The Departmental Seminar Series features Rebecca Bryant, Professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University.
Time and place: Sep. 2, 2026 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindern, Eilert Sundt’s house, ninth floor, room 929
Abstract
Every year, Forbes Magazine names its top five global choices for beachfront buys. Since 2021, they have given the number one slot to north Cyprus, a contested territory and unrecognised state where a multiplying number of contractors are building luxury highrises on disputed property. This presentation will examine a property boom and legal moves against it in what is often called a “frozen conflict”. Taking seriously this frosty metaphor, the paper will first sketch the overlapping temporalities of a sovereignty conflict where the choices of everyday life—where to shop, where to build a house, where to bury one’s dead—are inseparable from what people imagine as geopolitical futures. It will then look at property development as a way of reshaping the conflict and its potential resolution. The presentation will argue that construction is also a form of speculative geopolitics, where one not only speculates on property but also on the types of futures that property will bring.
Bionote
Rebecca Bryant is a political anthropologist and historian and is currently Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work has focused on long-term displacement, bordering, and unrecognized states, particularly through the lens of temporalities and futures. Her historical and ethnographic research has concentrated on the Eastern Mediterranean, especially the divided island of Cyprus and Turkey. Her current research under an ERC Advanced Grant examines foreign infrastructural investment as a new form of imperialism that gestures towards former empires while constructing multipolar futures.
Organiser
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo
