Professor Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu, FRHistS

About

Professor Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu is a lecturer in Byzantine and Medieval Studies in the Department of Continuing Education, a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Medieval Research, and Examiner/Assessor for the Faculty of Theology. 

She teaches and researches in the fields of Byzantine philosophy and art, history of ideas, and Medieval Europe. At the moment her research deals with visual motifs on artefacts discovered in various places on the continent and in the UK.

Among Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu’s latest books are: Byzantine and Medieval Cappadocia (Glendale, CA, 2024); Michelangelo, the Byzantines, and Plato (Oxford, 2021); Glimpses into Byzantium. Its Philosophy and Arts (Oxford, 2021); Creation and Time. Byzantine and Modern (Oxford, 2021), and Heavenly Sustenance in Patristic Texts and Byzantine Iconography: Nourished by the Word (Palgrave, 2018), which was an Early Slavic Studies Association Book and Article Prize Winner 2019. 

Her articles feature in journals, for instance Byzantinoslavica, The Journal of Theological Studies, Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes, Studia Patristica, Journal of Ancient History, The Journal of Early Christian History, The International Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, The International Journal of Studies about Levant, Akropolis, The European Journal of Theology and Philosophy, and Athens Journal of History.

Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu has been teaching for the Department of Continuing Education since 2011. She is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu was a Visiting Professor in Byzantine culture at the Macquarie University in Sydney (2022-2023). 

In 2024, Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu curated an exhibition of research photos and copies of Roman mosaics (Western and Eastern/Byzantine), titled The Romans and Us at Wolfson College, Oxford University. In 2024, she organised an exhibition of icons entitled Byzantium then and now, also at Wolfson.

In 2023, Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Professor Drăghici-Vasilescu holds a DPhil/PhD from the University of Oxford; a Dipl. Anthrop. from the University of Oxford; an MA from Ottawa, and a BA in Philosophy and History from the University of Bucharest. She has published the first part of her professional autobiography titled Amintiri de călătorie prin viaţă (Oxford 2023) and is working now on its translation into English as Memories of journeying through life.