Maroula Perisanidi
Biographic Data
| ID | 972591 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maroula Perisanidi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maroula |
| FAMILY NAME | Perisanidi |
| SIGNATURE | PERISANIDI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7077-8497 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Transmisogyny, Ableism and Compulsory Cisness
This article uses case studies from Byzantium to demonstrate a new trans framework for gendered historical analysis that recognizes identity as both fluid and painful. Instead of placing the emphasis on whether or not we can call an individual trans, it explores the forces that produced cisness, and the cis and trans lives people carved out amidst them. We find ableism and transmisogyny at the heart of three important pieces of trans history from…
Historicising trans pasts
To be present in history, even as nothing more than a chuckle, was a universe away from being absent from it, from being written out of it altogether. A chuckle, after all, could become a foothold in the sheer wall of the future. In Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Ustad Kulsoom Bi frequently takes the new initiates of her hijra household to a Sound and Light show at the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, India.2 At one moment…
Teaching monastic masculinity with the Colloquy of Ælfric of Eynsham
I focus on the Colloquy of Ælfric of Eynsham to show how it contributed to gender formation by teaching boys not only Latin, but also what it meant to be a man of the monastery. I discuss how the professions the boys role‐played encouraged them to think of the monk as the most masculine option, and how verbal experimentation allowed their violent impulses to be redirected from physical towards intellectual outlets. In doing so, I reveal the rheto…
Religious masculinities in William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum
William's revenant stories, far from being oddities, fit well within the Historia rerum Anglicarum and can be read as reformist models of masculine behaviour. They present the reader with negative examples, such as clerics who acted in inappropriate ways and got their rightful punishment, as well as positive examples of men who not only stayed faithful to the precepts of the church but bolstered their masculinity by doing so. Reading the revenant…
Belonging beyond the binary
While the majority of Western legal systems continue to insist on the existence of only two genders, a demand for the recognition of non‐binary gender identities has become increasingly visible. Numerous individuals have gone to court demanding recognition of their identities beyond the binary, with varying degrees of success. This article provides a novel lens through which to consider these contemporary legal claims. Through an exploration of h…
Homeric scholarship in the pulpit
Many classicists are familiar with Eustathius (c.1115–95) through his huge Homeric commentaries or Parekbolai. He is thought to have composed these, along with studies of Pindar, Aristophanes, and Dionysius the Periegete, while working as a teacher in Constantinople, and he continued to revise them later in life while Archbishop of Thessalonike.1 Quite different parts of Eustathius’ output, however, have attracted attention from Byzantinists, par…
Byzantine Parades of Infamy through an Animal Lens
In this article, I discuss humiliation parades as described by eleventh-century Byzantine historians, focusing on the role of mules and donkeys in them. More specifically, I examine how the presence of these equids could change the meaning of a scene in the works of Michael Attaleiates, John Skylitzes, and Michael Psellos. I argue that, as the social and religious connotations of mules and donkeys interacted with the social and religious status o…
Was There a Marital Debt in Byzantium
According to Western canonists, husband and wife had a debt towards one another: they were obliged to render sexual intercourse on demand. This article looks at the differences and similarities of the ‘marital debt’ in Byzantium and the West in order to evaluate whether this concept can be applied to Byzantine couples. It argues that, contrary to the West, in Byzantium there was no fixed linguistic terminology or sophisticated rules to describe a…
Should we Abstain? Spousal Equality in Twelfth‐century Byzantine Canon Law
Spousal equality was not an ideal to which medieval societies generally aspired. Discussions about social order advocated a strict hierarchical structure: the man was to be the head of the household and the master of his wife. Did this subservient state of the wife extend to all spheres of family life or was there a space where spouses could act as equals? In this article I focus on one aspect of Byzantine spousal relations: the marital bed. I ar…
Entertainment in the twelfth-century canonical commentaries
In this article I analyse the twelfth-century commentaries of Aristenos, Zonaras, and Balsamon on canons that prohibited certain forms of entertainment to clerics and/or laymen. Only when their commentaries are studied as a whole, does a pattern in their treatment become clear: they sought to minimize any distinctions between laity and clergy found in the original canons. This gives us a rare glimpse into lay and clerical interactions and reinfor…
Historicising trans pasts
To be present in history, even as nothing more than a chuckle, was a universe away from being absent from it, from being written out of it altogether. A chuckle, after all, could become a foothold in the sheer wall of the future. In Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Ustad Kulsoom Bi frequently takes the new initiates of her hijra household to a Sound and Light show at the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, India.2 At one moment…
Belonging beyond the binary
While the majority of Western legal systems continue to insist on the existence of only two genders, a demand for the recognition of non‐binary gender identities has become increasingly visible. Numerous individuals have gone to court demanding recognition of their identities beyond the binary, with varying degrees of success. This article provides a novel lens through which to consider these contemporary legal claims. Through an exploration of h…
