Dr Maria G. Xanthou, FHEA, is Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol, and Research Associate in Pindaric Studies at CHS, Washington, DC. She worked as Junior Research Fellow in ‘The Social and Cultural Construction of Emotions: The Greek Paradigm’ project in Oxford (2009–13). She taught Classics, Ancient, Medieval and Byzantine History at Aristotle University, Hellenic Open University, Open University of Cyprus, University of Bristol and University of Leeds. Ιn 2020 she was Visiting Fellow at Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University, and in 2015 Residential Fellow at CHS, Harvard University, Washington DC. Throughout her academic career she was awarded academic scholarships from Aristotle University Academic Excellence Scheme, Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation, and Nicos and Lydia Trichas Foundation for Education and European Culture.
Mr Henry Hopwood-Phillips works at Bismarck Analysis as a specialist in Eurasian geopolitics. Having worked in the media for most of his life, including stints at TRT World and CCTV, he used COVID-19 to author a book on the topography of Constantinople, which is currently with a publisher. His proudest achievement is his imitation of P. L. Fermor’s odyssey when he, aged 19, walked from Athens to Constantinople armed with a dozen books on the Eastern Roman empire. He tweets daily about Byzantium @byzantinepower.
Dr Anastasios Tantsis is an Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology, School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied Architecture, Byzantine Archaeology and got his PhD (Thesis: Galleries on Byzantine Church Architecture) in Byzantine Archaeology in 2008. During 2005–2007 he was an International Visiting Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (Working with R. Ousterhout). He teaches Byzantine Archaeology, Museology, Architectural History and Architectural Preservation both on undergraduate and graduate level in the School of History and Archaeology and the School of Architecture at AUTH, Greece. He authored Architectural Synthesis in Byzantium: An introduction (2012), and several papers focusing on church architecture and issues of patronage and ideology. He has published on the monuments of Mistras and is currently preparing a book on its church architecture.