NAASR News - March 13, 2009

dear Friends:
NAASR is proud to be co-sponsoring "Armenian Studies at a Threshold," the 35th Anniversary Conference of the Society for Armenian Studies, to be held on the UCLA campus from Thursday afternoon, March 26, through Saturday afternoon, March 28.

The conference sponsors are as follows:

Society for Armenian Studies
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies
USC Institute of Armenian Studies
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
&
The Armenian Studies Programs of
Armenian Center, Columbia University
Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn
California State University-Fresno
California State University-Northridge
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

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Conference Schedule

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Thursday, March 26, 2009, 314 Royce Hall, UCLA, 1-6:30 P.M.

Session 1. Thursday, 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Medieval Literature and the Arts
Theo van Lint, Oxford University, Chair
• Andrea Scala, University of Milan, "About the Name of the Latin Language in
Classical Armenian"
• Robert Thomson, Oxford University, Emeritus, "Armenian Biblical
Commentaries: The Present State of Research"
• Sona Haroutyunian, Ca' Foscari University of Venice,"Dante Alighieri and the
Mekhitarist School of Translation"

Session 2. Thursday, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Medieval History and Culture
Anne Elizabeth Redgate, Newcastle University, Chair
• Sergio La Porta, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Cultural Interaction and
Cultural Strategies in Post-Seljuk Armenia"
• Sara Nur Yıldız, Bilgi University, Istanbul, "Competing for the Il-Khan's Favor:
Seljuk and Armenian Rivalry in Thirteenth Century Mongol-Dominated
Anatolia"
• Tom Sinclair, University of Cyprus, "Coins, Trade, and Cities in Greater
Armenia during the Il-Khanid Period"

Refreshments, 4:00-4:15 p.m.

Session 3. Thursday, 4:15.-6:30 p.m.
Researching the Contemporary Armenian Diaspora: Consolidating the Past, Situating the Future
Khachig Tölölyan, Wesleyan University, Chair
• Sossie Kasbarian, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva, "From Exile to Empowerment - Reinvigorating the Concept of
Diaspora: The Armenian Case"
• Aida Boudjikanian, Montreal, "The Literature on the Armenian Diaspora in
France and Canada"
• Susan Pattie, University College London, "Twenty-First Century Armenians: Is
Anyone Paying Attention?"
• Anny Bakalian, City University of New York, "Still Alive and Thriving:
Assimilation and Identity among Armenian Americans in the 21st Century"
• Nelida Boulghourdjian, University of Buenos Aires, "Migration Studies in
Argentina: The Armenian Case"
• Discussant: Aram Yengoyan, University of California, Davis


Friday, March 27, 2009, 1200 Rolfe Hall, 9 A.M. - 9 P.M.

Session 4. Friday, 9-11 a.m.
Armenian History as Connected History

Houri Berberian, California State University-Long Beach, Chair
• Sebouh Aslanian, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, "From 'Autonomous' to
'Interactive' Histories: World History's Challenge to Armenian Studies"
• Peter Cowe, UCLA, "The Armenian Oikoumene of the 11th to 14th Century in
Search of a Holistic Discourse"
• Rachel Goshgarian, Zohrab Center, New York, "The Futuwwa and Armenian
History in the Late Medieval 'Islamicate' World of Anatolia"
• Elyse Semerdjian, Whitman College, "Morality, Communalism, and the
Armenians of Ottoman Aleppo"

Refreshments, 11:00-11:15 a.m.

Session 5. Friday, 11:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Economy, Society, and Culture of Early Modern East Central Europe (14th -19th Centuries)
George Bournoutian, Iona College, Chair
• Andreas Helmedach, Center for the History and Culture of East Central Europe
(GWZO), Leipzig, "Armenian Minorities as Actors in Early Modern Globalization"
• Bálint Kovács, Center for the History and Culture of East Central Europe
(GWZO), Leipzig, "Interregional Cultural Relations of the Transylvanian
Armenians in the 17th and 18th Centuries"
• Judit Pál, Babes-Bolyai-University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, "The Social and
Economic History of the Armenians in Transylvania in the 18th and 19th
Centuries"

Lunch Recess, 1:00-1:45 p.m.

Session 6. Friday, 1:45-3:45 p.m.
Between Perversion and Representation: Sexual Allegories in Armenian Literature
Rubina Peroomian, UCLA, Chair and Discussant
• Tamar Boyadjian, UCLA, "The Female City and Its Textual Function: Grigor
Tghay's Lament over the City of Jerusalem"
• Talar Chahinian, UCLA, "The Crisis of Incest: Reconfiguring the Catastrophe in
Orpuni's 'Vartsu Seniag,' Sarafian's Ishkhanuhin, and Shahnur's 'Buynuzlenere'"
• Myrna Douzjian, UCLA, "Challenging Social and Literary Norms: Sexual
Agency in Violet Grigorian's Poetry"
• Lilit Keshishyan, UCLA, "Sexual Perversion as Political Allegory in Gurgen
Khanjian's Hivandanots"

Refreshments, 3:45-4:00 p.m.

