David Williams

Professor Williams is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Core and Co-Director of the Master’s Program in Orthodox Christian Theology. He began his training as an historian at CSU Fullerton, BA 2013 and received his MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2015. His research areas include Byzantine relations with the West from 600-1453; Greek Palaeography and Shared Sacred Space. His MA dissertation investigated the contribution of the canons of the Quinisext Council (629) to anti-heretical literature and the schism between the Byzantine and Latin Churches.

His PhD thesis is entitled Shared Sacred Spaces: Saints, Relics and Sacred Objects in the Byzantine Mediterranean. Recent publications include: “Did The Crusades Change the Byzantine Perception of Holy War?” in Porphyra, “Mediterranean Religion”, Duke University,  “Christian Saints as allies of non Christians” and “Did Byzantium practice Holy War?” Orthodoxes Forum, University of Munich. Professor Williams has taught courses in History, the Integrated Core and Humanities at USK since 2016. As thesis advisor he has supervised six senior thesis students with topics ranging from Orthodox theology, the Crusades, and modern history, to Viking studies. In addition to his teaching and research, Professor Williams has served as a Deacon of the Orthodox Church in Southern California since 2014.