DPhil Student
St John's College
My ethnographic research focuses on the protracted dividing line in Cyprus and its complex manifestation in the UN-supervised Pyla village and the British-administered Pergamos village, engaging with themes such as kinship, gossip and surveillance, post-colonialism and infrastructure, temporality and adaptation. Moving away from Nicosia, often referred to as ‘the last divided capital’ and the primary site for border studies in Cyprus, I aim to offer more intimate insights into how this border manifests and is experienced beyond its urban epicentre. I investigate how border life and village life intersect; how kinship ties and social relations are affected by and affect the border. Pyla and Pergamos are arguably the most contested areas on the island where four authorities interact; the Republic of Cyprus, the de-facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the United Nations and the British Overseas Territories administration. For the residents of these villages, constantly negotiating with these authorities, waiting in line at the checkpoints to get to their homes, and facing bureaucratic challenges to cross goods have all become mundane parts of their daily lives. By delineating their experiences, I raise broader questions about the normalisation and adaptation to the challenging conditions of borders, a phenomenon that is often overlooked in Cyprus and border studies.