2023
“Life as a soldier on the northern frontier of Byzantium, 6th and 11th century,” keynote address for the online international conference “War in Byzantine and Mediterranean Contexts (9th-16th Centuries) – History, Archaeology, Philosophy” (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, December 8, 2023)
“The rise of Wal(l)achia and Moldavia: new viewpoints,” online lecture for the ISTROS/AISEES “Nicolaus Olahus – Connecting History” conference, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University (Iaşi, April 26, 2023)
2022
“To beard the lion: male identity in East Central Europe (6th to 9th century),” online lecture for the International Graduate Student Conference “‘Wer bin ich?’ Kulturkontakt und Identität (Entstehung, Pflege und Veränderung) in der Antike,” doctoral program of the Department of Antiquity (Altertumwissenschaft), University of Basel (Basel, November 28, 2022)
“Common legacy? Roman nostalgias in Near Barbaricum (6th to 7th centuries),” online paper presented at 10th International Scientific Symposium on Byzantine Studies and Medieval Studies “Days of Justinian” (Skopje, November 10, 2022)
“Coins, trade and modes of production: a view from Eastern Europe,” keynote address for the FLAME conference “Networks in transition. Monetary exchange from Antiquity to the Middle Ages,” Princeton University (March 18, 2022)
“The early Slavs in the Balkans (500-620),” online lecture for the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies, University of Padova (March 14, 2022)
“Where have all the Avars gone? A comparative view,” online lecture for the series “Nicolae Olahus–conectând istoria” organized by Societatea de Ştiințe istorice “Istros” together with the American Institute of South-East European Studies (April 13, 2022)
“Gesta Hungarorum ca parodie de gen,” keynote address for the National Congress of Romanian Historians (Alba Iulia, September 9, 2022)
2021
“Casting light on the ‘Dark Ages’ in Byzantium: the Velestino hoard,” online lecture for the Archaeological Institute of America, Jacksonville society (November 20, 2021)
“Slavii timpurii şi etnogeneza lor în arheologia sovietică şi post-sovietică,” online lecture for the international conference “Cercetarea şi valorificarea patrimoniului arheologic medieval,” Pedagogical State University “Ion Creangă”, Chişinău, November 4, 2021
“Profilul economic şi social al zonei Dunării în secolele VI-VII. Un demers comparativ,” online lecture for the Department of History, Patrimony and Protestant Theology, “Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu (May 13, 2021)
“Cu gândul la bărbații adevărați, sau arheologia bărbilor din bazinul carpatic şi regiunile învecinate (sec. VI-IX),” lecture for the online Colloquia Archaeologica, Institutul de Arheologie şi Istoria Artei, Cluj-Napoca (April 14, 2021)
“The early Slavs and their ethnogenesis in Soviet and post-Soviet archaeology,” lecture for the Early Slavic webinar, Oxford University (February 23, 2021)
2017
“Monede, castre şi schimburi comerciale în Peninsula Balcanică (secolul al VI-lea-începutul secolului al VII-lea),” lecture in the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology (Bucharest, June 8, 2017)
“Etnicitate în zona Mării Negre în secolele VI-VII,” lecture in the Department of History, Patrimony, and Protestant Theology (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, May 31, 2017)
“Sf. Sava din Serbia (o notă biografică, cu accent pe rolul său ca om al Bisericii),” lecture for the “Serile Sibiului” series (Café Wien, Sibiu, May 24, 2017)
“Poziţia mormintelor de copii în cimitirele medievale din Ungaria şi Polonia în secolele XI-XII” (together with Matthew Koval), lecture in the Institute for Social and Human Studies (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, May 23, 2017)
“Migraţii în arheologia Europei de est şi sud-est în Evul mediu timpuriu,” lecture in the Department of History, Patrimony, and Protestant Theology (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, May 22, 2017)
2016
“An uneasy relation: Byzantium and the nomads,” Byzantium Studies public lecture, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C., October 13, 2016)
“Clay pans and pita bread in early medieval Europe, from Spain to Eastern Europe,” lecture for the Archaeological Institute of America, Jacksonville society (Jacksonville, Florida, September 17, 2016)
“Mobile warriors in the 6th-century Balkans,” lecture for the Archaeological Institute of America, Gainesville society (Gainesville, Florida, September 14, 2016)
“Remarks on coins, forts, and commercial exchanges in the 6th and early 7th-century Balkans,” lecture for the FLAME conference “Coins, minting, and economy in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages” (Princeton University, April 29, 2016)
2015
“Ethnicity in medieval archaeology,” lecture for the seminar on theory in archaeology (University of Reading, November 30, 2015)
