01:489:381 Cyprus: A Global History
History Cross-Listing — 01:510:380 ?
Middle East Studies Program Cross-Listing — 01:685:380 ?
Sample Syllabus for an Undergraduate Lecture Course (Spring 2014)
Course Description
This course explores the history of Cyprus from the sixteenth to the twenty first century, blending historical processes with contemporary questions. Following the history of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Ottoman Empire all the way to the post-Cold War era, it aims to show how the focused study of a specific locality incorporates, in fact, issues of global dimensions. Empire, minority politics, nationalism, colonialism, and globalization are some of the broader topics to be addressed by reference to both local and international politics, diplomacy, and history. How did the Ottomans, the British, and the locals interact with one another and with the broader region? What are the loaded legacies that led to the division of the island? How did European and American diplomacies affect Cyprus? What are the potentials and constraints entailed in the island’s present? In order to address the above challenging questions, students are invited to look for the many images of Cyprus within readings coming from different disciplinary, ideological, and cultural backgrounds; and through weekly discussions.
Course Requirements and Grading
Requirements:
- Attendance and informed participation is required.
- Response Papers: You must write and submit five short essays in response to the readings for five of the twelve topics we cover over the course of the semester. These should be each 3-5 pages in length, typed and double-spaced. In the first class meeting, students will be required to review the syllabus as a whole and select the five topics on which they elect to write a response essay. Selections must be distributed evenly throughout the syllabus — i.e., not chosen as five consecutive topics. Each response essay is due in class the day of its corresponding syllabus topic. Response papers will be collectively discussed in class at mid-term and in the final week of meetings.
- You must take an in-class final exam, the format of which will be an open book essay.
Grading:Your final grade will be determined by the following weights:
Response Papers: 60%
Final Exam: 30%
Class Participation: 10%
Required Framework Readings
Bryant, Rebecca,Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus London: I.B.Tauris, 2004.
Jennings, Ronald C., Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean World, 1571-1640. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
Michaēl, Michalēs N., Kappler, Matthias, and Gavriel, Eftihios eds. Ottoman Cyprus - New Perspectives: A Collection of Studies on History and Culture. Germany: Hubert and Co, 2009.
Borutta, Manuel, and Gekas, Sakis, “A Colonial Sea: The Mediterranean, 1798–1956.” European Review of History: Revue Européenne D’histoire 19, no. 1 (2012).
Classroom Etiquette and Other Expectations
Students should be in their seats at the time the class begins and should remain there until the class is over. Laptop computers are permitted only for the purpose of taking notes; other electronic devices may not be used in the classroom.
A student who expects to miss a class for a compelling reason should use the University’s absence reporting website ( to indicate the date and reason for the absence. Your report will automatically be sent to the instructor via email.
Cheating on tests or plagiarizing materials in your papers deprives you of the educational benefits of preparing these materials appropriately. It is also personally dishonest and unfair because it gives you an undeserved advantage over your fellow students who are graded on the basis of their own work. In this course cheating and plagiarism will be treated as the serious offenses they are. Suspected cases will be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs and will be punished with penalties that are appropriate to the gravity of the infraction.
Outline of the Course
Week 1 Between Venice and the Ottomans: Empires, Pirates, and Trade in the Early Modern Mediterranean
Read prior to class:
•Jennings, “Introduction,” in Christians and Muslims, 1-13.
•Michael, “The Unchanging ‘Turkish Rule,’ the ‘Fair Ottoman Administration’ and the Ottoman Period in the History of Cyprus,” in Ottoman Cyprus, 9-24.
Week 2 Islam in Cyprus: Soldiers, Courts, and Pious Foundations
Read prior to class:
•Marios Hadjianastasis, “Cyprus in the Ottoman Period: Consolidation of the Cypro-Ottoman Elite (1650-1750),” in Ottoman Cyprus, 63-89.
•Jennings, “Islamic Pious Foundations (Evkaf) and Public Welfare,” in Christians and Muslims, 40-68.
Week 3 Greek Orthodoxy in a “Muslim Empire”: The Church of Cyprus
Read prior to class:
•Michael, “An Orthodox Institution of Ottoman Political Authority: The Church of Cyprus,” in Ottoman Cyprus, 209-231.
