Professor Volker Menze

Education:

  • PhD (Princeton University 2004)
  • Masters of Arts (Princeton University 2001)

Academic experience:

  • Accredited to teach in Church History and Theology, Nisibis Assyrian Theological College (2026-)
  • Head of Department, Department of Historical Studies, Central European University, Vienna (2024-)
  • Professor of Late Antique Studies, Department of Historical Studies, Central European University, Vienna (2023-)
  • PhD-director, Medieval Studies Department, Central European University, Vienna (2021-2023)
  • Director of the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Central European University, Budapest (2011-2017)
  • Associate Professor for Late Antique Studies, Central European University, Budapest (2010-2023)
  • Wissenschaftlicher Assistent (C 1), Seminar für Alte Geschichte, WWU Münster (2004-2009)
  • Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Seminar für Alte Geschichte, WWU Münster (2004)
  • Preceptor (Teaching Assistant) for Western Civilization, History Department, Princeton University (2002-2003)

Publications:

Books

  • Menze, V. Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria: The Last Pharaoh and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Later Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. [OUP licensed Arabic translation in 2023]
  • Menze, V. Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Edited volumes and translations

  • Menze, V., and R. Mustata, trans. The Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 (The ‘Robber-Council’). Translated Text for Historians. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (under contract & in preparation).
  • Menze, V., and R. Price, trans. Alexander of Hierapolis and the ‘Nestorian Controversy’: Select Letters from the Collectio Casinensis. Translated Text for Historians. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (under contract & in preparation).
  • Menze, V., and D. Rockwell, eds. From Ctesiphon to Toledo: A Comparative View on Early Church Councils in East and West. In Annales Historiae Conciliorum 53.1 (2023).
  • Menze, V., and J. Hahn, eds. The Wandering Holy Man: The Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020.
  • Menze, V., N. Gaul, and C. Bálint, eds. Centre and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: from De cerimoniis to De administrando imperio, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2018.
  • Menze, V., and K. Akalın, eds. John of Tella’s Profession of Faith: The Legacy of a Sixth-Century Syrian Orthodox Bishop. Texts from Christian Late Antiquity 25. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2009.

Book chapters (selection)

  • Menze, V. “Political Theologies in East and West.” In: The Cambridge History of Early Christian Theology: From Its Origins to ca. 800 AD. Ed. Lewis Ayres. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press).
  • Menze, V. “The Last Pharaoh’s Afterlife: Patriarch Dioscorus’ Sanctification in Non-Chalcedonian Ecclesiastical Traditions.” In: Documenting the Challenges of the Late Antique Miaphysite Church. Ed. Philippe Blaudeau and Peter van Nuffelen. Leiden: Brill, 2026, 17-40.
  • Menze, V. “The Quest for an Ecclesiology. The Ariminian-Visigothic Church in 6th-Century Iberia.” In Governance in Iberia and North Africa in the Long Late Antiquity. Ed. Sabine Panzram. Leiden: Brill, 2025, 142-165.
  • Menze, V. “The Christian Near East in Late Antiquity.” In: Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Ed. Rubina Raja. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025, 421-434.
  • Menze, V. “The Near East in the Time of the Tetrarchy and Constantine I (284-337 AD).” In Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Ed. Rubina Raja. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2025, 387-400.
  • Menze, V. “Süryani Ortodoks Kilisesi’nin Ortaya Çıkışı: Dinî Kimliğe Dair Arayış.” [The Beginnings of the Syrian Orthodox Church: in Search for an Ecclesiastical Identity]. In Süryaniler: Kimlik, Din, Literatür. Ed. Z. Duygu, K. Akalın, and U. Var. İstanbul: Selenge, 2023, 111-134.
  • Menze, V. “Blessings, Bribes & Bishops: Cyril of Alexandria, the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Making of Orthodoxy.” In The Dangers of Gifts from Antiquity to the Digital Age. Ed. A. Urakova, T. Sowerby, and T. Sala. London: Routledge, 2022, 48-64.
  • Menze, V. “Das Konzil als Instrument imperialer Politik: die Reorganisation der Kirchengeschichte und der Kirchenordnung durch Chalkedon.” In Konzilien und Kanonisches Recht in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter, Aspekte konziliarer Entscheidungsfindung. Ed. W. Brandes, A. Hasse-Ungeheuer, and H. Leppin. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020, 41-55.
  • Menze, V. “Introduction.” In The Wandering Holy Man: the Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine. Ed. J. Hahn and V. Menze. Oakland: California University Press, 2020, 1-24.

Dictionary and encyclopaedia entries

  • Menze, V. “Miaphysites.” In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Ed. P. J. J. van Geest et al. Leiden: Brill, 2024. Vol. 4, 553-562.
  • Menze, V. “Ariminian Churches in the Germanic Kingdoms.” In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Ed. P. J. J. van Geest et al. Leiden: Brill, 2024. Vol. 1, 548-553.
  • Menze, V. “Justinian.” In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Ed. P. J. J. van Geest et al. Leiden: Brill, 2024. Vol. 4, 188-190.
  • Menze, V. “Chalcedonian Controversy,” “Jacob Baradaios,” “Peter the Iberian,” “Severus of Antioch.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Ed. Roger S. Bagnall et al. Oxford: Blackwell 2013.
  • Menze, V. “John of Tella.” In The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Ed. S. Brock et al. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2011, 447-448.

Professional affiliations and activities:

  • Member of Gesellschaft für Konziliengeschichtsforschung (2024-)
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the series “Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages” (first Amsterdam University Press, now Routledge) (2016-)
  • Associate editor of the journal Religion in the Roman Empire (Mohr-Siebeck) (2014-)

Other activities:

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