Professor
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Professor Andrekos Varnava, FRHistS, FRSA, was born (1979) and raised in Melbourne to Cypriot-born parents, obtained his BA(Honours) from Monash University (2001) and his PhD (2006) from the University of Melbourne. He has authored four monographs: Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA (Anthem, 2021; Greek translation, Psifides, 2024); British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925: Empire, Loyalties and Democratic Deficit (Routledge, 2020); Serving the Empire in the Great War: The Cypriot Mule Corps, Imperial Loyalty and Silenced Memory (Man Uni Press, 2017) and British Imperialism in Cyprus, 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession (Man Uni Press, 2009). He has edited/co-edited 16 collections (volumes & journal special issues). Most recently he has edited/co-edited the following volumes: Popular Culture and its Relationship to Conflict in the UK and Australia since the Great War (Routledge, 2023); New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections (Palgrave, 2022); Exiting War: The British Empire and the 1918-20 Moment (Man Uni Press, 2022); After the Armistice: Empire, Endgame and Aftermath (Routledge, 2021). He has co-edited special issues of Immigrants & Minorities, 40(1-2), 2022, Australian Historical Studies, 52(1), 2021, Contemporary British History, 33(4), 2019 and Itinerario, 38(3), 2014. He has published over 70 papers (articles & chapters) including in English Historical Review (2017), The Historical Journal (2014), Journal of Modern History (2018), Historical Research (2014, 2017, 2022), Social History of Medicine (2020), International History Review (2021), Immigrants & Minorities (2022), Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (2023), Labor History (2023), Australian Historical Studies (2024) and European Review of History (2024). From 2025 he will be the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
Andrekos published his first poetry collection, 'In the Aviary of Youthful Freedom', in 2015. Here he recites 'Of Mules and Men', about Serving the Empire.
PhD (in History), University of Melbourne, August 2006.
BA (Honours First Class), Monash University, November 2001.
2025: - Appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
2022-2025: ARCLP210100204, Professor Andrew May (Lead CI); Dr Thomas Kehoe (I); Professor Andrekos Varnava (CI); Dr Carolyn Holbrook (CI); Professor Alan Moodie (CI); Dr Richie Barker; Ms Hayley Jones (PI): 'Cancer culture: understanding anti-cancer campaigns in Australia'. $566,400.
2023: Elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society for Arts, UK (FRSA).
2021: Joint winner, Flinders Most Supportive Supervisor.
2021: Joint winner, HASS Award for Research Excellence (individual).
2018-21: ARCDP180102200, A/Professor Andrekos Varnava (Lead CI); E/P Eric Richards (CI); A/P Marinella Marmo (CI); Dr Anastasia Dukova (PI Griffith University), titled: 'Managing migrants and border control in Britain and Australia, 1901-1981', $206,531. Dr Evan Smith is a Research Fellow. Here is our website.
2018-: Honorary Professor, De Montfort Uni, Leicester.
2016: Flinders Research Grant (Faculty), $8,300: 'The Colonial Origins of Refugee Exclusion: Russian and Armenian Refugees in British Cyprus in the 1920s'.
2016: Flinders Research Grant (Faculty), $11,765: 'Betrayed Promises: Allied Imperialism, Humanitarianism and the Armenians'.
2014: Elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society, UK (FRHistS).
2014: Flinders Research Grant (Faculty) New Project, $6,000 (with Evan Smith): 'Monitoring a "suspect community" in the UK: The colonialist origins of the national/border security nexus and interwar London's Cypriot community'.
2012: Visiting Professor, Bogazici Uni, June-August 2012.
2012: Australian Academy of the Humanities Travelling Fellowship, $2,500: 'British Imperialism in Cyprus and the First World War, 1915-1925'.
2009: Flinders Research Scheme, $4,000: 'The Establishment of the Legion d'Orient in October 1916'.
