Nikolas Bakirtzis

Nikolas Bakirtzis is Associate Professor and Director of the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories (APAC Labs) at the Cyprus Institute (CyI) in Nicosia. He is also Coordinator of CyI's Science and Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage doctoral program. With a PhD in Art and Architectural History from Princeton University, his research and publications focus on byzantine monasticism, medieval cities and fortifications, and, the island landscapes of the Byzantine, Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean. More recently his work explores issues of heritage and cultural identity in historic cities. In the context of APAC Labs research, his work focuses on aspects of  the history, the materiality and the provenance of medieval and early modern works of art enhanced through the use of advanced digital and analytical methods. He also works on issues related to heritage at risk, including looting and illicit trafficking of antiquities, as well as, the impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage coordinating the Task Force on Cultural Heritage in the context of the Cyprus Republic's Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Region Climate Change Initiative. 

He has been Resident Fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations of Koc University in Istanbul (2005-2006), Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology (2006-2008). He was also Cass Gilbert Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Research Associate at the Center for World Heritage Sites of the University of Minnesota (2008-2009). In 2009, Dr. Bakirtzis was awarded a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant by the European Commission and joined CyI to direct the project 'Tracing Identity in the Eastern Mediterranean; A Digital Survey of Late Medieval Monuments in the Eastern Mediterranean Islands'. In 2013 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and during the 2015 summer term he joined Columbia University’s Global Program in Istanbul as Visiting Faculty. In the Spring of 2016, he was Getty Guest Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and in 2017 he was awarded a Getty Foundation Connecting Art Histories grant along with D. Fairchild Ruggles to pursue a two-year program focusing on the layered art histories of historic Mediterranean cities. His work has also been supported by grants and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, the European Commission, the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. In the summer of 2024 he will be Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Tübingen.

Research interests: Medieval and Early Modern Art, Byzantine Art and Archaeology, Byzantine and Medieval Cyprus, Cultural Landscapes 

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