A 'Culture of the Displaced'? The interactions of displaced populations in identity and politics in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek world

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My DPhil studies population displacements and refugee crises in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek world (roughly 500-100 B.C.). Specifically, it reappraises how expelled populations crafted a new, previously unnoticed 'displaced identity' and used it widely in their political negotiations. My research questions interrogate the implications of total expulsion on a city's population: how did the shared experience of dislocation affect the identities of displaced peoples? How widespread was this identity; how did it interact with other identities? What political leverage did it provide displaced communities? How does this re-orient our interpretation of historical events and trends?The implications of this research are significant: it detects a new identity and political discourse in Greek history, explores its wide-ranging manifestations, and gives agency to understudied subaltern historical actors through the lens of modern refugee studies.Although studied relatively sparsely, population displacements were a remarkably common occurrence in the ancient Greek world: my database has gathered at least 112 such cities in the Classical age. Previous scholarship has often focused on evidence produced by the elite and those responsible for displacement. However, my MPhil research has revealed the ways we can use other evidence, especially epigraphy and archaeology, to excavate the emic voices of the displaced, and reconstruct their actions from their perspectives.I will apply this new approach to the Classical and Hellenistic periods, to create a new characterisation of this phenomenon and re-evaluate Greek history through it. I shall structure my project in three parts. First, I will take a holistic approach and quantitatively analyse all extant evidence for population displacements in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek world. After gathering this data into assorted databases, I will develop this dataset into two introductory chapters (one Classical, one Hellenistic) to clarify what analyses can (and cannot) be drawn, and provide an overarching typology of displacement.This contextualisation provides the framework for my second approach: studying cases where the perspectives and actions of the displaced are most visible. This approach will zero into this 'displaced identity' from the most emic perspective, identify its constituent aspects, and examine what precisely enabled this identity to gain traction as a discourse in politics. In particular, I will focus on populations that were expelled multiple times. Amounting to at least twenty-three cases in the Classical world, these reiterated experiences best distil the identity's development across generations, interaction with other identities, and core 'intentional' remodellings in diverse settings.Having defined their identity, I shall capture the vast social applications and political utility of this 'displaced identity' by studying and comparing the political actions of people dislocated by different types of expulsion. Fruitful examples include comparing evidence from imperially-coordinated synoikisms, comparing repatriations to relocations, considering partial population displacements, and cases where displaced cities turn into displacers. Different people used this discourse of displacement in contradictory ways, revealing a multifaceted political tool.My research thus probes how the experience of displacement affected the identities of displaced peoples, and how these new identities, remoulded around dislocation, provided unique leverage in their political negotiations. This topical research, which draws on modern refugee studies (especially 'campzenship'), opens new doors into reappraising the roles of subaltern contingents and their importance in Greek society. This interdisciplinary approach will thus produce a rigorous characterisation of this understudied phenomenon, while also re-evaluating ancient Greek history and helping to rethink today's