“The Vlachs in the French Chronicles of the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople, and the echo chamber,” lecture for the Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Seminar (Ioannou Center for Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford, November 25, 2015)
“The Vlachs and the Fourth Crusade,” lecture for School of History, Archaeology, and Religion seminar series (University of Cardiff, November 17, 2015)
“Trade and settlement in al-Andalus and Volga Bulgharia (10th-11th c.),” lecture for the School of Archaeology research seminar series, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford (Oxford, November 2, 2015)
“Avar Blitzkrieg, Bulgar and Slavic raiders, and Roman special ops: mobile warriors in the 6th-century Balkans,” lecture for the Department of Archaeology seminar series on “Mobility” (University of Reading, October 29, 2015)
“The Enisala grave: bioarchaeology, social status, health care, and ethnicity in early 7th-century Dobrudja (Romania),” lecture for the Department of Archaeology research seminar series (University of Exeter, October 16, 2015)
“Was there a Byzantine reconquista in Greece between the 8th and the 11th century?” lecture for the international seminar “El Mediterráneo oriental en época medieval” at the Centro de Estudios Avanzados of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Santiago de Chile, June 10, 2015)
“The reinvention of the Middle Ages in the Romanian rock music, 1960-1975,” lecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago de Chile, June 5, 2015)
“The current state of research on the earliest Slavs in the Balkans,” lecture at the Institute of History of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Viña del Mar, Chile, June 2, 2015)
“Ethnicity, archaeology, and nationalism. Remarks on the current state of research,” lecture at the Institute of History of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Viña del Mar, Chile, June 1, 2015)
“The making of the Slavs, 14 years later. New remarks on the history and archaeology of the early Slavs in the Balkans, 6th to 7th centuries),” lecture at the American Research Center in Sofia (Sofia, Bulgaria, May 11, 2015)
“Postcards from Maurilia, or the historiography of the Dark-Age cities of Byzantium,” keynote address for the American Research Center in Sofia conference “Town and Country in the Byzantine World. Social and Economic Perspectives” (American Research Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 7, 2015)
“The coming of the Dark Ages to Europe: the case of the Balkans,” lecture in the Department of History (University of South Florida, Tampa, March 20, 2015)
“Apariţia slavilor, 14 ani mai târziu. Consideraţii privind slavii timpurii în Europa central-răsăriteană,” lecture in the Department of History, Patrimony, and Protestant Theology (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, March 3, 2015)
“Etnicitate, arheologie şi nationalism. O privire asupra cercetărilor din ultimul deceniu,” lecture in the Institute for Social and Human Studies (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, March 2, 2015)
“Europa central-răsăriteană ca poartă spre Bizanţ (până la mijlocul secolului al XIII-lea),” lecture in the Department of History, Patrimony, and Protestant Theology (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, March 3, 2015)
“Imaginea vlahilor la cronicarii cruciadei a IV-a: până unde răzbate ecoul discuţiilor intelectuale de la Constantinopol?” lecture for the “Serile Sibiului” series (Café Wien, Sibiu, March 4, 2015)
“Quaestura exercitus şi avarii: o legătură nebănuită?” lecture at the Museum for Transylvanian Ethnography (Cluj-Napoca, March 5, 2015)
2014
“East Central Europe: the gate to Byzantium,” keynote address for the international workshop “A Forgotten Region? East Central Europe in the Global Middle Ages” (Central European University, Budapest, March 27, 2014)
“Some remarks on the Byzantine reconquista in Greece,” public lecture for the Center of Greek Studies (University of Florida, February 15, 2014)
“Getting into the heads of the medieval people,” lecture for the University of Florida History of Medicine (University of Florida, January 17, 2014; again on February 18, 2015)
2013
“The beginning of the Middle Ages in the Balkans,” series of five lectures for the 16th Ohrid Summer University (Ohrid, August 15-19, 2013)
“A historian’s look at climate change,” lecture for the conference of the Institute of Gainesville, “Challenges for Florida in the 21st Century. Understanding Energy and Growth” (Gainesville, April 19, 2013)
2012
“’Slavic’ bow fibulae and the migration of the Slavs,” lecture for “Slavic origins. A Linguistic-historical workshop,” Wolfson College (Oxford, December 10, 2012)
“Some remarks on borderlands, border lords, and ‘borderlanders’,” discussant report presented at the symposium “Power at the limits of authority in pre-modern polities” organized for the 77th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (Memphis, April 18-22, 2012)
