Decolonizing Byzantine Studies

Is it a Thing?

Caveat:

After some fruitful conversations about my dissertation proposal (SG and BDW, thank you), this past week has reinvigorated me to get cracking and write my dissertation proposal. Therefore, let's write a blog post instead. I want to start another little series called Word Salad. This is inspired by my beautiful niece who, in her toddler years...even now at 5, would conjure up word salads of mystical beings, imaginary characters, and fictitious events with a sprinkle of random adjectives into a non-cohesive jumble that one could only scrunch up their face, chuckle and admire her daring sense of exploration to master the English language. It is about spilling ideas onto a page without fear and hoping that some constructive feedback may blossom. Thus, the following is more about spilling my guts out to get thoughts on a page. IT IS GOING TO BE A WORD SALAD.

Begin Post:

In today's post, I want to discuss decolonization, specifically, what it means for Byzantine studies. In 2023, a friend who thought it might be informative for my research interests recommended an edited volume by Benjamin Anderson and Mirela Ivanova. She was very correct. Thank you, ALM. The book, Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline: Toward a Critical Historiography, is a collection of concise essays that bring to focus decolonizing discourse that is in its infancy to a field whose variety and breadth of topics intersect with all manners of humanities disciplines (i.e. Archaeology, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Art History, etc., etc.). The book's aim is not to say either "yes" or "no" to the question at hand but to initiate dialogue around Byzantine studies as a field that fits into both the colonized and colonizing categories. And as the editors state, they do not pretend that their volume will save (nor damn) the field but highlight the field's unique character (Anderson and Ivanova: 1-2). Needless to say, the scope is broad but encapsulates the unique position in which this field sits while highlighting the much-needed self-reflection that has only begun to take place. Byzantine Studies' current engagement with decolonization and post-colonial critique is ephemeral. Though many scholars have applied post-colonial theory and critique to their research, there is much to do, and the field has been slow to engage in the broader discourse that many other fields have been reconciling with, especially here in Canada. PS: There are no essays about numismatics/coins in this book. That in itself speaks a lot about the field of numismatics.

Another article I recently read was Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor (Tuck and Yang 2012). Though the article is over ten years old, it has confirmed some of my thoughts on the term decolonize/decolonization while making me reconsider some of my critiques about the process of decolonization. Processes will be the central focus of my dissertation, and I will address the processes involved in performing "Byzantine" numismatic research via an introspection of my research on a coin's minting, use, deposition into the archaeological record, excavation, conservation, curation and deposition into the modern archaeological record; the museum. (Word Salad! Did any of that make sense?)

What does this all mean? Well, one consideration I will explore is coins as a form of colonial pollution within a larger ecosystem of post-colonial critique. Thank you, BDW, for recommending Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron. The thrust of the dissertation is to re-think what decolonization means to the processes that lead to the presentation of an ancient and medieval coin to the general public. My supervisor and I had a lengthy and productive conversation about this concept in relation to my research and proposal. We decided that the metaphor of coins as pollution, like microplastics in the ocean, is an excellent choice. Like microplastics, coins can never be entirely removed from the ecosystem and, by extension, will continually perpetuate colonial ideologies within the North American context. Consequently, the ecosystem can never be fully restored to its pre-colonial contact state. Thus, decolonization must be reframed when considering its metaphysical and geographical context in relation to Byzantine numismatics. The language used to decolonize must be adapted not to encompass, dare I say, a finality, as I do not believe a finality can be reached. Decolonization is a process. A process that will never be finished for a multitude of reasons; it has different meanings to different people in many contexts. So, my research question will be: What does a Byzantine coin mean to the public in a Canadian context? Broad; yes. Complex; very. Doable; meh...we will find out.

Citations:

Anderson, Benjamin and Mirela Ivanova. Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline: Toward a Critical Historiography. The Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2023.

Tuck, Eve, and K Wayne Yang. ‘Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor’, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 1, No. 1, (2012): 1-40.