Was There a Marital Debt in Byzantium
According to Western canonists, husband and wife had a debt towards one another: they were obliged to render sexual intercourse on demand. This article looks at the differences and similarities of the ‘marital debt’ in Byzantium and the West in order to evaluate whether this concept can be applied to Byzantine couples. It argues that, contrary to the West, in Byzantium there was no fixed linguistic terminology or sophisticated rules to describe a…
Entertainment in the twelfth-century canonical commentaries
In this article I analyse the twelfth-century commentaries of Aristenos, Zonaras, and Balsamon on canons that prohibited certain forms of entertainment to clerics and/or laymen. Only when their commentaries are studied as a whole, does a pattern in their treatment become clear: they sought to minimize any distinctions between laity and clergy found in the original canons. This gives us a rare glimpse into lay and clerical interactions and reinfor…
Entertainment in the twelfth-century canonical commentaries
In this article I analyse the twelfth-century commentaries of Aristenos, Zonaras, and Balsamon on canons that prohibited certain forms of entertainment to clerics and/or laymen. Only when their commentaries are studied as a whole, does a pattern in their treatment become clear: they sought to minimize any distinctions between laity and clergy found in the original canons. This gives us a rare glimpse into lay and clerical interactions and reinfor…
Should we Abstain? Spousal Equality in Twelfth‐century Byzantine Canon Law
Spousal equality was not an ideal to which medieval societies generally aspired. Discussions about social order advocated a strict hierarchical structure: the man was to be the head of the household and the master of his wife. Did this subservient state of the wife extend to all spheres of family life or was there a space where spouses could act as equals? In this article I focus on one aspect of Byzantine spousal relations: the marital bed. I ar…
Was There a Marital Debt in Byzantium
According to Western canonists, husband and wife had a debt towards one another: they were obliged to render sexual intercourse on demand. This article looks at the differences and similarities of the ‘marital debt’ in Byzantium and the West in order to evaluate whether this concept can be applied to Byzantine couples. It argues that, contrary to the West, in Byzantium there was no fixed linguistic terminology or sophisticated rules to describe a…
Belonging beyond the binary
While the majority of Western legal systems continue to insist on the existence of only two genders, a demand for the recognition of non‐binary gender identities has become increasingly visible. Numerous individuals have gone to court demanding recognition of their identities beyond the binary, with varying degrees of success. This article provides a novel lens through which to consider these contemporary legal claims. Through an exploration of h…
Homeric scholarship in the pulpit
Many classicists are familiar with Eustathius (c.1115–95) through his huge Homeric commentaries or Parekbolai. He is thought to have composed these, along with studies of Pindar, Aristophanes, and Dionysius the Periegete, while working as a teacher in Constantinople, and he continued to revise them later in life while Archbishop of Thessalonike.1 Quite different parts of Eustathius’ output, however, have attracted attention from Byzantinists, par…
Byzantine Parades of Infamy through an Animal Lens
In this article, I discuss humiliation parades as described by eleventh-century Byzantine historians, focusing on the role of mules and donkeys in them. More specifically, I examine how the presence of these equids could change the meaning of a scene in the works of Michael Attaleiates, John Skylitzes, and Michael Psellos. I argue that, as the social and religious connotations of mules and donkeys interacted with the social and religious status o…
Teaching monastic masculinity with the Colloquy of Ælfric of Eynsham
I focus on the Colloquy of Ælfric of Eynsham to show how it contributed to gender formation by teaching boys not only Latin, but also what it meant to be a man of the monastery. I discuss how the professions the boys role‐played encouraged them to think of the monk as the most masculine option, and how verbal experimentation allowed their violent impulses to be redirected from physical towards intellectual outlets. In doing so, I reveal the rheto…
Religious masculinities in William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum
William's revenant stories, far from being oddities, fit well within the Historia rerum Anglicarum and can be read as reformist models of masculine behaviour. They present the reader with negative examples, such as clerics who acted in inappropriate ways and got their rightful punishment, as well as positive examples of men who not only stayed faithful to the precepts of the church but bolstered their masculinity by doing so. Reading the revenant…
Historicising trans pasts
To be present in history, even as nothing more than a chuckle, was a universe away from being absent from it, from being written out of it altogether. A chuckle, after all, could become a foothold in the sheer wall of the future. In Arundhati Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Ustad Kulsoom Bi frequently takes the new initiates of her hijra household to a Sound and Light show at the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, India.2 At one moment…
Transmisogyny, Ableism and Compulsory Cisness
This article uses case studies from Byzantium to demonstrate a new trans framework for gendered historical analysis that recognizes identity as both fluid and painful. Instead of placing the emphasis on whether or not we can call an individual trans, it explores the forces that produced cisness, and the cis and trans lives people carved out amidst them. We find ableism and transmisogyny at the heart of three important pieces of trans history from…
Sociology (8 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Byzantine Studies and History (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Medieval Literature and History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)