Joseph Newman

Profile

I studied my BA in History between 2021 and 2024 at the University of Sheffield. My undergraduate dissertation, ‘The Malleability of Confucian Tradition: Authority and Gender in Tang China’, examined the impact of Confucianism on the preservation and erasure of politically active women of the Tang Dynasty within collective memory, and the influence of contemporary historiographical practices.

I also completed an MA in Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. My master’s dissertation, ‘An Identity Synkrisis: Women’s Gender Performances and the Rhetoric of Representation during the Byzantine Iconoclasm’, examined how representations of imperial women in Middle Byzantine texts became rhetorical constructions imbued with potent ideological and propagandistic qualities. I examined the case studies of the sovereign empresses Eirene of Athens and Theodora of Paphlagonia, who each ended their respective halves of the iconoclasm, and whose autonomous political careers were described textually through fluctuating gendered performances. For my PhD research, I will continue to investigate the embodiment of masculine traits among Byzantine empresses and other women.

Research interests

My PhD research offers a new understanding of gender in the Byzantine Empire between the 8th and 12th centuries, focusing on female masculinities. By investigating three distinct groups of women - empresses, saints, and scholars, and by comparing their performances of masculinity with those of eunuchs and their male counterparts, I will address the following questions:

1.) How did these women construct and perform masculinity, as seen through narratives about their actions and bodies?

2.) How did their claims to masculinity compare with those of eunuchs and men?

3.) How does recognising women as manly reshape our understanding of masculinity as more than a normative male expression?

Through the first systematic and diachronic exploration of female masculinities in Byzantium, I will suggest that masculine discourses in Byzantium were not solely monolithic male constructs; rather, they were shaped by all those who performed masculinity. Taking an intersectional approach, I will examine how factors such as status, religion, and disability shaped the experiences of individual figures and the regulatory forces that governed them, as depicted in hagiographies and histories.

My doctoral research is funded by the AHRC through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH).

Qualifications

• MA Medieval History (Distinction)
• BA History (First-Class Honours)
• David Luscombe Prize in Medieval History

Research groups and institutes

• Women, Gender, and Sexuality