Roland Betancourt

Betancourt is a professor at University of California, Irvine, and author of Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages available now from Princeton University Press.

Dignitaries, detail from Theodora and her entourage, mosaic, south wall of the apse, Basilica of San Vitale (UNESCO World Heritage List, 1996), Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna. Italy, 6th century.

What the QAnon of the 6th Century Teaches Us About Conspiracies

The stories peddled by QAnon supporters today strike an all too familiar ch...

The stories peddled by QAnon supporters today strike an all too familiar chord. Not only are many of their narratives routed in late medieval “blood libel,” but the way they manage to straddle the dichotomy...

Fourteenth century tombstone relief at a monastery built in 1009 in the Pyrenees

The Overlooked Queer History of Medieval Christianity

One might assume same-gender desire is at odds with historical Christianity...

One might assume same-gender desire is at odds with historical Christianity, but the medieval world offers potent glimmers of queer community