Dr Marek Jankowiak is Associate Professor of Byzantine History at University of Oxford.   Dr Jankowiak was a co-Investigator of the “Dirhams for Slaves” project (2013-17), and Newton Fellow at the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford (2011-13). His research interests concentrate on three areas: Byzantium and the Near East in the 7th century, slavery and slave trade in the 9th-11th centuries, and world history.  Dr Jankowiak is interested in the social and economic history of Byzantium in the 9th-11th centuries, and in the contacts of Byzantium with its neighbours such as the Islamic world, the steppe, the Slavs, the Scandinavians, and the western Europeans, with a special focus on the slave trade.  The combination of his Byzantine and Slavic History expertise is ideal for the destinations we will be visiting on the tour.