Elisabeth Mincin

Email: ecm34@st-andrews.ac.uk

I completed an undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews in 2010, gaining an MA(Hons) 1st Class in Mediaeval History and focusing a fourth year dissertation on the self-identity of dualist heretics in the High Middle Ages through a comparison of the creation mythology of eastern Bogomils to western Cathars. I then went on to complete an MSt in Medieval History at the University of Oxford, where I turned my focus more distinctly to the East, examining the creation of social boundaries evidenced in Byzantine monastic foundation documents (typika). Now having returned to St Andrews to complete a PhD under the supervision of Dr Tim Greenwood, I am combining my past experience of heresiography and more general 'outsider' studies. 

My primary interest is in the social perception of heresy and the theory underlying the construction of 'outsiders'. My thesis aims to examine Byzantine heresy from the 10th through 12th centuries through a literary critical lense in hopes of discerning authorial frameworks used in the expression of heterodox persons and movements (particular attention being paid to the motif of heresy as disease). I believe such an exploration can help to shed light on the thought-world of Middle Byzantine society and also enable a deeper understanding of Orthodoxy

Thesis Title: 'Curing the Common Soul: Rethinking Byzantine heresy with particular focus on literary motifs (10th -12th century)'
Supervisor: Dr. Tim Greenwood

Publications:

  • "'More Male than Men': Examining the Perception and Presentation of Female Sanctity Across the Early Mediaeval Mediterranean (6th-10th Century)" (In preparation)
  • "The Alexiad's Presentation of Heresy" in Sententiae: The Harvard Undergraduate Journal of Medieval Studies, Vol. 2 (2010)

Papers: 

  • "Rules to live by: the significance of punishment motifs within typika as an active creation and consolidation of 'insider' versus 'outsider' figures" at IMC, Leeds (July 2012)
  • "John Italos and 'Intellectual' Heresy: 'Being In Between' Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy in Later Eleventh-Century Byzantium" at 45th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford (March 2012)
  • "Maintaining the Orthodox Mirage: Combatting Intellectual Heresy in Eleventh-Century Byzantium" at Oxford Byzantine Society Graduate Conference, Oxford (February 2012)
  • "'More Male than Men': Examining the Perception and Presentation of Female Sanctity Across the Early Mediaeval Mediterranean (6th-10th Century)" at Shield Maidens and Sacred Mothers Conference, Cardiff (October 2011)
  • "Byzantine Perceptions of Outsiders and Constructions of Boundaries in the 11th and 12th Century: Evidence of Typika" at 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Sofia (August 2011)
  • "Truth and Topos: A Literary Critical Examination of Heresy's Threat to the Merovingian Kingdoms in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries" at St Andrews/Oxford Masters Student Exchange Conference: "Pagans, Heretics and Outcasts: The 'Other' in the Middle Ages" (May 2011)
  • "'More Male than Men': Examining the Perception and Presentation of Female Sanctity Across the Early Mediaeval Mediterranean (6th-10th Century" at Oriens meets Occidens Conference, St Andrews (March 2011)

Other:

Co-founder and organiser of the St Andrews/Oxford Masters Student Exchange Conference: "Pagans, Heretics and Outcasts: The 'Other' in the Middle Ages"