A photo of Singleton Campus including Singleton park and a view of the sea
Dr Ersin Hussein

Dr Ersin Hussein

Senior Lecturer, Classics
Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

Ersin is an ancient historian whose research primarily focuses on the history and material culture of Cyprus.

Her first monograph, Revaluing Roman Cyprus: Local Identity on an Island in Antiquity, was published with Oxford University Press in 2021. This work champions Cyprus as a rich and rewarding Roman province to study on account of its dynamic culture and society under Roman rule and its participation in the wider Empire, but particularly because of the ways its cities, and their inhabitants, maintained, and articulated, their deep-rooted cultural ties with multiple landscapes across the Mediterranean.

Ersin continues to explore interpretations of Cyprus as a real and imagined landscape.

The history of Cypriot artefacts, and their display, in museums and responses to Cyprus in visual art are crucial aspects of her research on receptions of the island’s history.

She is also researches the cultural value of metals in antiquity, notably copper – a metal synonymous with Cypriot identity, as well as the legacies of industrial mining sites as heritage landscapes. Ersin is currently working on her second monograph which investigates the production and consumption of metals in Ptolemaic and Roman Cyprus.

The administrative roles that Ersin undertakes include:

  • Co-founder and co-director of the research group OLCAP: Object and Landscape Centred Approaches to the Past. Further information about the aims and activities of this interdisciplinary research group can be found on OLCAP’s webpage.
  • Undergraduate Programme Director

Areas Of Expertise

  • Ancient Cyprus, particularly the Roman period
  • Receptions of Cyprus - Cypriot identity, from antiquity to modernity.
  • Local identity formation in the Roman provinces
  • Mining, metallurgy, and the cultural value of metals
  • Ancient economy
  • Greek/Latin Epigraphy

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests
  • CLH150: Rome from Village to Empire.
  • CLH2005: Set in Stone? Inscribing and Writing in Antiquity.
  • CLH2007: Marbles, slaves and mines, oils, grains and wines:
    Roman economy and society. Watch the introductory module video  here.
  • CLH3004: Ancient Cyprus.
  • HHC100: Fieldtrip Module: The Past in its Place
Collaborations