Stephen Rapp

Contact

Dr. Stephen Rapp, Jr. 

srapp@shsu.edu

Subproject Caucasus

Stephen Rapp is Professor of Eurasian and World History at Sam Houston State University (USA). He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in Byzantine history with a focus on late antique and medieval Caucasia (especially Armenia, Georgia, and Caucasian Albania). His research investigates cross-cultural and cosmopolitan fabric of Caucasia as well as the region’s membership in the overlapping Romano-Byzantine, Islamic, and especially Iranian worlds. His latest monograph, The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Byzantine Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature, was published by Ashgate in 2014. Among other things, he demonstrates the perpetuation of Caucasia’s Iranian and Iranic (Persianate) social matrix for centuries after the Christianization of the isthmus’ three monarchies in the 300s. His ongoing projects include a study of the development and dialogue of Christian conversion traditions among the Armenians, Georgians, and Albanians; an exploration of the polity Aryan Kartli (“Iranian Georgia”) in the late Achaemenid era; and a cross-cultural history of the entire Caucasus region through the Mongol conquest.

Dr Rapp has conducted archival and fieldwork in all three republics of post-Soviet Caucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) as well as the Russian Federation, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Among his research fellowships are awards from Fulbright-Hayes, IREX, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER), and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

Vita and Publications

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