Symposium: Eastern Roman Empire and Romanness – Language and Identity in the Greek-Speaking World

The Cambridge Centre for Greek Studies and the Kostas and Eleni Ourani Foundation

will host a one-day symposium on

Eastern Roman Empire and Romanness: Language and Identity in the Greek-Speaking World

on 5th June, 2026 at Queens’ College, Cambridge. 

This symposium will explore the complex interplay between language, identity, and Romanness in the Greek-speaking world. Bringing together linguistic and historical research, it will address cultural and linguistic (dis)continuity and hybridity in the Eastern Roman Empire, with particular attention to Romeyka—the endangered variety of Greek still spoken in the Black Sea region.

Drawing on research from Sitaridou (2008–present), we aim to shed light on Greek linguistic and cultural heritage as a living, evolving tradition, while situating it within wider debates on continuity, contact, hybridity, and multilingualism. A striking case is the Romeyka-speaking communities of Trabzon, who continue to call their language roméika. While this has led to misconceptions (sometimes mistaken as Romance/Latin-based), the terminology is historically legitimate (see Kaldellis 2019), reminding us that categories like “Greek” and “Pontic Greek” are themselves relatively modern.

The symposium will gather scholars from linguistics, history, and related fields to (re)examine the ideological controversies over who may claim to be the authentic successors of Rome. How did Eastern Roman citizens—Greek-speaking, Orthodox, and never governed from Rome—construct and negotiate their identity across the centuries? By exploring the formation, transformation, and contestation of ideologies of Romanness, the symposium seeks to deepen our understanding of language, identity, and empire.

Organisers: 

• Dr George Kalpadakis (Academy of Athens) and 
• Professor Ioanna Sitaridou (University of Cambridge)

Register hereProgramme - to be released soon