Past Recipients
2023–2024
Rev. Fr. Stefanos Alexopoulos, Catholic University of America
Event: The Liturgies of the Church of Alexandria: From Late-Antique Origins to the Medieval Heritage. Award amount: $5000
The Institute for the Study of Eastern Christianity at The Catholic University of America, with the cooperation of the Liturgy Chair at the University of Regensburg (Germany) and the St. Athanasius and Saint Cyril Coptic Orthodox Theological School, on September 21-23, 2023 organized and hosted the International Symposium “The Liturgies of the Church of Alexandria: From Late-Antique Origins to the Medieval Heritage”.
This international symposium gathered 20 outstanding scholars from all over the world, each the top specialist in their respective fields, and was, globally, the first ever such conference dedicated in such breadth to the investigation of the Liturgy of Alexandria, its origins, its impact and its legacy. It covered the early Alexandrian tradition, the Greek speaking Chalcedonian tradition, the Coptic tradition, the Ethiopian tradition, and the now extinct Nubian tradition, through biblical, liturgical, patristic, and ascetical texts, through papyrus, parchment and paper manuscripts and fragments, through wall inscriptions, and architectural studies. The conference was well received and well attended. Thanks to the excellence of the presentations, the liveliness of the discussions and exchanges, and the originality of the research, the papers of the conference will be published in a volume by the Catholic University of America Press. In this way, this conference will have a lasting impact in the scholarly world and interested scholars may enjoy the wisdom, knowledge, and research shared during the conference.
The two public lectures, one by Maxwell Johnson and one by Bishop Kyrillos, were also live-streamed and are available for viewing on the Institute for the Study of Eastern Christianity's YouTube page.
This conference would not have been possible without the generous support of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.
Additional support was received from the Center for the Study of Early Christianity, the Institute of Christian Oriental Research and the Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies, all at The Catholic University of America, Dumbarton Oaks, the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society, St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, St. Philopater Coptic Orthodox Church, and Meda Coffee and Kitchen Ethiopian Restaurant.
2022–2023
Sharon E. J. Gerstel, UCLA
Event: Byzantium and the Generation of the 1930s. Award amount: $2500