Aliosha Bielenberg

In my research, I am interested in how individuals and societies negotiate difference and sameness as we form political affinities, create cultural artifacts, and build a material world together. To undertake this work, I use resources and methods from my training in history, anthropology, and philosophy. My immediate research focus is in Cyprus, with broad interests in objects, objectivity, heritage, and world-making.

Two recent publications are representative of my research. "The Concept of History in Hannah Arendt's Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy," in De Gruyter's new series Works of Philosophy and their Reception, explores why Arendt shows a preference for Kant over Hegel in her philosophy of history, and what the implications of this choice are for her own development of "history" as a concept in connection with her ongoing concerns with judgment and action (PDF here). A second article, "Thinking About Music and Tradition in Cyprus," explores this philosophical problematic about history, politics, and action within the ethnographic context of Cyprus. I consider what it means to play music "thoughtfully and with feeling" (Talal Asad), beginning with my own experience playing clarinet in a "traditional music" ensemble in Cyprus. This article won the 2024 S. Victor Papacosma Prize of the Modern Greek Studies Association and is currently under review for publication in the Journal of Modern Greek Studies.

Past publications include an article in Eidolon, "How to Write Black Disciplinary History on Its Own Terms: The Complex Life of John Wesley Gilbert"; in Taxis magazine, "Who Remembers Paliomylos? From the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus"; in Amor Mundi, the newsletter of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, "Arendt and Objectivity in the Anthropocene"; and for The Point magazine, a short essay called "Country Home." Other research projects I've been involved with have included an NSF-funded study of medieval North Atlantic textiles; İstanΠόλις, a collaborative research project on the Greek Orthodox ("Rum") communities of Ottoman Istanbul; and a study of Agios Sozomenos, an abandoned village near Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, with a multi-layered past and complexly resonating present.

I began my PhD in the Department of Rhetoric in Fall 2022. I previously received my MA from the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven in Belgium and an MSc in Digital Cultural Heritage from the Cyprus Institute. In May 2020, I received my bachelor’s degree from Brown University, concentrating in Archaeology and the Ancient World (as a member of the Engaged Scholars Program) and Critical Thought and Global Social Inquiry (as an Independent Concentration). At Berkeley, I am also completing a Designated Emphasis in the Study of Religion.

With other young researchers interested in the history and society of Cyprus, I help to organize webinars, public lectures, and interactive history walks through bαhçές histories* of Cyprus. Since 2015, I have also been a volunteer with the European Youth Parliament, a peer-to-peer non-formal educational program that runs events across 40 countries. When I'm not working on any of the above, you might find me playing piano (mostly for myself) and clarinet (mostly with others, since making music in community is one of the greatest joys in life).

I am very happy to hear from you if you would like to talk about any of my work, applying to PhD programs, or anything in-between. Please feel free to send me an email!