In-person and Online
📍 Memorial Union, Beefeaters Room, Third Floor
💻 Zoom: (link here)
This talk investigates how digital platforms such as 4chan and TikTok have become arenas where the Byzantine past is reimagined, mobilized, and weaponized within contemporary ideological and extremist movements. In these contexts, Byzantium is mobilized within broader ideological frameworks with real-life political implications. Such engagement should not be dismissed as the activity of fringe online trolls. Rather, it constitutes a form of “historically grounded” radicalism that interacts with and reinforces broader online and offline ideological movements. Understanding how Byzantium is appropriated in these spaces is therefore essential for grasping the contemporary political uses of the medieval past.
Presented by KARPAT GRADUATE STUDENT SOCIETY of KEMAL H. KARPAT CENTER FOR TURKISH STUDIES