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Losing Sight: Blindness as Punishment and Politics in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Nov 21, 2024

05:00 PM - 06:30 PM

Schaeffer Hall, 302

20 East Washington Street, Iowa City, IA 52240

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November 21 5 pm event

Join us for a talk by Jake Ransohoff, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Bowdoin College, about the intersection of punishment, incapacity, and exclusion in the Byzantine world. Ransohoff will focus on a particular penalty — blinding — commonly used by Byzantium’s rulers to disqualify rivals from positions of political leadership. Despite its official justification as a merciful alternative to death, “political” blinding in Byzantium often backfired and provoked popular opposition. Drawing on evidence from across the medieval Mediterranean, he will examine the sightless body as an unstable site of meaning: whether it reflected the compassion, or the injustice, of the state remained an open question. It is blinding’s ability to provoke contestation and controversy that makes it revealing of persistent tensions across Byzantium’s millenary history.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact in advance at