Research in our Departments

 

Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 

You can refer to the corresponding Greek language for more information.

 

The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR) at UCY spurs and promotes groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in medieval studies. Its unique approach to the study of medieval arts and rituals addresses a long-standing gap in existing research that has not seen medieval arts and rituals as the interdependent and complementary practices that they truly are. CeMAR proceeds on the premise that medieval arts are imbricated with medieval rituals.

 

The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR) at the University of Cyprus spurs and promotes groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in medieval studies. Its unique approach to the study of medieval arts and rituals addresses a long-standing gap in existing research that has not seen medieval arts and rituals as the interdependent and complementary practices that they truly are. CeMAR proceeds on the premise that medieval arts are imbricated with medieval rituals.

Adopting a holistic approach to medieval arts and rituals, CeMAR greatly contributes to and informs our modern understanding of arts and practices in the medieval period while also highlighting the diverse and exciting ways in which medieval arts and rituals persevere and survive in our times. At the same time, it sheds light on previously understudied facets of medieval times. To study medieval arts and rituals in our modern, Cypriot, context is to bring us closer to our heritage: not only to see it and recognise it, but also learn how to preserve it and how to carry it forward.

In this and in many other ways, CeMAR contributes to a broader effort, supported by the European Union and recently charted by the European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st century, or Strategy 21, of conserving our common European heritage.

CeMAR, the only dedicated research centre for the study of medieval arts and rituals in Cyprus, is also unique in its cross-disciplinary focus. It is a centre that houses all disciplines associated with the Humanities (Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Philology, Literature, Classics, Medieval Studies, Philosophy, Theology, Anthropology, Musicology, Visual Arts, Performance Arts, and Cultural Studies) – fields represented in CeMAR by members of the academic staff, postdoctoral associates, as well as several international scholars and researchers who have lent their support to CeMAR.

 

Institute for Modern Greek Studies-Petrondas was founded in 2010.

You can refer to the corresponding Greek language for more information.

 

Department of History and Archaeology

The Department of History and Archaeology was established in 1996 to promote the study of the human past in the Mediterranean and the broader European region. Its chief activities consist of teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and conducting postgraduate and academic research. In the field of archaeology, the Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) of the University of Cyprus was founded in 1992-93, and has been functioning under the Department’s aegis since 1996.

At the local, European and international levels, the Department of History and Archaeology has developed into a distinguished centre for the study of the history, archaeology and art of Cyprus, the wider Greek world, the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Europe, thus constituting a potent driving force for the valorization and preservation of the island’s cultural heritage. The Department’s academic and research staff carry out cutting-edge research in Cyprus and abroad, which often involves coordinating or taking part in major national, European and international research projects. Furthermore, they train tomorrow’s scholars both in the classroom and in the field, furnishing them with the requisite methodological tools and background knowledge for a successful career in the world of culture and education. Above all else, the Department focuses on instilling core ethical values, stimulating critical thinking, spurring creativity and the ability to engage in healthy discourse as a way to meaningfully contribute to Cyprus’ scientific, social and cultural advancement and its productive integration in today’s globalized world.

The Department offers a joint degree in History and Archaeology. The degree allows graduates to undertake postgraduate studies in either of the aforementioned fields, as well as to seek employment at a variety of sectors, bodies and institutions, such as Secondary Education, the Archaeological Service, the Diplomatic Service, research centres, archives, cultural foundations, museums and galleries etc.

The Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) of the University of Cyprus, the first research unit of this academic institution, was founded in 1991 and its primary aims were to conduct active research and to teach the ancient culture of Cyprus and neighbouring civilisations in the Mediterranean.
Collections of Archaeological Research Unit

Collection for Ancient Cypriote Metallurgy

Prof. U. Zwicker of the University of Erlangen (Germany) has donated to the Archaeological Research Unit his personal collection of more than 2,000 archaeometallurgical samples from Cyprus.

The Collection is in the service of research students and other scholars who are working on the archaeology of Cyprus. They are also used for the teaching of the course of Archaeometallurgy. The Archaeological Research Unit has microscopes and other specialized equipment, for the preparation of samples necessary for the study of the collection and other archaeological material.

