Annick Peters Custot

Professor Annick Peters Custot is a distinguished scholar of Medieval History at the University of Nantes, where she serves as Director of the UFR History, History of Art and Archaeology. With a career spanning over two decades, she has established herself as a leading expert on Byzantine and Norman Southern Italy, with particular focus on Italo-Greek communities and their cultural, religious, and political dynamics during the 9th-13th centuries.

Her research interests encompass a wide range of interdisciplinary topics including the history of monastic and liturgical contacts between the Byzantine world and the West, Western representations of Byzantium, political ideology of the Kingdom of Sicily, and the concept of imperiality in medieval political thought. Her scholarly approach combines traditional historical methods with cultural, linguistic, and religious analysis to examine cross-cultural exchanges in the medieval Mediterranean.

Professor Peters Custot's recent publications reveal a consistent focus on Byzantine-Western interactions, with particular attention to religious communities, monastic networks, and political ideology. Her work demonstrates how Byzantine cultural elements were transmitted, adapted, and transformed within Norman and Swabian contexts in Southern Italy, challenging simplistic notions of cultural domination and highlighting complex processes of mutual influence and adaptation.

• President of CFEB (Comité français des Études byzantines) since 2023
• Member of Louvre Museum acquisition committee for Byzantine arts since 2022
• Director of the 'Pax Normanna' research program (2022-2026)
• Former Vice-President of SHMESP (2016-2019)

As an academic leader, Professor Peters Custot has supervised numerous research projects and publications, fostering international collaboration among scholars of Byzantine and medieval studies. Her leadership roles in professional organizations and research programs demonstrate her commitment to advancing the field through institutional support and scholarly coordination. Her work bridges traditional historical scholarship with contemporary theoretical approaches to cultural exchange and identity formation in the medieval Mediterranean world.