Research: Roman Image of the Christian Woman from the 4th to the 7th Century
Teodora Georgievova obtained bachelor’s degree in both History and History of Art at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She focused on the medieval Czech, Russian and Mediterranean society and art, which has reflected on the topics of her theses: Portraits of Byzantine Empresses between the 4th and the 6th century and The Image of Empresses in the Byzantine Society of the 4th to 6th century. She observed the active engagement of empresses in politics, diplomacy, and Church affairs. One of the main topics was the change of female imperial portraits in response to the transformation of the perception of women in late antique society.
She finished her master’s studies at Masaryk University with thesis named “Byzantine” Crowns: between East, West, and the Ritual. It discussed whether the crowns, used as diplomatic gifts, had the power to introduce Byzantine elements to the coronations in foreign kingdoms and whether their decoration and iconography changed in accordance with their function.
She conducted research necessary for writing the theses in libraries in Brno, Prague, Venice and Padova (where she spent two semesters as an Erasmus student) and in various museums in Italy (mainly in Rome, Venice, and Brescia).
She also took part in several conferences between 2017 and 2019 in Czech Republic and Switzerland and published two scientific contributions in her mother tongue, following her travels during university studies.
Her current research at Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" stems from her previous studies and cooperation with the Centre for Early Medieval Studies, managed by Professor Ivan Foletti at Masaryk University. Her dissertation project: Between Projecta and St. Agnes: representation of women in Rome from late 4th to 7th century, aims to apply the most recent methodology to visual and textual representations of women in the Urbs Aeterna and to discover how their role changed in different communities and through centuries.