"Kolloquium für Doktoranden und Fortgeschrittene Masterstudenten der Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik an den Universitäten Köln, Mainz und Münster", on July 19th, 2017

A weblog entry by Laura Borghetti

When it comes to academic life, the possibility of exchanging ideas, projects and experiences with colleagues from other universities, cities and countries fully compensates all various struggles that every single PhD student happens to face throughout his/her doctoral path. This very kind of experience was the Therinà Anameikta, namely the Kolloquium für Doktoranden und fortgeschrittene Masterstudenten der Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik an den Universitäten Köln, Mainz und Münster. In the lovely location of the Internationaler Kollege Morphomata in Köln on July the 19th, 2017, PhD and master students coming from the faculties of Byzantine Studies of three eminent German universities had the chance to present their either ongoing or concluded projects in the framework of a friendly academic meeting, moderated by Prof. Dr. Claudia Sode (Universität zu Köln) and in the presence of the special guest Prof. Paul Magdalino (University of St. Andrews).
The participants and the rest of the audience could therefore listen to, for example, the interesting presentation of Martina Filosa, master student in Köln, who was to submit her master thesis in Greek Palaeography a few day later and who, during the meeting, talked about the commentary to the folio 528 in the Psalms manuscript of the Duchess Anna Amalia’s library in Weimar ("Der Psalmenkommentar in der Handschrift Fol. 528 der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar"). On the other side, João Dias, PhD student in Mainz, had the chance to do his first presentation ("Barbaren und Tyrannen in der Anemas-Verschwörung") after successfully submitting his PhD thesis a few weeks before. As one can see, the possibility of exchanging ideas about various topics and projects perfectly matched the chance of confronting ourselves with different phases of the PhD-work and future careers. When it came to me, the Kolloquium in Köln was my first occasion to present my ongoing project and some results – which are still in their very early stage – in front of a very significant part of the German academic community. The friendliness and vivid interest that greeted my presentation, together with several positive and encouraging feedbacks I got both from professors and younger colleagues, made my experience in Köln the most cheerful way to close the first phase of my PhD work before the summer break.

The PhD students of the Mainzer Byzantinistik in Köln: Kai-Chieh Chang, Laura Borghetti and João Dias (Photo by Laura Borghetti) 

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