St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki as Environmental Crisis Manager (6th to 9th centuries CE)

My dissertation, “Political Ecology of the Eastern Roman City”, examines how the people’s responses to environmental change lead to development or resilient architectural and political practices during the empire’s tumultuous Early Medieval period (6th to 9th centuries CE). With the aid of the GGR grant, I will travel to Thessaloniki, Greece, in order to conduct on-site research in archaeological sites and museums for the dissertation’s final chapter, which considers the role of St Demetrios, the city’s patron saint, as environmental crisis manager, serving as a catalyst for the urban populations to express their political needs in the times of earthquakes.