Andrew Palmer

Experience

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  Christ's College Cambridge

  Sept 1982 - Jul 1984

  Junior Research Fellow

  Research: Working up my doctorate into a book. Teaching (limited): Freelance tutorials in Greek and Latin Prose Composition and in Classical Syriac.

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  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

  Aug 1984 - Jun 1986

  Stipendiat (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow)

  Research: I worked up my doctoral thesis into the book which would eventually be published as: Monk and mason on the Tigris frontier: the early history of Tur 'Abdin, Cambridge University Oriental Publications 39, Cambridge: CUP, 1990. This book is now available online at archive.org, the copyright having reverted to me when CUP declined to reprint it.

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  Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

  Jul 1986 - Aug 1993

  University Lecturer Byzantinology

  I taught the social anthropology and politics of Modern Greece, the history of Greece since it obtained independence from Turkey in 1830, the history of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires (300-1922) and the history of the Greek Orthodox Church from the birth of Christianity to the present day. At M. A. level I led a seminar on Byzantine Syria. I was deeply involved with curriculum development, which I saw as the key to the survival of my department. For two years I sat on the Faculty Board. I organized events, such as the Byzantine film festival. Show less

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  School of Oriental and African Studies

  Sept 1993 - Dec 1998

  University Lecturer in Christianity with special reference to Asia

  Teaching: Undergraduate: Approaches to the Study of Religion, Religions of Asia and Africa (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Introduction to Christianity. Masters: Eastern Christianity, Syriac Christianity, Syriac. Research: Syria and Byzantium (especially Ephraim of Nisibis, the Abgar Legend); Religious Ethnography (Oral Religious Traditions of Tur Abdin). Research supervision: among other successful doctoral theses, I supervised one on the bema in Syrian churches and another on Ethiopian monasticism. Administration: Tutor for Postgraduate Studies (convenor of Research Skills Seminar); Departmental ICT Representative; Personal Tutor to a number of students; member of the Missionary Archives Committee. Other: I was a tireless organiser of events, including annual extra-mural evening lectures, a two-month festival of Eastern Christianity in London and exhibitions of Eastern Christian art and artefacts, including one on manuscripts and inscriptions in Syriac. Show less

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  Windlesham House School Limited

  Jan 1999 - Dec 2000

  Head of Classics

  The title flatters, as I was the only Latin teacher and neither Greek nor Classical Civilisation were on the curriculum. I taught boys and girls aged from nine to twelve years. The aim was to prepare them for the Common Entrance examination, giving access to independent secondary schools. Windlesham House is an independent preparatory school. It is also a boarding school, which meant, for me, that I had other duties apart from teaching. Of these the most enjoyable were the non-academic activities which I was allowed to organize. These ranged from walks on the Sussex Downs, through singing Beatles' songs in Latin, to filming a musical with the Headmaster's dog on the beach at Worthing. One professional actress (Tamzin Merchant) first discovered her talent as 'Annie' in my film-club. Alice Ferguson had the idea of writing a form-play about Romeo and Juliet, but changing Shakespeare's plot by making the families (the Upyougets and the Offyougoes) eager to get the two young people, who detested each other, married. In the school's end-of-year drama-festival this play, directed by me, was one of the main talking-points. My form won an award for collective effort during the year I was there. Show less

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  Self

  Jan 2000 - Jul 2000

  Jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-ONE

  I was a private tutor in languages and literature, coaching pupils out of school in Latin, Italian and English to 'A'-level. This was the one trade of which I claimed to be a master. I also earned money by gardening, by acting as caretaker of the village hall, by supervising young children while doing their homework and other activities after school and by translating a book from Italian into English.

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  Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

  Aug 2000 - Jul 2002

  I taught, researched, supervised research students, sat on the department board and organized various activities. My courses (all at M. A. level) were on the Bible in the Middle Ages, the Middle East in the Middle Ages, Semitic Christianity and the Syriac language. I supervised Ph. D. research on the Greek legend of Abgar and M. A. research on the transmission and transmutation of Ephraim the Syrian in Greek and Slavonic, Byzantine humour and other subjects. Among other activities, I directed a performance of a Medieval Mystery Play. Show less

  • Academic Writing Instructor, Department of Environmental Studies

    Aug 2001 - Jul 2002

  • Visiting Professor of Medieval Studies

    Aug 2000 - Jul 2001
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  Saint Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, M. Ghandi University of Kottayam

  Aug 2002 - Dec 2002

  Visiting Professor of Syriac

  Teaching, research, research supervision. Courses: Syriac language, Secular literature in Syriac with special reference to the Wisdom of Ahiqar, Ephraim the Syrian with special reference to the Commentary on Genesis.

