Lily Gibbs

Lily is conducting research with young Turkish Cypriots living in the United Kingdom and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to explore their understandings of the Cyprus conflict and their imaginations for the future. Cyprus is an island caught in a ceasefire, divided ethnically, politically, and socially since 1974, and experiencing intercommunal violence since 1955. In daily life, the two halves function as separate entities but internationally, the Turkish-speaking north is considered to be an occupied region of the Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus in the south. The lack of recognised nationhood coincides with international demonisation, historical violence, economic embargoes, and geographic isolation to create a context of socio-political entrapment for Turkish Cypriot youth.

Lily's PhD research considers this context to explore how young Turkish Cypriots think about their personal futures, the future of Cyprus, and the future of the Turkish Cypriot people. This project will investigate the first generation of Turkish Cypriots without lived experience of the war, focusing on their understandings of history, time, violence, colonialism, and insecurity, and what these mean for broader notions of sovereignty, legitimacy, and youth. Lily is supervised by Professor Dimitrios Theodossopoulos, Dr. Rachel Seoighe, Professor Lisa Dikomitis, and Dr. Trude Sundberg.

EDUCATION
Lily joined Kent in 2020 on an ESRC 1+3 Studentship, achieving a distinction in 'MA Social Anthropology - Humanitarian and Environmental Crises' as well as receiving the External Examiner's commendation for her dissertation 'Opening the Ghost-Town: Reconciling Past, Present, and Future in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus'. Prior to joining Kent, Lily studied at the University of Birmingham, receiving a first for 'BA Anthropology with Classical Literature and Civilisations' and a distinction for 'MA International Law, Ethics, and Politics'.

PRESENTATIONS
- 'Idling on the Streets of Cyprus: Turkish Cypriot Youth Experiences of Traffic, Waithood, and State Impotence' (April 2025)
Presenting at the Association of Social Anthropologists Conference at the University of Birmingham, UK as part of the panel, 'Precarious futures: built environments in motion'
- '"Our sunset is the same": Turkish Cypriot youth's engagement with Mediterranean identity for resistance, simplicity, and complexity' (July 2024)
Presented at the European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain as part of the panel, 'The sea, its shores, and its people: doing and undoing anthropology in/of the Mediterranean'
- '"Nothing is certain, other than uncertainty itself": How young Turkish Cypriots think about the future' (August 2023)
Presented at the Future States Conference at Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia as part of the panel, 'Crisis and Beyond'
- 'Decolonising Cyprus' (February 2023)
Panellist invited by the Centre for Ethnographic Research, University of Kent

OTHER RELEVANT ACTIVITIES
January 2025 - April 2025: Fellow in the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, UK Parliament, via the UKRI Policy Internship Scheme
January 2025 onward - Member of the ESRC Student Engagement Forum
March 2024 - April 2024: Race Equality Charter Data Analyst, University of Kent
October 2023 - September 2024: Chair of the SeNSS Student Committee
September 2023 - July 2024: Founding Chair of PhD Ethnographic Writing Group, University of Kent
December 2022 - March 2023: Research Assistant, 'Understanding the Retention of Social Workers in Kent and Medway’, led by Sarah Brown, University of Kent

https://www.kent.ac.uk/graduate-researcher-college/people/research-students/4148/gibbs-lily  

Thematic: Youth, Statehood, Non-recognition, Conflict, Legitimacy, Futures, Temporality, History, Violence, Crisis
Regional: Cyprus, Mediterranean  

Lily's supervisors are:

Prof. Lisa Dikomitis, Dr. Trude Sundberg, Prof. Dimitrios Theodossopoulos, and Dr. Rachel Seoighe