture of the Byzantine empire during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Arguing that linguistic and cultural frontiers do not always coincide with political ones, it suggests that Byzantine studies should look not only within but also beyond the…
Women have bodies. They live in them, and they experience the world through them. In Season 2, Women Who Went Before follows an ancient woman’s life cycle, tracing her…
John Ladouceur, a graduate student in the Department of Religion, won the prize for his paper "'At What Time Was This Revelation Made?’: The Apocalypse of Paul and Theodosian Religious Politics". The prize is given annually to the best graduate student essay on any subject relating to the study of Late Antiquity.