•Jennings, “The Zimmis: Greek Orthodox Christians and Other Non-Muslims,” in Christians and Muslims, 132-172.
Week 4 Through the Lens of Gender
Read prior to class:
•Mete Hatay, “Servants, Slaves and Concubines in Ottoman Cyprus (1571-1878),” in Ottoman Cyprus, 161-180.
•Jennings, “The Women of the Island,” in Christians and Muslims, 14-39.
Week 5 In the Age of Ottoman Reform: the Cypriot Version of the Tanzimat
Read prior to class:
•Marc Aymes, “Reform Talks: Applying the Tanzimat to Cyprus,” in Ottoman Cyprus, 197-208.
•Nicholas Stanley-Price, “The Ottoman Law on Antiquities (1874) and the Founding of the Cyprus Museum,” in Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Papers of the 22nd British Museum Classical Colloquium (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2001), 267–275.
Week 6 The Congress of Berlin: Convening the Principle of Religious Tolerance
Read prior to class:
•Kyriacos Demetriou, “Victorian Cyprus: Society and Institutions in the Aftermath of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, 1878–1891,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 21, no. 1 (1997): 1–29.
•Maria Paz, “Non-Territorial Ethnic Network and the Making of Human Rights Law: The Case of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, ” Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law 4 (2010 2009): 1-18.
Week 7 Mid-TermReview of Readings & Response Papers
Week 8 Between the Ottomans and the British: Empires, Diplomats, and Nationalism in the fin-de-siècle Mediterranean
Read prior to class:
•Irene Dietzel, and Vasilios N. Makrides, “Ethno-Religious Coexistence and Plurality in Cyprus Under British Rule (1878—1960),” Social Compass 56, no. 1 (March 1, 2009): 69–83.
•Paschalis M. Kitromilides, “Greek Irredentism in Asia Minor and Cyprus,” Middle Eastern Studies 26, no. 1 (1990): 3–17.
Week 9 Cyprus Before and After Two World Wars: Minority Politics
Read prior to class:
•Andrekos Varnava, “The State of Cypriot Minorities: Cultural Diversity, Internal- Exclusion and the Cyprus ‘Problem’,” Cyprus Review 22, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 205– 221.
•Nadav Morag, “Cyprus and the Clash of Greek and Turkish Nationalisms.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 10, no. 4 (2004): 595–624.
Week 10Divisions and Rapprochements: From Cold War Politics to the European Union
Read prior to class:
•Van Coufoudakis, “U.S. Foreign Policy and the Cyprus Question: An Interpretation,” Millennium - Journal of International Studies 5, no. 3 (December 1, 1976): 245–268.
•Meltem Müftüler-Bac and Aylin Güney, “The European Union and the Cyprus Problem 1961–2003,” Middle Eastern Studies 41, no. 2 (2005): 281–293.
Week 11 Uncomfortable Questions: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of Globalization
Read prior to class:
•Vassilis K. Fouskas, “Uncomfortable Questions: Cyprus, October 1973–August 1974.” Contemporary European History 14, no. 01 (2005): 45–63.
•Rebecca Bryant, Imagining the Modern, 1-19.
Week 12 The Past in the Present: The Annan Plan and Cyprus’s Loaded Heritage
Read prior to class:
•Hannes Lacher and Erol Kaymak, “Transforming Identities: Beyond the Politics of Non-Settlement in North Cyprus,” Mediterranean Politics 10, no. 2 (2005): 147–166.
•Bernard Knapp and Sophia Antoniadou, “Archaeology, Politics, and the Cultural Heritage of Cyprus,” in Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, Lynn Meskell, ed.,(London: Routledge, 2002), 13-44.
•Julie Scott, “Mapping the Past: Turkish Cypriot Narratives of Time and Place in the Canbulat Museum, Northern Cyprus,” History and Anthropology 13, no. 3 (2002): 217–230.
Week 13 Conclusion: The Politics of Conflict
• Screening & Critical Evaluation of Film: Minos Papas, The Politics of Conflict (2012)
Week 14 Review of All Response Papers & Final Exam