Dr Tassos Papacostas

After qualifying as an architect in Paris (DPLG) I turned to things Byzantine and obtained an MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's. This was followed by an MPhil at the University of Oxford where I also completed my doctoral thesis, on the archaeology of Byzantine Cyprus (2000).

Following a Past and Present Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), in 2001 I joined as a Research Associate the Prosopography of the Byzantine World, a British Academy project based here at King's. In 2006 I obtained an RCUK fellowship in the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies that led to my current appointment in 2011.

Research interests and PhD supervision

My research interests include the archaeology, architecture and economic history of Byzantium and the Levant from late antiquity to the late medieval period. I am particularly interested in the historiography of Byzantine and Crusader art, on the impact and manifestations of Venetian (and Renaissance) architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the evolution of settlement patterns and urban development.

I am currently working on aspects of the architectural production of Venetian Cyprus and on the fate of the island's cities in the Byzantine period. I welcome applications for PhD topics related to any of my research interests.

For more details, please see his full research profile.

Expertise and public engagement

Convenor of the Centre for Hellenic Studies seminar in Late Antique and Byzantine studies

Selected publications 

iBCC Inventory of Byzantine churches on Cyprus: Materials for an architectural study (London 2015) http://ibcc.dighum.kcl.ac.uk

(with Guillaume Saint-Guillain) Identity/identities in late medieval Cyprus. Papers given at the ICS Byzantine colloquium, London 13-14 June 2011 (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 2014)

(with Maria Parani) Discipuli dona ferentes. Glimpses of Byzantium in honour of Marlia Mundell Mango, BYZANTIOς- Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization 11 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017)

‘Manuscript notes and the Black Death in rural Cyprus’, in T. Shawcross and I. Toth (eds), Reading in the Byzantine empire and beyond (Cambridge: CUP, 2018) 133-155'

Renaissance portrait medals for eminent Cypriots: an untold yet telling tale’, in M. Olympios and M. Parani (eds), The art and archaeology of Lusignan and Venetian Cyprus (1192-1571): Recent research and new discoveries, Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages 12 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019) 329-358