ANGELIKI LAIOU, 1941-2008

ANGELIKI LAIOU, 1941-2008

Dumbarton Oaks announces with great sadness the death of its former
director, Angeliki Laiou, on December 11 after a valiant struggle
against a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer. Angeliki, who
directed this institution from 1989-1998, was associated with
Dumbarton Oaks for over a quarter century, from the time of her
appointment as Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History at
Harvard University in 1981. She served as a Senior Fellow from 1983-
1991 and from 1998-2008, and also acted as Director of Byzantine
Studies from 1989-1991 and from 1996-1997. She ensured institutional
support for several major scholarly projects, including the final
stage of production of The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (to which
she was an important contributor and member of the Adviusory Board),
the Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, vols. 4 and 5 of the
Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and
in the Whittemore Collection, the first three volumes of the
Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum
of Art, the Byzantine Saints' Lives in Translation series, and the on-
line Byzantine Hagiography Database Project.
A brilliant scholar of Byzantine economic and social history,
Angeliki maintained an active scholarly agenda during her tenure as
director, despite the burden of her administrative duties. During the
1990s she organized or co-organized a number of colloquia and
symposia at Dumbarton Oaks which resulted in significant
publications: the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the founding of
the program in Byzantine studies at Dumbarton Oaks (Byzantium, A
World Civilization [1991, published 1992], with Henry Maguire),
Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval
Societies (1992, published 1993), Law and Society in Byzantium, Ninth-
Twelfth Centuries (1992, published 1994, with Dieter Simon), Studies
on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire [1993, published
1998] with Hélène Ahrweiler, and The Crusades from the Perspective of
Byzantium and the Muslim World (1997, published 2001, with Roy
Mottahedeh). Angeliki also directed or co-directed two additional
symposia, whose papers were published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 44
(1990) and 58 (2004) : "The Byzantine Family and Household" in 1989
and "Realities in the Arts of the Medieval Mediterranean, 800-1500"
in 2002.
Last but not least, it should be noted that while she was still
director of Dumbarton Oaks Angeliki embarked on preparation of The
Economic History of Byzantium from the Seventh through the Fifteenth
Century, for which she served as editor-in-chief. This monumental
multi-authored work, in three volumes, was published by Dumbarton
Oaks in 2002 and in a Greek translation in 2006.
The passing of Angeliki Laiou is a great loss for the field of
Byzantine studies, for Harvard University, and for the community of
Dumbarton Oaks. Expressions of condolence may be sent to her son,
Vassili Thomadakis, at 43 Upland Road, Cambridge, MA 02140. Funeral
and burial services will be held in Greece, and a memorial service is
scheduled at Harvard some time in the month of January.