Engagements & activities

With a group of colleagues, I helped organise multicommunal workshops, performances, dialogue, and social events on both sides of the Green Line. Events took place every few months between 2016 and 2020, creating spaces to cross boundaries between communities and explore gender and oppression.

The initiative sought to deconstruct oppressive gender structures, explore fluidity under oppression, and imagine a post-gender, post-conflict Cyprus. It connected civic engagement with cultural expression and encounters across the divide. This was a collective initiative, not something I organised alone, and it is distinct from later QueerWave events.

I participated in this regional professional exchange in Amman in November 2019. The engagement forms part of my broader interest in diversity, inclusion, and the relationships between social groups. My role was participant, rather than a claimed presentation or organising role.

I worked with Oyuncak Kütüphanesi and Meraklı Kedi Primary School through European Voluntary Service, with YEU Cyprus (Youth for Exchange and Understanding) as the sending organisation. The year-long placement involved working with teachers and volunteers, organising workshops, and coordinating programmes on practical and life skills.

Community education in a different cultural setting also provided an opportunity to learn Turkish. The experience sits alongside my subsequent research work: learning through sustained collaboration, making activities responsive to their context, and working across social and linguistic boundaries.