2003: A.G. Leventis Foundation Grant, $US3,500
2003: Postgraduate Overseas Research Scholarship, Uni of Melbourne, $3,000
2002: PhD Fieldwork Grant, Uni of Melbourne, $2,000
2002-5: Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)
2000: Monash Travel Abroad, $1,000
Current:
Historic:
Teaching Program Director for History, Archaeology, Indigenous & Australian Studies, and Geography, 2021-2023.
Research Section Head for History and Archaeology and member of College Research Committee, 2018.
Member of BA Course Advisory Committee, 2016-2017.
History Honours Coordinator, 2010-2018
Coordinator of the Flinders History Research Seminar Series, 2016-8
History Director of Studies, 2016-8
Book reviews editor for History Australia, 2016-8
Imperialism and colonialism; the rise and fall of the British empire; war and society in the modern world; the Great War; the history of terrorism; genocide and ethnic cleansing; the Ottoman Empire; the modern Mediterranean; the Armenian Genocide; the Cyprus 'problem'.
Co-organiser of the international conference 'Empire, Armistice and Aftermath: The British Empire at the ‘End’ of the Great War', Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 5-7 December 2018.
Co-organised the conference the 'First Eric Richards Symposium in British and Australasian History', themed, 'Movement and Movements', 31 Jan to 3 February 2017.
Co-organised the conference 'The British Empire and the Great War: Colonial Societies/Cultural Responses', held at Nanyang Technologicaly University, Singapore, 19-22 February 2014.
Consultant on the four-part series 'The Secret Mediterranean with Trevor McDonald', 2011.
Member of the International Society for First World War Studies.
Member of the following journal advisory boards, Immigrants & Minorities, British Journal of Military History, and The Journal of Mediterranean Studies.
Previously a member of the editorial and advisory boards of the peer-reviewed The Cyprus Review: A Journal of Social, Economic and Political Issues, University of Nicosia Publications.
Previously a member of Editorial Advisory and Review Board of Abibisem: Journal of African Culture and Civilisation, Department of History, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Member of the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research, Nicosia Cyprus.
Member of the Cyprus Academic Forum (CAF).
Refereed articles for: American Historical Review, Historical Journal, Historical Research, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, European History Quarterly, Contemporary European History, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Mediterranean Historical Review, Nationalities Papers, Journal of Transport History, Journal of Religious History, Journal of Mediterranean Studies, The Cyprus Review, The Round Table, The European Legacy, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Melbourne Historical Journal.
I have refereed book manuscripts for Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Berghahn, Anthem, Cambridge Scholars and I. B. Tauris.
Book reviews published or forthcoming in: European History Quarterly, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Reviews in History, The Cyprus Review, Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Journal of Levantine Studies, History Australia, Melbourne Historical Journal.
Interviews:
Australian Historical Association Interview with Dr Margaret Hutchison, 1 May 2017
'Reunification for Cyprus?' on ABC Radio National, 5 February 2017
Andrekos on Australia and the Great War on ABC Radio Tropical North with Meech Philpott
Recent & Forthcoming Conference Presentations/Public Lectures
(with Yianni Cartledge) “Making and Monitoring a ‘Suspect Community’: Australian Attacks on Greeks and the ‘Secret Census’ in 1916”, Greek Orthodox Community of SA, Ikaros Hall, Unley, 9 October 2023.
‘Post-British or Post-Ottoman? Mass Violence in Cyprus 1963-1974’, symposium titled, Mass Violence in the (Post)Ottoman Lands, University of Newcastle (Australia), 6 September 2023.
‘Reimagining the Road to Cypriot Independence’, Australasian Association for European History (AAEH), Australian National University, 27-30 June 2023.
(with Tim Mansueto) ‘A Civil War by any Other Name? Critiquing The Quantitative Literature in Peace and Conflict Studies and the Cypriot Civil War, 1963-67’, Flinders History Seminar Series, 4 November 2022.
‘Cypriot Migration to Australia and the Story of the Corsica, 1951-52’, Cypriot Community of SA and the Greek Orthodox Community of SA, 21 August 2022.
‘Towards a Biography of Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam’, Flinders History Seminar Series, 28 October 2016.