Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Yiannis Papadakis 

Yiannis Papadakis is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus. He is author of Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide (I. B. Tauris, 2005, also translated in Greek and Turkish), co-editor of Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History and an Island in Conflict (Indiana University Press, 2006), editor of a 2006 special issue of Postcolonial Studies and co-editor of Cypriot Cinemas: Memory, Conflict and Identity in the Margins of Europe (Bloomsbury, 2014), among others. His published work has focused on ethnic conflict, borders, nationalism, history education, cinema, post-colonialism, migration and cemeteries. His recent work engages with issues of migration and social democracy in Denmark and the comparative study of cemeteries in Cyprus, Denmark and currently Japan.

Jo Ractliffe

Since the 1980s, Jo Ractliffe’s photographs have reflected her ongoing preoccupation with the South African landscape and the ways in which it figures in the country’s imaginary, particularly the violent legacies of apartheid. In a country with a powerful tradition of social documentary, Ractliffe became known for her distinctive photographic approach in photographing places of violence and conflict, drawing attention to the absent and unseen, traces of meaning beyond the evidentiary.  In 2020 Steidl published a monograph on Ractliffe’s work, Photographs: 1980s – Now. Her photo-books include Being There (2022), Signs of Life (2019), Everything is Everything (2017), as well as The Borderlands (2015), As Terras do Fim do Mundo (2010) and Terreno Ocupado (2008), which documented the aftermath of the war in Angola. Ractliffe is represented by Stevenson Gallery: https://www.stevenson.info/artist/jo-ractliffe

Cherine Fahd

Cherine Fahd (b.1974) is a Lebanese-Australian photographer living and working in Sydney. She has devoted over two decades to examining photography as a dynamic social practice.  Much of her early works present a surrealist engagement with photography, the boundaries between staged and unstaged photography, and how we perform for the camera. Cherine also writes broadly on photography. Her scholarly work has an enduring focus on everyday familial experiences, which often, to humorous effect, provoke questions about race, cultural difference, death, grief and the role of mourning in the family album. Recent research has examined the destigmatisation of infant loss through post-mortem photographs on social media and the political and ethical issues of making death public. Cherine's creative work has been commissioned by leading Australian cultural institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and the Sydney Opera House. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally at the Haifa Museum of Art, Benaki Museum Athens, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.  Cherine's scholarly articles are featured in respected journals “Photographies,” "Photography and Culture" and "Philosophy of Photography." She is the author of three photo books, including the award-winning "Apókryphos" (2019), which won the Australia New Zealand Photobook Award. Cherine holds a PhD from Monash University and is an Associate Professor in Visual Communication at the University of Technology Sydney.

Members of the Organizing Committee

  • Elena Stylianou, European University Cyprus / Nicosia Municipal Arts Center, associated: Pierides Foundation, Cyprus (Chair)

  • Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Cyprus University of Technology / CYENS Centre of Excellence, Cyprus (Chair)

  • Nicolas Lambouris, Frederick University, Cyprus

  • Artemis Eleftheriadou, Frederick University, Cyprus

  • Damianos Zisimou, Independent Artist, Cyprus

  • Ioulita Toumazi, Independent Curator, Cyprus

  • Constantinos S. Constantinou, PhD Research Scholar, University of West Attica, Greece

Members of the Scientific Committee

  • Alexia Achilleos, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

  • Myrto Aristidou, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

  • Alexandra Athanasiadou, PHLSHP-Philosophy & Photography Lab, Greece

  • Constantinos S. Constantinou, University of West Attica, Greece

  • Anthony Downey, Birmingham City University, UK

  • Artemis Eleftheriadou, Frederick University, Cyprus

  • Andrew Fisher, FAMU, Czech Republic

  • Christina Gavrielidou, European University Cyprus, Cyprus

  • Gabriel Koureas, Independent scholar, Cyprus

  • Nicolas Lambouris, Frederick University, Cyprus 

  • Martha Langford, Concordia University, Canada

  • Wiebke Leister, Royal College of Art, UK

  • Sigrid Lien, University of Bergen, Norway

  • Nina Mangalanayagam, HDK-Valand, Gothenburg University, Sweden

  • Anastasia Markidou, University of West Attica, Greece

  • Pam Meecham, University College London, UK

  • Elena Parpa, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

  • Io Paschou, University of West Attica, Greece

  • Despo Pasia, UCL-Institute of Education / independent researcher, UK/Cyprus

  • Nicos Philippou, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

  • Mette Sandbye, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Grace Schwindt, Goldsmiths University of London, UK

  • Maria Shehade, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Cyprus University of Technology

  • Simon Standing, University of Plymouth, UK

  • Elena Stylianou, European University Cyprus & Nicosia Municipal Arts Center, associated: Pierides Foundation, Cyprus

  • Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Cyprus University of Technology

  • Ioulita Toumazi, Independent Curator, Cyprus

  • Evi Tselika, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

  • Liz Wells, University of Plymouth, UK

  • Lorenz Widmaier, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Cyprus University of Technology

  • Damianos Zisimou, Independent Artist, Netherlands