What can the ruins of Agios Sozomenos tell us about how people live together across differences?
This talk focuses on Agios Sozomenos, an abandoned village near Nicosia, the capital of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has a many-layered past and complexly resonating present. The Greek and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Agios Sozomenos fled after intercommunal violence on 6 February 1964. Independence from Britain in 1960 had not secured lasting peace and stability, as was made clear by the...
How can different kinds of text analysis help us understand a complex social issue?
This talk looks at the experiences of transnational labor migrants in Southeast Asia through the lens of contemporary poetry written by domestic workers in Singapore. Students will use two primary texts to explore a critical question in the history of Singapore’s migration policy: whether it is necessary, reasonable, or ethical to require that domestic workers pass a test to prove English proficiency. First, we will read an excerpted...
