On November 21, 2018 at Queen’s University Belfast, Deacon Andrei defended his dissertation “Chasing Canon 15 of the First and Second Council in Constantinople (861): A Study of the Limits of Communion in the Byzantine Church (861- c.1350).”
At the viva voce examination chaired by Dr. Sinead O’Sullivan, external examiners Dr. Peter Petkoff (Brunel University London) and Dr. Shaun Tougher (Cardiff University) recommended approval of Psarev’s dissertation for the degree of PhD in history once he completed minor corrections required at the meeting.
In the letter from the university of May 2, 2019 Deacon Andrei was informed that he met all the criteria set out in the Study Regulations for Research Degree Programs and accordingly his name was published as qualified for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. At the ceremony on June 28 Deacon Andrei was the last of the cohort of graduands associated with the Institute of Byzantine Studies, which was closed in 2009, but still represented by Psarev’s supervisor Dr. Dion Smythe until his departure from Queen’s in 2015.
