Christ Church student speaks at the Cypriot High Commission
London’s Cypriot High Commission recently hosted a panel discussion on the topic of peace-making in Cyprus, filmed by Hellenic TV. Among those scholars on the panel was Christ Church Geography undergraduate Ethan Chandler, who was invited to share the findings of research conducted in Cyprus for his third-year dissertation.
Ethan Chandler’s interests in political geography, geopolitics and peace-making led him last summer to travel to Cyprus, 50 years on from the island’s division. Since 1974, the disputed territory has been split between the Turkish-controlled north and the Greek-dominated south, and the conflict between the two communities is typically characterised as ‘frozen’ – unresolved despite high-level political negotiations. Through his research, Ethan sought to highlight the stories of young Cypriots who use their agency to enact peace on the island.
‘I conducted interviews with eight individuals from diverse backgrounds, all aged between 18 and 30, who share a strong commitment to peace activism,’ Ethan explains. ‘Our discussions centred on identity, memory, and peace-making and took place in various locations across Cyprus, including the Rüstem bookshop – a historic meeting place for generations of Cypriot intellectuals and scholars.’
‘I was particularly interested to learn about the Armenian Cypriot community, who largely felt overlooked in discussions surrounding peace between the two dominant communities.’
During his research trip, which was generously supported by the William Gurney Travel Prize, Ethan met with academics, authors and journalists from leading Cypriot news publication Voice of the Island. He drew on the insights of those he met when preparing his recently submitted third-year Geography dissertation, ‘Negotiating the Flux of a “Frozen” Conflict: The Impact of Everyday Peace-Making on Youth Identities in a Divided Cyprus’.
It is so important to highlight the impacts of geopolitical narratives on people’s lives, whilst also emphasising that the Cyprus conflict is not ‘frozen’.
It is so important to highlight the impacts of geopolitical narratives on people’s lives, whilst also emphasising that the Cyprus conflict is not ‘frozen’.
Ethan’s dissertation caught the eye of members of the Cypriot High Commission in London, who invited him to participate in a panel discussion alongside Cypriot scholars from the island’s two communities: Andreas Papallas, a Greek Cypriot DPhil student of Sustainable Urban Design at the University of Oxford, and Melek Kaptanoğlu, a Turkish Cypriot PhD student of Anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast. The event aimed to offer a rich interdisciplinary exploration from different academic perspectives of peace-making in Cyprus and was hosted by Cultural Counsellor Marios Theocharous in the presence of the Deputy High Commissioner of Cyprus and a public audience.
The discussion was filmed by Hellenic TV and can be viewed below.
Reflecting on his experience at the Cypriot High Commission, Ethan said: ‘It was fantastic to talk about my research on everyday peace-making amongst young people in Cyprus at the High Commission. I was especially proud to do so with two incredible Cypriot scholars studying in the UK, Melek Kaptanoğlu and Andreas Papallas, in such a symbolic setting.
‘Together, bridging Geography, Architecture and Anthropology, we discussed our shared research projects in Cyprus from different academic perspectives before answering a range of insightful questions from the gathered audience.
‘It is so important to highlight the impacts of geopolitical narratives on people’s lives, whilst also emphasising that the Cyprus conflict is not “frozen”. Instead, I found through my research that young people are participating in grassroots civil society projects to enact their own visions of peace in their everyday lives.
‘Thank you to the High Commission of Cyprus for hosting this inspiring discussion!’
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