Assoc. Prof. Luca Zavagno of the Department of Archaeology and the Department of History will serve as a key collaborator and coordinator of the Turkish Unit in the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant project titled “Byz-GOVAG—Agents of Cohesion in the Governance of an Empire: The Anthropogeography of Byzantium, 7th to 12th Centuries.”
The project, awarded under the ERC Advanced Grant 2024 call, is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Olga Karagiorgou of the Academy of Athens and was selected under the SH6 (The Study of the Human Past) panel. The project explores how cohesion was maintained across the vast and diverse Byzantine Empire through the study of individuals, institutions and infrastructures that formed the anthropogeographic landscape of governance between the 7th and 12th centuries.
Dr. Zavagno will coordinate the project’s Turkish research component, bringing his expertise in Byzantine urbanism, islandscapes and Mediterranean connectivity to the international effort.
The aim of Byz-GOVAG, under the supervision of Dr. Karagiorgou, is to create a comprehensive anthropogeographic map of the Byzantine Empire’s administrative framework, identifying key “agents of cohesion” that ensured imperial continuity over centuries.
The ERC Advanced Grant, one of the EU’s most competitive and prestigious funding instruments, will enable a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research team to collaborate across borders. Dr. Zavagno’s involvement affirms Bilkent University’s position as a hub for innovative, high-level scholarship in Byzantine and Mediterranean studies.
Bilkent University congratulates Dr. Zavagno on his key role in this significant international collaboration and looks forward to the valuable contributions this project will bring to the field of Byzantine history.
