Mirela Ivanova
@mirela.bsky.social
Lecturer in History. Pre-modern Balkans, Russia, Turkey. BBC New Generation Thinker. Social climber🎓. Rock climber 🧗. Loves context.
People of Oslo! Come about my book on the invention of the Slavonic alphabet next Wednesday at 4.15pm.
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
October 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
People of Oslo! Come about my book on the invention of the Slavonic alphabet next Wednesday at 4.15pm.
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
nearly thirty years ago Bill Readings published this prophetic book The University in Ruins. Essential reading today as the sector is on the brink of collapse.
October 21, 2025 at 6:07 PM
nearly thirty years ago Bill Readings published this prophetic book The University in Ruins. Essential reading today as the sector is on the brink of collapse.
Istanbul folk - @drvukovich.bsky.social and I will be hosting a workshop on the Byzantine and Ottoman heritage of the Balkans in a few weeks at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul! Come join us and our amazing speakers!
August 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Istanbul folk - @drvukovich.bsky.social and I will be hosting a workshop on the Byzantine and Ottoman heritage of the Balkans in a few weeks at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul! Come join us and our amazing speakers!
Just discovered that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's open access article on the Politics of Byzantine studies has made it onto the Wiki page for the 'Byzantine Empire'! Thanks to the anonymous editor!
January 31, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Just discovered that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's open access article on the Politics of Byzantine studies has made it onto the Wiki page for the 'Byzantine Empire'! Thanks to the anonymous editor!
Kalyan Minaret (12c.) in Bukhara. The oldest still standing in Central Asia, it was apparently (acc. to local man) spared by Genghis Khan because his hat fell off when he looked up at it. Also apparently (acc. to British spy) it was used for public executions in the late 19th/early 20thc.
January 27, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Kalyan Minaret (12c.) in Bukhara. The oldest still standing in Central Asia, it was apparently (acc. to local man) spared by Genghis Khan because his hat fell off when he looked up at it. Also apparently (acc. to British spy) it was used for public executions in the late 19th/early 20thc.
Amazing to take some of my students to the British Museum exhibition “The Silk Roads”! One highlight - a wall painting from a Sogdian house in Bukhara dated to 709 shortly after the Umayyad conquests.
December 12, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Amazing to take some of my students to the British Museum exhibition “The Silk Roads”! One highlight - a wall painting from a Sogdian house in Bukhara dated to 709 shortly after the Umayyad conquests.
I'll be talking about my recent book, Inventing Slavonic: Cultures of Writing between Rome and Constantinople in Princeton next Tuesday at 4:30pm for anyone in the NY/NJ area!
November 27, 2024 at 4:21 PM
I'll be talking about my recent book, Inventing Slavonic: Cultures of Writing between Rome and Constantinople in Princeton next Tuesday at 4:30pm for anyone in the NY/NJ area!
Concluding panel at the EurAsia excellence cluster conference in Vienna, on Russia’s management of cultural difference and its ideological repositioning as an Eurasian power.
November 22, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Concluding panel at the EurAsia excellence cluster conference in Vienna, on Russia’s management of cultural difference and its ideological repositioning as an Eurasian power.
Heading to Vienna for the first conference of their new excellence cluster: EurAsian Transformations! Anyone in Vienna?
November 20, 2024 at 8:45 AM
Heading to Vienna for the first conference of their new excellence cluster: EurAsian Transformations! Anyone in Vienna?
The Samanid Mausoleum in Bukharra (10th c.): oldest funerary monument in Central Asia!
Survived almost entirely in tact underground (left). Local man outside told me Genghis Khan didn't destroy it because he was "scared of cemetaries".
Survived almost entirely in tact underground (left). Local man outside told me Genghis Khan didn't destroy it because he was "scared of cemetaries".
October 23, 2024 at 11:28 AM
The Samanid Mausoleum in Bukharra (10th c.): oldest funerary monument in Central Asia!
Survived almost entirely in tact underground (left). Local man outside told me Genghis Khan didn't destroy it because he was "scared of cemetaries".
Survived almost entirely in tact underground (left). Local man outside told me Genghis Khan didn't destroy it because he was "scared of cemetaries".
My review of McGeer's welcome translation of the fascinating Continuation of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes is now online in the early preview of Early Medieval Europe with some other exciting papers!
October 16, 2024 at 11:38 AM
My review of McGeer's welcome translation of the fascinating Continuation of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes is now online in the early preview of Early Medieval Europe with some other exciting papers!
Really looking forward to this symposium on information technologies, graphospheres and their evolution through time to honour the work of the great Simon Franklin in Cambridge next week!
April 18, 2024 at 3:14 PM
Really looking forward to this symposium on information technologies, graphospheres and their evolution through time to honour the work of the great Simon Franklin in Cambridge next week!
My book has just been published! Find out about the medieval invention of the Slavonic alphabet, and its various contemporary refractions in nationalist politics!
February 9, 2024 at 10:56 AM
My book has just been published! Find out about the medieval invention of the Slavonic alphabet, and its various contemporary refractions in nationalist politics!
This Thursday at 10pm I’ll be live on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking talking about the first ever Bulgarian novel to win the International Booker! Makes for a perfect Xmas present - tune in!
November 27, 2023 at 3:53 PM
This Thursday at 10pm I’ll be live on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking talking about the first ever Bulgarian novel to win the International Booker! Makes for a perfect Xmas present - tune in!
I will be on Radio 3 Free Thinking tonight at 10pm talking about a new book collecting Slavic myths and fairytales. Tune in to hear about how the vampire came form Serbia!
October 3, 2023 at 12:23 PM
I will be on Radio 3 Free Thinking tonight at 10pm talking about a new book collecting Slavic myths and fairytales. Tune in to hear about how the vampire came form Serbia!
My first post blue sky on the week of the U.K. publication of me and Ben’s book!
August 31, 2023 at 1:32 PM
My first post blue sky on the week of the U.K. publication of me and Ben’s book!