Fourth Annual Coptic Studies Symposium: Ottawa, February 26, 2011

I don't know if anyone who reads this blog will be interested, but just in case here's a message from Prof Greatrex.  Note that this mostly about old-time Copts (late antiquity).

I would like to draw your attention to the Fourth Annual Coptic Studies Symposium: Coptic Heritage – Dynamics and Diversity, organized by the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies (CSCS), which will take place at the University of Ottawa on 26 February 2011. The programme is as follows:

9.00-9.45   registration

9.45-10.00  welcome

Ramez Boutros, President, Canadian Society for Coptic Studies

His Excellency Wael Aboulmagd, Ambassador, Arab Republic of Egypt

Antoni Lewkowicz, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa



10.00-10.45 Keynote lecture by Jacques van der Vliet (University of

Leiden/Radboud University Nijmegen), ‘Pesynthios of Koptos/Qift (569–632) and the Rise of the Egyptian Miaphysite Church’

10.45-11.00 discussion



11.00-11.30 Robert Edwards (University of Ottawa), ‘A Case for Martyrdom? Editorial Intention and the First Apocalypse of James (NHC V,3//AM 2)’

11.30-12.00 Timothy Pettipiece (Carleton University), ‘Towards a Manichaean Reading of the Nag Hammadi Codices’



12.00-1.30  lunch break



1.30-2.00   Anne Moore (University of Calgary), ‘Syncretism and Confrontation in Besa’s Life of Shenoute’

2.00-2.30   Theodore de Bruyn (University of Ottawa), ‘The Intercessory Function of Mary in Egyptian Amulets

and Anaphoras in Late Antiquity’



2.30-3.00   coffee break



3.00-3.30   Sabrina Higgins (University of Ottawa), ‘Divine Mothers: The Influence of Isis on the Virgin Mary in Egyptian Monastic Iconographic Programs’

3.30-4.00   Ramez Boutros (University of Toronto), ‘The Architectural Stone Carvings in the Christian Basilica of Dendara: Style and Workmanship’



4.00-4.30   stretch break



4.30-5.00   Helene Moussa (St. Mark’s Coptic Museum, Scarborough), ‘Museums as Cultural Institutions: The Experience of St. Mark’s Coptic Museum’

5.00-5.30   May Telmissany (University of Ottawa), ‘Coptic Films and Copts in Egyptian Films: Intersections and Discrepancies’

In case you would like to attend the event and for more information, please get in touch with the organizer, my colleague Jitse Dijkstra (jdijkstr@uottawa.ca).

Geoffrey Greatrex


Geoffrey Greatrex
Département d'études anciennes et de sciences des religions
Department of Classics and Religious Studies
Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa
70 av. Laurier est/Laurier Ave. East
Ottawa, ON, CANADA K1N 6N5
tél. (613)-562-5808
fax. (613)-562-5991