PRESS RELEASE | OCTOBER 2026
Dis-Course relaunches as an independent platform for ideas, research and public conversation
With Alexander College as its Founding Academic Partner, the Cyprus-based initiative begins a new chapter connecting academics, researchers, artists and practitioners through talks, conversations and panel discussions in Larnaca and online.
Larnaca, Cyprus — October 2026
Dis-Course, an independent interdisciplinary platform for ideas, research and public conversation, launches its new programme this November, marking a significant expansion of an initiative established in Cyprus three years ago.
Originally developed as a university-based programme of invited talks, Dis-Course is now evolving into an independent platform connecting academics, researchers, artists and practitioners across disciplines, institutions and geographical boundaries. Based in Cyprus and international in outlook, it will combine live events in Larnaca with online participation, broadcasting and a growing digital archive, creating a space where ideas can circulate beyond the classroom, conference and individual institution.
Alexander College is the Founding Academic Partner of Dis-Course and the principal home of its programme in Larnaca. The partnership provides an academic base from which Dis-Course can develop its public programme while retaining the independence needed to build collaborations with other universities, researchers and cultural organisations in Cyprus and internationally.
The 2026–27 programme will combine talks, conversations and panel discussions. Individual speakers will be invited to Larnaca, international contributors will join audiences in Cyprus online, and panel discussions will bring together different perspectives around contemporary questions spanning arts, research, culture, media, technology and society.
“Dis-Course started from a very simple idea: universities are full of interesting people, research and conversations, but these too often remain within particular classrooms, disciplines or conferences. I wanted to create a space where those boundaries become less important — where a photographer can find themselves in conversation with a philosopher, a technologist with an artist, or a researcher with an audience they would not normally encounter. This new phase allows us to open those conversations much further, both in Cyprus and internationally.”
— Simon Pruciak, Founder of Dis-Course
The new programme begins on 4 November
The first event of the relaunched Dis-Course programme will take place at Alexander College, Larnaca, on Wednesday, 4 November 2026 at 18:00, with Dr Kleanthis Neokleous of the CYENS Centre of Excellence.
From Research to Experience: Immersive Technologies at CYENS
Dr Neokleous will introduce the work of the CYENS Centre of Excellence, with particular focus on its Immersive Technologies for Intelligent and Creative Applications (ITICA) and Museum Lab research groups.
The talk will explore how research, technological innovation, creativity and human-centred design come together in the development of interactive and immersive experiences across cultural heritage, education and other application domains.
Through selected projects, Dr Neokleous will demonstrate how research ideas are translated into practical applications using technologies including virtual and augmented reality, 3D visualisation, artificial intelligence and interactive storytelling. The examples will trace the collaborative process from concept development and experimentation through to implementation and real-world deployment, demonstrating how immersive technologies can create new ways of exploring, understanding and engaging with the world around us.
Participation is free, but advance registration is mandatory.
Registration: https://alexander.ac.cy/dis-course-register
Talks, conversations and panels
The opening event will be followed by a developing programme of individual speakers and larger panel conversations throughout the academic year.
Among the first announced panels is Who Owns the Image? Photography, Place, Memory and the Right to Represent, bringing together perspectives from photography, visual culture, art history and the built environment. The discussion will consider questions of authorship and representation: who has the right to make, interpret and circulate images of people, places and histories, and how those questions change as images move between personal, institutional and increasingly computational contexts.
A further panel, The Possibility of Philosophy after Heidegger, will bring together philosophers to consider the continuing possibilities, problems and responsibilities of philosophical thought in the wake of one of the twentieth century’s most influential and contested thinkers.
Further speakers, conversations and panels for the 2026–27 programme will be announced throughout the year.
From Larnaca to an international audience
The relaunch is accompanied by a new digital home and broadcasting platform for Dis-Course. Events will be recorded and, where appropriate, broadcast online, allowing conversations taking place in Larnaca to reach audiences beyond the physical event. Recordings will form a growing public archive, making discussions accessible beyond the moment in which they take place.
The format will also work in the opposite direction. Alongside visiting speakers, Dis-Course will use online and hybrid formats to bring researchers and practitioners based abroad into direct conversation with audiences in Cyprus. The intention is not to replace the physical encounter but to use broadcasting to extend who can participate in it.
This new programme builds upon three years of Dis-Course activity, during which more than 20 academics, researchers, artists and practitioners from Cyprus and internationally have contributed to its talks and conversations.
Beyond the formal curriculum
Dis-Course also grows from Pruciak’s research into co-curricular learning in higher education and the role of experiences beyond the formal curriculum in creating interdisciplinary encounters, extending student learning and contributing to a wider academic culture.
While grounded in an academic environment, Dis-Course is not intended solely for academic audiences. Its events are public-facing and open to students, researchers, creative practitioners and members of the wider community.
The relaunch establishes the foundations for Dis-Course to develop gradually into a wider international network for interdisciplinary exchange and public engagement, building relationships between universities, researchers, creative practitioners and cultural organisations.
For now, however, its purpose remains deliberately straightforward: to bring interesting people and ideas together, create conversations across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and make those conversations accessible in Cyprus and beyond.