Jubal Comms Thread

[Jubal]

Hi, if you need me, this is *yet another* way to contact me. You can also of course PM me or email megadux[at]exilian[dot]co[dot]uk

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm effectively the executive officer of Exilian - whilst I'm not the person formally in charge, I keep most things running day to day. Please ask if there's anything you'd like to know about the site etc. I'm also a historian who specialises in Anatolia, Southeast Europe and (especially) the Caucasus, though mostly in the medieval period rather than RTR-time!

[Vrosivs Avgvstvs Rakvs]

Southeast Europe you say? Have you by any chance got some extensive literature about SE Europe that you could possibly share?
Being a person who's from SE Europe, I can never have enough literature regarding that
Also, I hope you don't mind be asking, did you specialize professionally or as a hobby? Not that it matters nor is one better than the other, just curious

[Jubal]

I've just finished a Master of Research degree, going to spend the next year working towards hopefully getting funding for a doctoral project that I have planned

Essentially my MRes was Byzantine Studies and it's the medieval Byzantine Empire that I mostly know about (and Georgia in the same time period). I certainly have a lot of papers etc on the Komnenian period (roughly 1100 to a bit after 1200) saved and sitting around. I also have permanent lifetime access to the JSTOR online archive of papers which can be helpful - the university where I got my undergraduate degree gives JSTOR access to all graduates which is pretty useful.

Where in SE Europe are you from?

[Vrosivs Avgvstvs Rakvs]

Congrats on your Master of Research degree mate!
I'm from Serbia, and I'm interested in any literature on the Balkan Slavs in the medieval era, if you have any to share that would be awesome. Doesn't matter whether it's early or late medieval period really

[Jubal]

Thanks I need to start working on my doctoral project proposal soon; I've got a plan for it, but it's very hard to get any funding for academic research at the moment.

I'll take a look through my files when I get a chance; I'm finding that I've resurfaced from all the thesis work only to find all the things I've been avoiding doing for the last couple of months sitting there as a massive mountain. I should definitely actually visit the central Balkans at some point, we've got a few Exilian members across the region. (I've been to Chalkidike/Thessaloniki and to southern Croatia, but nowhere further inland)

[Vrosivs Avgvstvs Rakvs]

No probs, take your time
Sadly I've never been to southern Croatia, but I intend to, in the near future, if possible. Likewise for Thessaloniki.
But yeah, if you ever find yourself in Serbia and need any kind of help or just a beer or two or ten, give me a call

[Vrosivs Avgvstvs Rakvs]

Here's a few interesting places you should visit should you ever find yourself in Serbia that I could think of off the top of my head:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamzigrad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viminacium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepenski_Vir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golubac_Fortress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90avolja_Varo%C5%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studenica_Monastery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stari_Ras

[Mausolos of Caria]

Thanks I need to start working on my doctoral project proposal soon; I've got a plan for it, but it's very hard to get any funding for academic research at the moment.

Oh yeah... I am working on my PhD, but I get no money for it, so I am not sure if I will even be able to finish it. I've already applied for scholarships from four different organisations, but to no avail. There is two more I could get one from, so I hope that will work. If not, there don't even seem to be too many alternatives really. PhD posts seem to be rare, I only found two- one in Cologne, but I am not sure if my topic would fit the theoretical frame, and one in Galway, where I am not sure if any of the supervisors would fit. So even if I wanted to move, it's difficult. And I really find it a great shame, when people talk about ''promoting our talented youth'' all the time, but then there's so little money for the humanities...


So, just saying, I understand your situation    Take your time and see if you can find the funding, and if not, be aware that you could end up needing to work in a side job, which will also extend the length of the PhD (time wise).


@Vrosivs


We have a Serbian visiting professor at our university since last year, who is a nice chap, but he's working on topics about Classic Athens rather than Roman Serbia 

[ahowl11]

So about that free access to JSTOR... We could really find that useful!

[Jubal]

@Vrosivs: Thankyou! It's definitely on the list I think Georgia may rank higher at the moment... just need to ensure I have enough money for travelling somehow!

@Mausolos: Yes, it's tough. Where are you from/based (and am I right in assuming you're a classicist/ancient historian?)

@Ahowl: Certainly - if people let me know papers they want I'm very happy to try and track them down

[Mausolos of Caria]

@Mausolos: Yes, it's tough. Where are you from/based (and am I right in assuming you're a classicist/ancient historian?)

Yes, I am indeed an ancient historian as well (I reckon the chances for money would be better if I was not, especially if I would be doing some Modern Gender studies nonsense). I am from Germany, my university actually lies right in the Teutoburg Forest 


Btw, one of my friends was in Georgia and found Tiflis very dodgy    He wanted to go and see a funicular in the mountains nearby, which was recommended on Tripadvisor, and after surviving a very weird taxi drive from the airport to the hotel when he arrived he asked the hotel personnel about the funicular. The guy at the reception was like ''Oh, yeah, we used to have that, but it crashed in 2009 and killed 40 people.'' (!)


My friend went to Armenia after that and liked Yerevan much better.

[Jubal]

Yes, it's apparently something of an irony that modern Georgia may be rather more insular than it was in the late twelfth century... it does have some gorgeous monuments still though, especially Vardzia.