Research in our Departments

The research conducted in the Department of English Studies is interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and both theoretical and applied.

  • The field of Linguistics focuses on the following areas: Generative linguistics and syntax, phonetics and phonology, language learning, teaching English as a foreign language, translation and interpreting, text linguistics. Particular emphasis is placed on language contact and, mostly, on the sociolinguistic aspects of the relationship between the English and Greek languages ​​and the Cypriot dialect with bilingualism in social parameters  as well as the sociolinguistic context of lexicon borrowing.
  • Research in the Literary Field is characterized by the approach of literary texts (from the 16th to the 21st century), as well as aesthetic and cultural problems, in the light of other (related or unrelated) disciplines, such as philosophy, anthropology , political theory, history, psychoanalysis, ecological and critical legal studies. Various topics in the wider field of “English Studies” are studied both from the center (that is, the Anglo-American geographical, socio-political and cultural space) and from the periphery (in relation to, for example, other literatures such as those of India , the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, etc.).
  • In addition, the Department, in collaboration with other departments and universities abroad, participates in various interdisciplinary research programs. Among them, it is worth mentioning the European program DIALANG, which aims to develop language proficiency diagnostic tests in the languages ​​of the European Union, and the EU-funded ACUME (Approaches to Cultural Memory) program for the study of literary and cultural traditions on an international and comparative basis. The program is coordinated by the University of Bologna.

The Department of French Studies and European Studies ​​develops research in :

  • General and French linguistics – applied linguistics: sociolinguistics, language and gender, language and advertising, language and ideology, discourse analysis, journalistic discourse (utilitarian points in discourse), the language of the “young”, mastering the foreign or the second of languages, vocabulary pedagogy, error analysis, language policy and multilingualism, lexicology, ideology and lexicographic discourse, lexical semantics, computational linguistics, machine translation.
  • French literature and comparative grammar: intertextuality, literary genres, text-image relations, literary geographies and world literature, relations of ancient Greek literature and philosophy, as well as English and American letters, to French thought, French letters and human rights , science and literature, the surrealist movement, the phenomenon of poetic creation, French poetry from Baudelaire to surrealism, the new autobiography.
  • Theory of literature: formalism, narratology, theories of representation, theories of literary reading and reception, hermeneutics, deconstruction, postmodernism, poststructuralism.
  • History of European culture and cultural studies: body, space, cinema studies, cybercriticism, reception of modern French theory in the Anglo-Saxon and Greek-speaking world.

The Department collaborates, among others, with the universities of Nancy, Poitiers, Lyon 2 and 3, Limoges, Montpellier, Villetaneuse (Paris 13), the Ionian University, with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and ATILF. He has also received a grant from the European Jean Monnet program.

The Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies develops research  in different fields of Turkish Studies.

  • History/Politics – Research in relation to both Ottoman and modern Turkish history. The Ottoman Empire and its institutions, Ottoman Cyprus and developments on the island during the Ottoman period (1571-1878). For modern Turkey, research is conducted on both the early period and Kemalism and the rise and dominance of political Islam. At the same time, several research programs concern developments within the Turkish Cypriot community as well as developments in the Southeast Mediterranean region with an emphasis on Muslim states.
  • Literature – Research at the level of Ottoman and Turkish Literature. At the same time, research activity is being developed on Turkish Cypriot literature from both the Ottoman period and the colonial and modern periods.
  • Linguistics – Research on Greek-Turkish language contacts, on the Turkish language and the Turkish Cypriot dialect. Research activity on the history of the Turkish languages ​​(Turkic).