My research focuses on the history and society of Cyprus across Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern history. I posit the island as a prism through which larger forces of imperialism, nationalism, and cultural transformation in the Eastern Mediterranean are refracted. I examine sources in Greek, Turkish, English, and other languages of Cyprus to write a history of the island rooted in the plural nature of its pasts and presents. My specific interest lies in different modalities of relating to the past — artistic, scientific, philological, political — that I locate in case studies at various sites across Cyprus. I use my background in archaeology and digital cultural heritage to document the rich palimpsest of histories at many of these sites. At the same time, I draw on my background in philosophy and in social and political theory to bring this more focused empirical work into comparative and theoretical conversations around the politics of the past. Working with these case studies, I ask: What have people made of the past in their presents? What practices of relating to the past, thoughtfully and with feeling, might offer hope for reimagining our collective futures?