About
My research examines the process of identity formation and the ongoing crossing of religious and social boundaries between Jews and Christians in late antiquity and the Middle Byzantine period in the Mediterranean world. Focusing on an array of Christian anti-Jewish texts and excerpts and on rabbinic and post-rabbinic narratives between rabbis and “others,” I analyze the construction and impersonation of the “other” by both Christian and Jewish authors to create an effective rhetorical space in which Jews and Christians re-imagined themselves in relation to the Christian and Jewish “other” respectively. My research interests also include the study of bigotry, violence, hate speech, and gendered language to investigate the interplay between divisive language and social construction and structure. For more information on my research focus, current and future work, see my personal website (
michailkitsos.org).
Education
- Ph.D. History of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity; Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan
- Graduate Certificate, Judaic Studies; Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
- Master of Arts, Near Eastern Studies; University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
- Master of Arts, Jewish Studies; Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA
- Master of Arts, Biblical Archaeology; Department of Theology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
- Graduate Certificate, Hellenic Paleography; Center for History and Paleography, National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation Athens, Greece
- Bachelor of Arts, Theology; Department of Theology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Publications
Books
Kitsos, Michail.
In Jews’ and Christians’ Words: Impersonation and Narratives of Legitimacy in Late Antique and Middle Byzantine Mediterranean. In progress.
Kitsos, Michail and Andrew Jacobs.
Dialogica Polymorpha Antijudaica (Or Dialogus Papisci et Philonis). Critical Edition with a Facing English Translation, Commentary, and Notes. In progress.
Kitsos, Michail.
Η Λειτουργική Χρήση της Menorah: Βιβλική – Μεταβιβλική Θεώρηση (The Liturgical Use of the Menorah: Biblical and Post-Biblical Approach). Athens: Typis Humanities Publishing House, 2010. (in Greek)
Articles & Book chapters
- Kitsos, Michail. “Reading the Adversus Iudaeos Dialogues Through Narratology: Creating in Writing a Culture of Jewish-Christian Disputations in Late Antiquity.” Das Mittelalter 18 (Spring 2022): 107-122.
- Kitsos, Michail. “Byzantine Christian Claims of Religious Legitimacy: The Jew as the Dissident Foil in the Adversus Iudaeos Dialogues in Discussions on Icons.” Pages 161-77 in Dissidence and Persecution in Early and Middle Byzantium, edited by Danijel Džino and Ryan W. Stickler. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
- Kitsos, Michail. “Examples of Intertextuality in Ecclesiastes Rabbah: Its Use of the Book of Psalms and Its Association with Ecclesiastes and the New Testament.” Pages 268-82 in Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually, edited by Katharine Dell and Will Kynes. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014.
Articles & Book Chapters in Progress
- Kitsos, Michail. “Fabricating Internal Dissent in Medieval Anti-Jewish Dialogues: Jews and their Biblical Kin in Conflict.” (Under Review).
- Kitsos, Michail. “Foiling as a Way to Read Rabbinic Narratives of Encounters.” (Under Review).
- Kitsos, Michail. “Rabbinic Foil Narratives to Other Stories: Toward a New Reading of Parodies.” (Under Review).
Book Reviews
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Mokhtarian, Jason Sion. Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies between Magic and Science. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. (Religious Studies Review, 2023).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Rubinstein, Jeffrey L., ed. Studies on Rabbinic Narratives, Volume One. Brown Judaic Studies 367. Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2021. (Religious Studies Review, 2023).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Ehud, Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg, and Shalom Sadik, eds. Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker. Studia Judaica, 113. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021. (Religious Studies Review, 2023).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Jordan, Robert H. and Rosemary Morris, eds. and trans. The Life and Death of Theodore of Stoudios. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 70. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2021. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2022).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Spielman, Loren R. Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 181. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. (Religious Studies Review, 2022).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Gribetz, Sarit Kattan. Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. (Religious Studies Review, 2022).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Barbu, Daniel and Yaakov Deutsch, eds. Toledot Yeshu in Context: The Jewish “Life of Jesus” in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 182. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. (Religious Studies Review, 2022).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Kaldellis, Anthony and Ioannis Polemis, eds., trans. Saints of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Greece.Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 54. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2019. (The Medieval Review, 2021).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Bar-Asher Siegal, Michal. Jewish-Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. (Religious Studies Review, 2021).
- Kitsos, Michail. Review of Smith, Eric C. Jewish Glass and Christian Stone: A Materialist Mapping of the “Parting of the Ways.”Routledge Studies in the early Christian world. New York: Routledge, 2017. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2019)
Projects
Concurrently with my book project, an investigation of Christian and Jewish polemical narratives from the 4th to the 12th centuries CE, I am working co-jointly with Prof. Andrew Jacobs on a critical edition and English translation of the Dialogue of Papiscus and Philo with a Monk.
My next project will investigate the formation of hybrid identities and the intersection between hybridity and “othering” in the Byzantine Empire and beyond during the middle Byzantine period, 610 CE–1204 CE. Upcoming Talks and Conferences
“The Synagogue as a Female Deviant: Slut-Shaming and Other Female-Stigmatization.” Paper to be presented at the Society of Biblical Literature, November 2023.
“Christian Imagination of Jews as Criminals and Criminalization of Jews.” Paper to be presented at the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 2023. Memberships
- Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
- Association of Jewish Studies (AJS)
- North American Patristics Society (NAPS)
- Byzantine Studies Association of North America (BSANA)
- The Medieval Academy of America (MAA)
- American Society of Church History (ASCH)
- American Historical Association (AHA)
- Association of Ancient Historians (AAH)
- Society of Classical Studies (SCS)
