Historisches Institut

Alte Geschichte und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Antike

Dr. Steve Rapp

Assoziierter Forscher

Abteilung für Alte Geschichte und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Antike

1968 Born
1987-1990 Studied Political Science and Russian and East European studies at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA)
1990-1997 Studied Byzantine, Caucasian, Near Eastern, and medieval Eurasian history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA)
1997 PhD in History
1998 PhD dissertation “Imagining History at the Crossroads: Persia, Byzantium, and the Architects of the Written Georgian Past” wins one of six University of Michigan Distinguished Dissertation Awards
1998-2008 Taught Eurasian and world history at Georgia State University, Atlanta (USA)
1999-2008 Director of Georgia State University’s Program in World History and Cultures
2006 Co-founder of and participant in the joint American-Azerbaijani Şərur Rayon Archaeological Project in Naxçıvan (Nakhichevan), Azerbaijan, whose focus was Early Bronze Age/Kura-Araxes Culture sites at Kültəpə II and Maxta I.
2008-2009  Taught world history and academic English at the Russian State Humanities University, Moscow
since 2009 Adjunct Assistant Professor for the University of Oklahoma, Norman (USA)
since 2009 Fellow of the Center for the Exploration of Georgian Antiquities, University of St. Andrew the First-Called, Tbilisi (Republic of Georgia)
since 2010 Associated Researcher, Historisches Institut, University of Bern
2010–2011 Recipient, National Council of Eurasian and East European Research fellowship (USA)
since 2012 Associate Professor of History, Sam Houston State University
since 2014 President, American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC)

History of the Byzantine Commonwealth, especially the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine Empires, the interactions of Rome/Byzantium and Iran, early Christianity, the development of “national” churches, historiography

Wichtige Publikationen

  • The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Aldershot, 2014
  • Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts and Eurasian Contexts, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, vol. 601, subsidia, vol. 113. Louvain, 2003.
  • General editor, K‘art‘lis c‘xovreba: The Georgian Royal Annals and Their Medieval Armenian Adaptation, 2 vols., Anatolian and Caucasian Studies. Delmar, NY, 1998.
  • “The Iranian Heritage of Medieval Georgia: Breathing New Life into the Pre-Bagratid Historiographical Tradition,”Iranica Antiqua 44 (2009): 645-692.
  • “Georgian Sources,” in Byzantines and Crusaders in Non-Greek Sources 1025-1204, Mary Whitby ed. Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 132. Oxford, 2007. Pp. 183-220.
  • “Recovering the Pre-National Caucasian Landscape,” inMythical Landscapes Then and Now: The Mystification of Landscapes in [the] Search for National Identity, Ruth Büttner and Judith Peltz, eds. Erevan, 2006. Pp. 13-52.
  • With Lynda Garland, “Mary ‘of Alania’: Woman and Empress between Two Worlds,” in Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience, 800-1200, Lynda Garland ed. Centre for Hellenistic Studies, King’s College London, Publications vol. 8. Aldershot, 2006. Pp. 91-123.
  • “Chronology, Crossroads, and Commonwealths: World Regional Schemes and the Lessons of Caucasia,” inInteractions: Transregional Perspectives on World History,Jerry H. Bentley, Renate Bridenthal, and Anand A. Yang eds. Honolulu, 2005. Pp. 167-201.
  • “From Bumberazi to Basileus: Writing Cultural Synthesis and Dynastic Change in Medieval Georgia (K‘art‘li),” inEastern Approaches to Byzantium, Antony Eastmond ed. Aldershot, 2001. Pp. 101-116.