“In line with Omurtag and Alfred: linear frontiers in the ninth century,” lecture at the Institute for Historical Research (London, March 29, 2012)
“The beginning of the Middle Ages in the Balkans. The ‘short’ Dark Ages (ca. 620 to ca. 680),” master lecture at the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, March 28, 2012)
“Transitions,” lecture for “Byzantine Archaeology in North America. Conversations on Archaeology II. The Role of the American Overseas Research Centers” symposium, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Washington, January 14, 2012)
2011
“A conspicuous absence: Charlemagne’s peculiar reception in medieval East Central Europe,” Reece Kelly lecture at Fort Lewis College (Durango, Colorado, March 30, 2011)
“Distant elites: contacts between eastern Lithuania and the Carpathian Basin (ca. 380 to ca. 630),” lecture for the Archaeological Institute of America, Gainesville society (Gainesville, Florida, March 15, 2011)
2009
“The other Adriatic coast between the eighth and the ninth century,” lecture for the international conference Da un mare all’altro. Luoghi di scambio nell’Alto Medioevo Europeo e Mediterraneo (Comacchio, Italy, March, 27-29, 2009)
“Ethnicity in the archaeology of the early Middle Ages: the case of the early Slavs in the Adriatic region (Croatia, Slovenia, Italy,” lecture for Archaeology and Ethnicity. Methodology in a Central Question of Archaeology, a giornata di studi organized by the German Archaeological Institute and the Austrian Institute of Historical Studies in Rome (Rome, Italy, March 30, 2009)
2007
“The archaeology of early medieval service settlements in Eastern Europe,” lecture for the Institute of Archaeology and Museum Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Masaryk University in Brno (Brno, Czech Republic, December 6, 2007)
“The making of the Slavs (with special emphasis on Bohemia and Moravia),” lecture for the Institute for Prehistory and Early History, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague (Prague, Czech Republic, December 4, 2007)
“The northwestern region of the Black Sea during the sixth and early seventh century,” lecture for the Late Antique and Early Byzantine Studies Seminar, University of Oxford (Oxford, United Kingdom, November 28, 2007)
“Over fifty years later: the Setton-Charanis controversy and the “Slavic problem” in Greece,” lecture for the Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey, February 28, 2007)
“Tenth-century cave monasticism and fortified frontiers,” lecture for the Historical Studies Lunch Colloquia, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey, February 12, 2007)
“The stirrup controversy revisited,” lecture for the Medieval Wednesday Table, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey, February 6, 2007)
2006
“Byzantium between 843 and 1204,” lecture at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Service Institute George P. Shultz (Washington, October 13, 2006)
“What is Europe? A Historical Perspective,” lecture for the Center of European Studies, University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida, September 27, 2006)
“Greece in the Dark Ages,” lecture for the students of the American-Italian archaeological team in Muro Leccese (Salento, Italy, August 24, 2006)
2004
“The making of the Slavs in Greece: the Setton-Charanis controversy revisited,” guest lecture in the 2004-2005 Byzantino-Slavic lecture series “Archaeology and the Medieval Balkans” at the Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio, November 8, 2004)
“Merovingian gift-giving,” lecture at the invitation of the Medieval Institute and the Department of History, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 17, 2004)
2003
“The making of the Slavs reconsidered,” lecture for the International Workshop “Slawische Ursprünge/Slavic Origins” of the Forschungsstelle für Geschichte des Mittelalters of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna, Austria, January 17-18, 2003)
2002
“Rock monasteries on medieval frontiers,” lecture for the archaeological summer school, Granard, Co. Longford (Ireland), June, 28, 2002
“Frontier ethnogenesis in Late Antiquity: the Danube, the Tervingi, and the Slavs,” lecture for the Program in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations, Rice University (Houston, Texas, April 18, 2002)
2000
“Basarabi: a rock monastery on the tenth-century frontier of medieval Bulgaria,” lecture in the Florida Museum of Natural History Archaeology Brown Bag Series (Gainesville, Florida, February 9, 2000)
“Byzantine Dark Ages,” lecture for the Department of Classics at the University of Florida (Spring 2000; again in Spring 2001)
1999
“Pots and Slavs: archaeology, ethnicity and the construction of national identities,” lecture at the invitation of the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, April 2, 1999)