Collection of Environmental Archaeology

The Collection for Environmental Archaeology includes a variety of reference collections relating to the environment and natural resources of ancient Cyprus. The collections include samples of the local fauna and flora as well as geological samples of ores and minerals. The collections have been formed with the help of independent specialists and specialists from the relevant Governmental Departments.

The Collection is in the service of research students and other scholars who are working on the archaeology of Cyprus. They are also used for the teaching of the courses of Environmental Archaeology.

Archaeological Collection of the Former Academy for Education

The Archaeological Research Unit houses and exhibits the archaeological collection of the old Paedagogical Institute. This includes ancient Cypriot ceramics, metal and stone artifacts of various periods. The Collection has been enriched with objects donated by various individuals.

Archive of Photographs

In order to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Cyprus, the Archaeological Research Unit, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities and the A. G. Leventis Foundation, has started photographing the monuments and archaeological sites of Paphos, as well as the objects in the Paphos District Museum, for the formation of an archive which, as planned, will eventually cover the cultural heritage of the whole island. The Archaeological Research Unit also houses the photographic archive of Joan du Plat Taylor relating to Cyprus.

Theses

The Research Archaeological Unit has a collection of doctoral and master theses  related to Archaeology subjects.

Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology (PoCA)

Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology (PoCA) meetings are more like workshops than conferences. They were originally designed to provide postgraduate researchers in Cypriot archaeology with a forum in which to present their work, discuss some central themes of their research, meet people who work in the same area, and exchange ideas and information in a friendly and collegial environment. In line with this, one of PoCA’s main objectives and conceptions is the organisation and publication of the conference by doctoral students for doctoral students and recent postdocs (i.e. up to 6 years after completion of their PhDs).
PoCA’s first meeting was organised by Cambridge University and held in 2001. In the first years of its life, the conference remained a local event and mainly involved students in the UK and Ireland. The 2005 Dublin workshop was the first attempt to transform PoCA into an international event. The aim was to make the workshop inclusive of time periods not usually covered by the conference and to include cultural heritage management. Perceiving the need for the survival of such a forum, and the usefulness of interdisciplinary studies, PoCA 2005 welcomed participants from disciplines other than pure archaeology. In addition, it welcomed early career researchers, in an attempt to share ideas between beginners and established scholars. It also achieved, for the first time, an international profile, with participants from various countries, including Cyprus itself.
In the following years PoCA travelled to many places across Europe, taking the form of an international congress, with the papers published either in the form of proceedings, a collected volume under a broad thematic title, or as a special issue of a journal or a series. Following PoCA 2015 in Torino there was a gap of three years after which the conference was revived and held for a third time in Germany, organised by Humboldt University, Berlin.
During the 2019 meeting in Berlin, a resolution was made: it was determined that we, collectively, should ensure that this forum is kept going for many years into the future. In order to achieve this, it was decided that a steering committee should be established to secure the continuation, succession process and future of PoCA. In addition, it was resolved that a website with all the information on every PoCA meeting (since its beginning) would be hosted by the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus.
During the meeting every year, each organising committee, following voting among the doctoral students and early career researchers, will announce the succession of PoCA. Ideally, candidates of the next organising committee should be there to present their proposal, after securing the support of their Institution.
Graduate Forum for Mediterranean Archaeology For Arc 

FoMArc, as a student initiative, aims to serve as an occasion where UCY’s Archaeology postgraduate students (MA students and PhD candidates at any stage), who engage in research in different archaeological fields, can share their research with their peers from other institutions focusing on the Mediterranean region. This biennial international event intends to create a welcoming hub of archaeological research, exchanging academic experiences and ideas, a casual opportunity for networking and eventually, operate as a safe ground for reaching a broad audience in Mediterranean Archaeology.

FoMArc is supported by the Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) and the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus.

Department of Classical Studies and Philosophy 

Along with teaching, research is an activity of utmost importance for the Department of Classics and Philosophy. It is conducted at the most demanding level, and is published in international journals and by leading publishers. Our research concerns the areas of classics, historical linguistics and philosophy.

Classics

 

Reconstructing the lost autographs of ancient authors
Transmission of ancient texts; textual criticism and its intersection with interpretation; editorial technique.

Epigraphy 

Depiction, study, commentary, and edition of Greek and Latin inscriptions.

