Lecture | Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminar
Talking about male sexuality in Cyprus: nationalism, colonialism and public discourse (1939-1974)
- Date
- Tuesday 3 November 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminars 2026-2027
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room 2.60
Abstract
My PhD dissertation examines, for the first time, how colonialism and nationalism shaped and transformed public discourse on male sexuality in Cyprus between 1939 and 1974. Despite extensive Cypriot historiography on the political, military and economic aspects of the twentieth-century, the history of sexuality remains largely unexplored. This study addresses this gap by asking why and how male sexuality became a matter of social and political concern and how its public perception was directly or indirectly intertwined with colonial modernity, the anticolonial struggle, national identity and social order.
Drawing on Foucault’s understanding of sexuality as a product of historical discourses, while also engaging with scholarship on sexuality and its connection with colonialism (e.g. Aldrich, Hyam, Stoler) and nationalism (e.g. Aderinto, Kamenou, Mosse), the dissertation approaches sexuality as a fundamental discursive axis in which social and national identities were constructed and regulated. It uses the digitized Greek-Cypriot secular press, the ecclesiastical periodical Απόστολος Βαρνάβας and the Penal Code, combining keyword-based searches with qualitative discourse analysis. This enables examination of intersections between colonial presence, national sentiment, and religious, legal and scientific discourses in producing normative categories of male sexuality.
The study argues that public discourses on male sexuality in late colonial and early postcolonial Cyprus were shaped by simultaneous assimilation and rejection of colonial sexual norms. British rule introduced frameworks through which (male) sexuality became classified according to binaries of normality-morality and abnormality-immorality. Yet these norms were selectively appropriated and transformed by Cypriots, becoming instruments for demonizing colonial authority and articulating national and anti-colonial discourses: ideals of masculine strength and nationally minded children were framed as pathways to liberation. Scientific understandings did not displace the Orthodox Church’s moral authority; rather religious, legal and scientific discourses intersected, producing overlapping conceptions of the ideal male citizen.
Sexuality also became visible during moments of national trauma. The 1939 Αλυσίδα scandal generated a moral panic through which male homosexuality became associated with colonial corruption and threats to social and national order. Conversely, representations of sexual violence in 1974 demonstrate how male sexuality was articulated indirectly through sexualization and fetishization of female victimhood.
Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminars
The Brown Bag Seminars provide researchers with an opportunity to receive constructive feedback on work in progress, unpublished papers and new research ideas. To encourage the presentation of new material, papers that have already been presented at conferences are generally not considered suitable. Speakers are invited to present ongoing research, preliminary findings or new directions in their current projects. Postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates are particularly encouraged to share their work.
There is no requirement to circulate a paper in advance. Presentations typically last between 20 and 35 minutes, allowing ample time for discussion. Everyone is welcome to attend these seminars. Depending on the venue, participants are welcome to bring their own lunch.