There is nothing obvious or self-explanatory about space. From a historian's vantage point, space is contingent upon time; the spatial attributes of any geographical entity are neither stable nor fixed. They evolve and change according to their temporal setting, which in turn affects the way humans engage with, or perceive space. That Cyprus is an island is perhaps its most prominent attribute. Yet, what makes an island, and what sort of an island is Cyprus? More importantly, have the insular attributes of Cyprus changed over time? The presentation takes the form of a personal retrospective of a twenty-year-long engagement with these questions, addressing the conceptual and methodological tools of history in the quest of understanding the dialectics of time and space.

Antonis Hadjikyriacou is Assistant Professor of Ottoman and Turkish History at Panteion University. His research and teaching interests are situated at the intersection of social, economic, environmental, and spatial history. His monograph Χερσαίο νησί: Η Μεσόγειος και η Κύπρος στην οθωμανική εποχή των επαναστάσεων (Peninsular island: Cyprus and the Mediterranean in the Ottoman age of revolutions) was published in 2023 in by Psifides.