Author Spotlight: Michael Stewart

This week, we feature a recurring author in our "Author Spotlight" - Dr. Michael Edward Stewart. He is an honorary Fellow in the School of History and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He has lectured on Late Antiquity, Early Christianity, Byzantium, the Crusades, and the Black Death. His research focuses on issues of culture, gender, and identity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

• What have you contributed to Medieval World? 

An article on Procopius - "Procopius of Caesarea: The Witness and His Sources" (pp. 24-25) in MWCC.8. I also wrote articles for the previous incantation of this magazine Medieval Warfare on the second Arab siege of Constantinople (Medieval Warfare Magazine, VIII.5) and assassins in the mid-fifth century Roman Empire (Medieval Warfare IX.4).

• Tell us a bit about your background as an historian (education or otherwise). What edge do you think it gives you as an author and as an historian? 

I was lucky to have an MA advisor Matt Kuefler and a PhD advisor John Moorhead, who approached history from quite different scholarly perspectives. This helped me build methodological balance and variety in my own work, which has allowed me to publish in a myriad of journals both cutting edge and more traditional.

• Do you have a favourite event or figure or object from Middle Ages? 

My favourite objects are the mosaics of Justinian and Theodora from Ravenna, part of which feature on my cover of my book on Procopius. The image of two likely eunuchs, highlights my aim of seeing the writings of Procopius and the age of Justinian from slightly different perspectives. These particular mosaics’ lucky preservation through the vagaries of time also makes me wonder about many of the other lost mosaics....and maybe others still awaiting to be discovered.

• What sparks your initial interest in writing an article? 

I have written two books and numerous articles about Procopius both as a person and an author. By looking at him as an author and individual through different methodological lenses, e.g., gender and literary approaches, I think I have come closer to understanding what he was trying to accomplish in all three of his works.