Conference's goal and direction:

The aim of this conference was to enhance international cooperation on anthropological and cultural studies research on Cyprus and to create greater awareness about Cyprus related research both in academia and in the wider public. Apart from processes of conflict and conflict resolution between the two „population groups” there are other aspects that influence life on the island since its partition after 1974. Even Syrian refugees on the island feel the effects of the partition even though they are not involved as representatives of either of the two groups. Membership according to categories of Muslim or Christian, Turk or Greek often does not recognized phenomena of overlapping identity and practice and the divergent perceptions and interpretations of these categories. The contributors to this conference kept their focus on the lived realities and everyday needs of people in Cyprus and on the diversification and blurring of the essentialist categories. They discussed to what extent the present-day obsession with clear-cut ethnic, religious and political identifications are a result of the permanent uncertainties of collective identities.