The Annual Cambridge Lecture in Medieval and Early Modern Slavonic Studies was launched in 2016 to examine key questions of early Slavonic Studies, with a particular focus on the lands of present-day Ukraine. It features leading scholars who study the ever-changing cultural landscape of the Ukrainian lands and the varied composition and character of their inhabitants from the medieval period to the late eighteenth century.

In line with current trends in scholarship, the series moves beyond deep-rooted national paradigms and adopts a transnational approach to the study of the Rus and Ruthenian past and to the early modern history of Ukraine and its neighbours. It casts Ukraine as a multifocal centre for the formulation and transformation of political notions, social paradigms and cultural identities. 

The Annual Lecture is also accompanied by a postgraduate workshop led by the guest scholar, with the aim of bringing postgraduates together from Great Britain and beyond to enrich discussions on current research in the field. 

2021

Postponed due to Covid-19 lockdown

2020

Alexander Kulik
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

'Early Rus’ Jewry: Byzantine Connections'

2019

Petra Melichar
Slavonic Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague); Editor-in-chief, Byzantinoslavica

'The Empress’s New Clothes: Foreign Brides in Byzantium'

2018

Robert Romanchuk
Florida State University

'The Old Slavonic Digenis Akritis: Its Origin, 'Formulaic Style,' and Problems of Its Edition'

2017

Yuri Avvakumov
University of Notre Dame (USA)

'The 'Uniates' and the Invention of Eastern Orthodoxy'

2016

Oleksyi Tolochko
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

'The 'Primary Chronicle' and the Origins of the Kyivan Rus State'