CyI PhD students present APAC Labs research at Columbia University’s Center for the Ancient Mediterranean

On November 22, CyI doctoral students and faculty presented aspects of APAC Labs and STARC research at Columbia University’s Center for the Ancient Mediterranean (CAM). Short talks on topics related to student’s doctoral research  were part of a group presentation featuring Columbia University and CyI graduate students reflecting on the learning experience of the Graduate Study Tour of Cyprus which was held in the end of August 2024.  The Study Visit program was organized jointly between Columbia and CyI  and was led by Prof. Holger Klein and Assoc. Prof. Nikolas Bakirtzis respectively.  The event offered the chance for participants in this summer’s seminar to share their experiences and to workshop new ideas emerging  from the summer program. CyI PhD students Nicolette Levy, Soodabeh Sajadi, and Mehmetcan Soyluoglu offered insights into their work and discussed new avenues of research inspired by the collaborative academic environment of the summer study tour of the island.

Nicolette presented ongoing research about the wall paintings of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Pedoulas, which is part of her dissertation project investigating artistic practices in Medieval Cyprus and the broader Eastern Mediterranean. Soodabeh highlighted the role of American institutions in the conservation efforts of Cypriot heritage monuments, primarily focusing on the contributions of  Dumbarton Oaks and David Winfield at the Church of Panagia tou Arakos in Lagoudera. Mehmetcan shared his findings on Vans Lebius, a scholar of Coptic history who spent time in Cyprus collecting books for the royal library of France.

In addition to the student presentations, APAC Labs Director Nikolas Bakirtzis offered a keynote talk entitled “Hagiographic and Archaeological Narratives in Early Christian Cyprus.” He emphasized the central role of Cyprus in the Christianization of the Eastern Mediterranean basin, sharing both textual and archaeological evidence of the complex networks of religious co-existence and conversion in Early Christian Cyprus.