Dr. Verena Fugger

• Since 10/2023 Junior Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, affiliated with the KFG-group “Religion and Urbanity” (FOR 2779)
   
• 06/2023 – 08/2023 Summer Fellow in Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Trustees for Harvard University), Washington D.C.
   
• 07/2020 – 09/2023 Research Associate (Senior Postdoc) at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, PI of the subproject »Das Artemision von Ephesos: Untersuchungen zur Transformation und Aneignung sakraler Räume in spätantiker und byzantinischer Zeit« within the FWF-YIRG (Young Independent Research Group) Project »Temenos und Territorium. Wirtschaftsmacht und soziale Bedeutung des Artemisions von Ephesos im Römischen Reich«.
   
• 01/2018 – 06/2020 Research Associate (Postdoc) at the University of Bamberg (Professur für Archäologie der Römischen Provinzen), DFG-Project: »Transkulturelle Urbanität in der syrischen Wüstensteppe. Resafa vom 1. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert n. Chr.« (Project Leaders: M. Konrad, D. Sack)    
   
• 2016, 2017, 2019 Lecturer at the University of Vienna and the University of Bamberg    
   
• 05/2014 – 11/2017 Research Associate (Postdoc) at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, FWF-Project: »Die Anfänge häuslicher Religiosität im frühen Christentum: Von literarischen Quellen zu archäologischen Zeugnissen religiöser Praxis in oikos, familia und domus« (Project Leaders: M. Öhler, A. Pülz)
   
• 10/2008 – 03/2015 PhD in Classical Archaeology with a focus on Christian and Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Vienna, doctorate with distinction
   
• 01/2010 – 12/2014 Research Associate (Predoc) at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, START-Project: »Die Domitilla-Katakombe in Rom. Archäologie, Architektur und Kunstgeschichte einer spätantiken Nekropole« (Project Leader: N. Zimmermann)   
   
• 10/2010 – 06/2011 Academic year at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Rome, bachelor’s degree summa cum laude (Mons. Patrick Saint-Roch scholarship)
   
• 09/2010 – 06/2011 ROM-Scholarship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Austrian Historical Institute at Rome
   
• 10/2002 – 06/2008 Studies in History of Art and Classical Archaeology (focus on Christian and Byzantine Archaeology) at the University of Vienna and the University of Edinburgh, Magister degree with distinction

Saints and the City: The cult of saints and relics as a binding phenomenon in socio-religious processes of group formation based on the Syrian border city of Resafa/Sergiupolis

Based on archaeological evidence that is supplemented by literary and epigraphic sources, this project concentrates on the identity-forming role of the Christian cult of saints and relics in socio-religious processes of group formation within cities of the late antique respectively early Byzantine Roman Near East. Against the background of the interrelationship between religion and urbanity, the study examines on the one hand how local cults of saints relate to the requirements of different social, cultural and religious groups. From the perspective of material religion, it questions on the other hand how the material design of urban and religious spaces of action, in which collective identity is constituted, influenced the experience and perception of actors. In this sense, the study also shows in which ways material forms of expression and communication, too, could contribute to group formation processes. Special emphasis is thereby given to the Roman border city of Resafa/Sergiupolis located in the northern Syrian desert steppe, whose urban development was crucially influenced by the local cult of St. Sergios. Based on archaeological findings in Resafa, selected cities in the Roman provinces of Syria and Arabia will be used as case studies in order to investigate the urban peculiarities of the desert metropolis interwoven with the cult of St. Sergios, but also to define similarities and differences in urbanization processes taking place under various historical, social, and natural-ecological conditions in the area of the Limes Orientalis. Chronologically, the project mainly focuses on the 4th to the 6th centuries A.D. and therefore comprises a period of time during which the cities began to change under the influence of the Christian religion.

• Gestaltungsprinzipien spätantiker Grabräume. Visuelle Strukturen und Wirkungsmechanismen in der römischen Katakombenmalerei, Forschungen zur antiken Religion Bd. 3 (Wien 2023, in press).

• Together with Anna-Katharina Rieger, Artemis in the Taberna. Religious Entanglement and Appropriation in Urban Spaces, Proceeding of the International Workshop at the Austrian Archaeological Institute Vienna in cooperation with the University of Graz, 5.-6. Dezember 2022 (in preparation).

• Der Heilige Reiter aus dem Artemision: Neue Überlegungen zu einem byzantinischen Tonstempel aus Ephesos, Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts (manuscript submitted).
   
• »Hoc signum crucis ubique celebratum videre est«: Religion and Urbanity in Byzantine Ephesos, in: V. Fugger – A.-K. Rieger (Ed.), Artemis in the Taberna. (in preparation)
   
• From Artemis Ephesia to John the Theologian: Religious appropriation and transformation of the Artemision in Byzantine Ephesos. (in preparation)
   
• Das Artemision von Ephesos im Spiegel religiöser Transformationsprozesse in spätantiker und byzantinischer Zeit, in: St. Alkier (Ed.), Konstellationen der Tempelwirtschaft am Garizim, in Jerusalem und in Ephesos = Beyond Historicism – New Testament Studies Today 1 (Leiden 2022), 274–300.
   
• Die älteste archäologisch überlieferte Diakonie? Neue Überlegungen zum Baubefund der Insula M/1 in Ephesos, Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archäologie 28 (2022), 66–90.
   
• Der al-Munḏir-Bau im regionalen und überregionalen Kontext, in: M. Konrad – D. Sack (Ed.), Transkulturelle Urbanität in der syrischen Wüstensteppe: Resafa vom 1. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert im regionalen und überregionalen Kontext = RESAFA 11. (manuscript submitted)
   
• Vom lokalen Stadtpatron zum Reichsheiligen: Der Heilige Sergios in spätrömischer und byzantinischer Zeit, in: ibid. (manuscript submitted)
   
• Die Urbanistik Resafas vom 5. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert, in: ibid.(manuscript submitted)
   
• Hinter verschlossenen Türen: Zur häuslichen Kultpraxis im frühen Christentum am Beispiel archäologischer Zeugnisse aus Kleinasien (4./6. Jahrhundert), Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 62 (2019), 118–157.
   
• Shedding Light on Early Christian Domestic Cult: Characteristics and New Perspectives in the Context of Archaeological Findings, Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 18/19 (2016/17), 201–235.
   
• Positionsfavorisierend und positionsflexibel: Zur räumlichen Anordnung von Bildern in der frühchristlichen Grabmalerei, Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archäologie 22 (2016), 85–110.
   
• Das illuminierte Typikon des Eugenios-Klosters in Trapezunt, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 64 (2014), 41–65 (together with Rudolf S. Stefec).

• John Bradley, The Hypogeum of the Aurelii: a New Interpretation as the Collegiate Tomb of Professional scribae, Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 50, Oxford 2019, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 62 (2019), 246–249.
   
• Stefan Heid, Wohnen wie in Katakomben. Kleine Museumsgeschichte des Campo Santo Teutonico, Regensburg 2016, Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift 167 (2019), 89–91.
   
• Ulla Tervahauta – Ivan Miroshnikov – Outi Lehtipuu – Ismo Dunderberg (Hrsg.), Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity, Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements 144, Leiden/Bosten (Brill) 2017, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 22/3 (2018), 489–492.
   
• Hava und Sali Hidri, Die frühchristliche Basilika in Arapaj, Dürrёs (Albanien), hrsg. von Renate Pillinger, Wien 2011, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 67 (2017), 265–266.
   
• Jutta Dresken-Weiland, Die frühchristlichen Mosaiken von Ravenna. Bild und Bedeutung, Regensburg 2016, Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift 165 (2017), 427–429.