Research
Scholarly activities of the Institute have been of interdisciplinary character since the very beginning. Practically since its foundation the Institute has pursued four main research directions: a) the history of Byzantium and Byzantine-Southern Slavic relations, b) Byzantine sources for the history of the peoples of Yugoslavia c) Byzantine literature and the Medieval Greek language, d) Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. Two projects have also been launched within the same framework, in cooperation with similar institutions abroad, the initial results of which have already been published: Actes de Chilandar I (with The Institute for Byzantine Studies in Paris, 1995) and The Byzantine Province in Change. On the Threshold between the 10th and the 11th Century (with The Institute for Byzantine Studies in Athens, 2008). From 2002 to 2005, so-called target projects were introduced and developed (including the already mentioned cooperation with foreign partners): Actes de Chilandar II; Donors’ Inscriptions on Frescoes from the XIIth to the XIIIth Century; The Internal Transformation of Byzantium from the Xth to the XIIth Century; Byzantine Sources for the History of the Peoples of Yugoslavia, vol. V. In the year 2006 a five-year cycle of combined projects was initiated: The Last Century of Byzantium and Serbia (project leader R. Radić), The Byzantine World in Changes (Xth-XIIth Centuries) (project leader Lj. Maksimović), Wall Painting and Inscriptions of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (project leader G. Subotić). The principal research activities of the Institute were pursued within the interdisciplinary framework of the project Tradition, innovation and identity in the Byzantine world (from 2011 to 2017 project leader Lj. Maksimović, from 2017 to 2019 B. Krsmanović), which brought together scholars from Belgrade and abroad.
The Instititute was the chief organizer of several national and international scholarly events: 12th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Ohrid 1961; 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Belgrade 2016. Belgrade was also the host of the 2nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies in 1927.
National conferences of Byzantine Studies have been taking place every five years, for more than two decades. The first was organized in Zadar in 1990 (Yugoslav conference of Byzantine Studies), the second was held in Studenica (1995), the third in Kruševac (2000) and the last four conferences were held in Belgrade (2005, 2010, 2015, 2021). These national conferences always bring together researchers of all generations dealing with Byzantine studies as well as scholars from other closely related fields.
Since the very beginning the Institute has participated in the organization of various events in academia and science, which were the result of bilateral cooperation. During the past few years, such events were related to the Bulgarian – Serbian (2008) and French – Serbian (2010) cooperation.