Ewan Short

The project examines connections between the gendered visibility of Byzantine imperial women and changes in the urban fabric of the Byzantine centre Constantinople between the tenth and twelfth centuries. While imperial women appear more prominently in sources from this period than in earlier centuries, the causes of this shift remain unclear. The project aims to explain this development by examining how the construction and renewal of imperial-sponsored monumental complexes, alongside the expansion of ceremony, reshaped imperial women’s visibility in the city. The study focuses on imperial wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of reigning or deceased emperors. Although these women spent most of their lives in Constantinople, while emperors were often absent on campaign, their roles in the city have received limited scholarly attention. To address this gap, the project employs a methodological framework based on a database structured around three variables: location, occasion, and audience. The research will culminate in a peer-reviewed article. It will offer new insights into how the spatial constitution of Constantinople shaped imperial women’s roles and visibility in the tenth to twelfth centuries, and offer a transferable framework for further research on women's visibility and power in urban settings in Byzantium, medieval Bulgaria and beyond.