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  The University of Chicago

  Apr 2003 - Apr 2003

  Guest Lecturer

  I was a guest of the University of Chicago and of Tom Wheatley and Linda Irving for one unforgettable week, during which I gave a range of lectures and led seminars. My subjects included the Mandylion of Edessa, a relic comparable with the Shroud of Turin, showing the imprint of the face of the living Christ, which was incorporated into the Legend of Abgar, the First Christian King. I also spoke about Syria in the seventh century, when Islam was a new religion which inspired the Arab conquerors of that region, and about Mardin, in south-east Turkey, during the fifteenth century. Another subject, on which I afterwards delivered a lecture hosted by Chip Coakley at Harvard University, was the Wisdom of Ahiqar in a Syriac form which I argued was of Jewish origin. Show less

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  Dutch and English Schools

  Aug 2003 - Jul 2011

  Classics Teacher

  I taught Greek and Latin (in English schools Latin only) and Classical Civilisation from beginners' up to University Entrance level. I helped to lead educational excursions to places with monuments from the Classical period, such as Xanten, Trier and Rome. I participated in meetings with other teachers about the reports or exam results of schoolchildren. My last job, in Breda, was 0,8 fte. At the same time I began to work 0,2 fte for a project on religious violence in Late Antiquity, based in Muenster, Germany. Show less

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  Jeroen Bosch College, 's-Hertogenbosch

  Aug 2003 - Jul 2005

  Classics Teacher and (in Lower School) English Teacher

  Teaching Latin and Greek from the beginning to University Entrance level, Classical civilisation in the Upper School and English (I am a native speaker, but without a teaching qualification in this subject) in the Lower School. I helped to lead various educational excursions, e. g. to Trier.

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  Institute for Eastern Christian Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen

  Aug 2010 - Aug 2015

  Associate Researcher

  I am a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Eastern Christian Studies. Otherwise I pursue my own research independently. At present I am making an edition of the Syriac Life of Barsawmo of Samosata. After that I am going to publish the Greek and Syriac inscriptions of Dara in Mesopotamia with the Museum of Mardin and collaborate with Anton Pritula on an article about a late Syriac poem on Mar Awgen and his followers. After that I am going to write a book on the history and the inscriptions of Maarre, a village near the Turkish town of Nusaybin. Recent conference-presentations by invitation include a lecture on the so-called Mandylion of Edessa in Greek tradition (Wuerzburg, October 2014, conference on the Image of Christ) and a lecture on two Syriac books about the massacres of 1915 in south-east Turkey, one by Israil Odo, the other by Sleman Henno (Katlenburg, November 2014, conference on the reception of the First World War genocide in Ottoman Turkey). I also attended a day-conference on the present situation of Christians in the Middle East (Constance, November 22, 2014 - report attached) and a workshop on space in late antique hagiography and historiography (Ghent, January 15-17, 2015). Most recently I gave a talk, in Turoyo, on Mor Barsawmo, the Chief of the Mourners, to a culturally interested circle at the Syrian Orthodox Church of Mor Barsawmo in Giessen, Germany, on February 1, the anniversary of the holy man's death in A.D. 456. My present project is to edit, translate into English, annotate and index a Syriac book about the persecution of Christians in Eastern Turkey in 1915 which has never yet been translated into any other language. It was written by Israil Audo, Chaldean Catholic bishop of Mardin from 1910-1941 and consists entirely of eye-witness accounts. Show less

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  Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster

  Sept 2010 - May 2014

  Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Research Associate)

  Edition of the Syriac Life of Barsawmo of Samosata (d. 456). Contribution to conference on this text: The Syrian Orthodox Reception of the Vita Barsumae.

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  Stichting Onderwijsgroep Zuid-Hollandse Waarden Walburgcollege Zwijndrecht

  Aug 2015 - now

  Teacher of Greek and Latin

  My responsibilities, from 1 January 2016, include acting as Head of a Department of which I shall be the only member and teaching Greek and Latin throughout the school, from the First Form to the Sixth, which consists of candidates for the Dutch Central Examinations in Greek and Latin.

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  Ostrea Lyceum Goes

  Jan 2019 - now

  Teacher of Classics