Papyrology

Reading, editing and interpreting papyrus texts from Graeco-Roman Egypt; the contributions of literary papyri to Greek literary history and textual criticism; literary papyri and the ancient book; documentary papyri as sources for Hellenistic and Roman history; the Greek language and the papyri.

Historiography 

Research on Greek historiography focuses on the study of prose texts from various sub-genres with their particular characteristics. Textual interpretation is based on the analysis of ideology, the exploration of genre boundaries, the identification of narrative techniques, stylistic choices, communicative aims and persuasion strategies, and is cross-fertilized with knowledge stemming from the disciplines of history and archaeology.

Drama 

Research on Greek Drama extends from historical and philological questions to theoretical issues concerning the constitution of the main dramatic genres. Based on the text of tragic and comic poets, a further object of study are individual and collective reception as a result of cognitive processing and emotional responses to the dramatic phenomenon.

Ancient Greek scholarship

The development of scholarship on language and literature in Greek antiquity. Grammarians,  lexicographers and scholiasts.

Latin epic poetry

Intertextuality and intratextuality in Latin epic poetry; matters of literary succession and imitation; symbolism, allegory and political propaganda in Latin epic poems; means of character portrayal and literary depiction in Latin epic poetry.

Roman verse satire

Literary criticism and generic interfaces in Roman verse satire; the language and the style of the Roman satirists; the social, moral, political and philosophical views of the four representative authors of Roman verse satire and the way in which these views are reflected in their works.

Latin rhetoric

Analysis and interpretation of Latin rhetorical speeches; rhetorical strategies for praise and invective; stylistic variations between rhetorical speeches and the factors that determine their occurrence; the influence of poetry on Roman rhetoric and vice versa.

Neronian and Flavian literature

The literary developments during the Neronian and the Flavian period in contrast to the literature of the earlier periods (especially in contrast to the Augustan period); matters of generic enrichment in the Imperial Age; philosophical influence on the literature of the period; ideological, political and cultural views in relation to the social and literary developments of the time.

Ancient epigrammatic poetry

Analysis and interpretation of the multifaceted epigrammatic production from classical to late antiquity; the influence of different cultural contexts on epigrammatic compositions; the interaction of literary epigram with other literary genres as well as inscriptions.

Ancient epistolography

The broad field of ancient letter writing, both for literary and pragmatic purposes; the flexibility of the epistolary genre and the dynamic interaction of letters with other genres; strategies of communication and networking in antiquity.

Late antique poetry

Continuation of classical education and innovative changes in late antique poetry; the impact of changed historical, religious and cultural contexts on the poetic production.

 

Linguistics

 

Language and linguistics 

History of Greek language from the mycenaean era through the modern times; description, analysis and interpretation of language forms in their historical, geographical and social contexts. Historical grammar and dialectology of Ancient Greek.

History of other Indo-European languages and texts: Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Tocharian, Phrygian, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, etc. Linguistic reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European.

Comparative mythology and poetics. Greek religion: study of Greek cults and rituals from a comparative-historical viewpoint.

Linguistic and cultural contacts in Ancient Mediterranean with the focus on the contacts between Greece and the inhabitants of Asia Minor (Hittites, Luwians, Persians, etc.).

 

Philosophy 

History of philosophy

History of analytic philosophy. History of philosophy of science. 19th and 20th century European philosophy. History of aesthetics.

Philosophy of Science:

Realism and Antirealism, The nature of Scientific Explanation, The nature of Scientific Models, The nature of Scientific Theories, Idealization and Abstraction in Science, The nature of Scientific Representation.

Metaethics

The metaphysics, epistemology, semantics and psychology of morality. Intuitionism. Virtue theory. Moral Rationality. Expressivism. Normativity. Evolutionary Debunking Arguments.

Epistemology

Theory of Knowledge and Justification. Epistemic rationality and normativity. Skepticism. Epistemic probability. Understanding. Metaepistemology.

Metaphysics

Τhe nature of properties and relations; the ontological structure of objects; powers, dispositions and categorical properties; the ontology of laws and the nature of fundamental symmetries. Metaphysics of consciousness.

Meta-metaphysics

Τhe relation between science and metaphysics. Anti-realism and the metaphysics of science.

Last Updated on January 30, 2026