From 21 to 24 July 2025, our research training group, in cooperation with the Leibniz Prize project “Polyphony of Late Antique Christianity” and the DFG long-term project “Commentary on John of Ephesus's Ecclesiastical History” (Goethe University Frankfurt), hosted an international summer course on Syriac language and literature at the University of Jena.

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Matthias Perkams (GRK, Jena), Prof. Dr. Hartmut Leppin (Frankfurt), and PD Dr. Yury Arzhanov (Salzburg), the international course participants focussed on the intensive reading and interpretation of key Syriac texts under the theme “Michael the Syrian – Chronicling and the Transmission of Philosophical Texts.”

In line with the research approach of our research training group, special focus was placed on examining the relationship between autonomy and heteronomy in the chronicle of Michael the Syrian in comparison to historical (John of Ephesus) and philosophical-theological pretexts (John Philoponos).