Session 7. Friday, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
New Perspectives on The Armenian Genocide
George Shirinian, Zoryan Institute, Chair
• Taner Akçam, Clark University, "Ottoman Documents and Genocidal Intent of
the Union and Progress Party"
• Janet Klein, University of Akron, "The Kurds and the Armenian Genocide:
Reflections on Historiography"
• Lerna Ekmekcioğlu, New York University, "Approaching the Unlucky Sister
and Her Child: Sexual Violence as a Marker during and after the Armenian
Genocide"
• Vahram Shemmassian, California State University-Northridge "The Rescue of
Captive Genocide Survivors, 1919-1921"

Light Dinner Recess (on site), 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Session 8. Friday, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Contemporary Armenia
Hovann Simonian, University of Southern California, Chair
• Khatchik Der Ghougassian, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, "Market
Fundamentalism, Economic Hardship, and Social Protest in Armenia"
• Konrad Siekierski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznañ, Poland, "Nation and
Faith, Past and Present: The Contemporary Discourse of the Armenian Apostolic
Church in Armenia"
• Tamara Tonoyan, National Institute of Health, Yerevan, "HIV/AIDS in
Armenia: Migration as a Socio-Economic and Cultural Component of Women's
Risk Settings"
• Anahid Keshishian-Aramouni, UCLA, "Inknagir Magazine: Frivolous
Iconoclasm or Marker of Artistic Liberty?"
• Gregory Areshian, UCLA, Pavel Avetisyan and Armine Hayrapetyan, Institute
of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan, "Archaeology in Post-Soviet
Armenia: New Discoveries, Problems, and Perspectives"

Saturday, March 28, 2009, 1200 Rolfe Hall, 9 A.M. - 6 P.M.

Session 9. Saturday, 9:00-10:30 a.m.
Discourse and Violence: Revisiting the Adana Massacres of 1909
Richard Hovannisian, UCLA, Chair
• Ohannes Kılıçdağı, Bilgi University, Istanbul, "Ottomanism among the
Anatolian Armenians after the 1908 Revolution"
• Bedross Der Matossian, MIT, "From Verbal to Physical Violence: Ihsan Fikri's
Itidal and the Massacres of Adana in 1909"
• Rubina Peroomian, UCLA,"The Poetics of Violence in Literary Responses to the
Adana Massacres"

Session 10. Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
The State of Armenian Studies Chairs and Programs in the United States
Marc Mamigonian, NAASR, Chair (with comments on prehistory of Armenian programs)
• Taner Akçam, Clark University
• Kevork Bardakjian, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• Peter Cowe, UCLA
• Richard Hrair Dekmejian, USC
• Barlow Der Mugrdechian, California State University-Fresno
• Roberta Ervine, St. Nersess Seminary
• Richard Hovannisian, UCLA
• Jirair Libaridian, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• Christina Maranci, Tufts University
• Simon Payaslian, Boston University
• Ara Sanjian, Armenian Research Center, UM-Dearborn
• Vahram Shemmassian, California State University-Northridge

Lunch Recess, 12:45-1:30 p.m.

Session 11. Saturday, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Church Politics and Identity
Abraham Terian, St. Nersess Seminary, Chair
• Paul Werth, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, "Rumors and Projects of
Ecclesiastical Union: Armenians, Orthodoxy, and the Problem of Confessional
Distinctions in Imperial Russia"
• Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn, "The British Foreign Office, the
Church of England, and the Crisis in the Armenian Church at Antelias, 1956-1963"
• Marlen Eordegian, Vanderbilt University, "Straddling Religion and Politics: The
Case of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem"

Refreshments, 3:00-3:15 p.m.

Session 12. Saturday, 3:15-5:45 p.m.
Armenians, World War II, and Repatriation
Barbara Merguerian, Armenian International Women's Association, Chair
• Vartan Matiossian, Hovnanian School, New Jersey, "'White' Armenians, 'Aryan'
Armenians: Combating Racial Views during the First Half of the 20th Century"
• Gregory Aftandilian, Washington, D.C., "World War II as an Enhancer of
Armenian-American Second Generation Identity"
• Levon Thomassian, California State University-Northridge, "Summer of '42"
• Astrig Atamian, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations,
Paris, "Being an Armenian Communist in France during the Cold War"
• Sevan Yousefian, UCLA, "The Formation of Soviet Armenian Immigration
Policy: Diaspora Networks, Armenian Cadres, and the Postwar Repatriation
Campaign"
• Joanne Laycock, University of Manchester, "'Belongings': People and
Possessions in the Armenian Repatriations, 1947-1949"

Concluding Comments and Discussion, 5:45-6:00 p.m.

NAASR

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