In this lecture, Jennifer Dixon will discuss ..........

Jennifer Dixon
Ph.D. Candidate, UC Berkeley
Changing the State's Story:
The Politics of the Past
in Turkey and Japan
In this lecture, Jennifer Dixon will discuss the sources of continuity and change in states' narratives of past atrocities, drawing on her in-depth research into Turkey's narrative of the Armenian Genocide and Japan's narrative of the 1937-38 Nanjing massacre.

She will argue that international pressures act primarily as catalysts for change in official narratives, while domestic processes determine the direction and magnitude of that change. In contrast to those who warn that progressive changes in states' narratives can provoke a backlash from the right, Jennifer's research shows that actors across the political spectrum vehemently contest and shape narratives of the past. Her findings are based on more than eight months of fieldwork, including archival research in Turkey, and over seventy-five elite interviews conducted in Turkey, Japan, and the United States.

Jennifer Dixon is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently a Research Fellow in the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Her dissertation, "Changing the State's Story: Continuity and Change in Official Narratives of Dark Pasts," investigates how states' narratives about dark pasts are shaped and contested over time. She has written two articles based on her research, one of which is forthcoming in the journal South European Society and Politics, and the other of which was published this summer in the International Journal for Education Law and Policy.


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The Armenian Library and Museum of America and The National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research

Present

An Illustrated Talk by
Edward & Mary Ann Kazanjian

Journey To Historic Armenia 2010:
There Really Is Something There

In May 2010, Edward and Mary Ann Arakelian Kazanjian of Belmont, MA, returned for the second time to the interior of Turkey (Historic Armenia) with tour guide Armen Aroyan of California. A 2,000-mile journey was made through more than 50 cities and villages in Historic Armenia from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean (Cilicia).

Among their most memorable experiences were finding the places in Samson that Mary Ann's father had described in his oral history and visiting the birthplace of Ed's mother and her parents in Tarsus and Lampron. Two additional highlights
of the journey were the climb to the Monastery of Abarank near Ucpinar where they found the two 16-foot high khatchkars and a visit to Hromgla, the fortress
where Catholicos Nerses Shnorhali (Nerses the Graceful) wrote many of his liturgical pieces. The pilgrimage included Amasya, Marsovan, Samson, Ordu, Shabin Karahisar, Erzincan, Ucpinar, Pertek, Kharpert, Kuyulu, Yeghike, Malatya, Marash, Aintab, Berejik, Jibin, Hromgla, Kilis, Antioch, Musa Dagh, Belen, Iskenderum, Tarsus, Lampron, and Adana.

The Kazanjians will present over 700 annotated slides with embedded videos, musical excerpts, and narration of their return trip to Historic Armenian lands in modern-day Turkey.

Edward Kazanjian retired after a 41-year career as: a General Dynamics, facilities engineer; an administrator in the Framingham, Brookline,and Billerica public schools; 16 years as Executive Director and Senior Consultant for a not-for-profit Educational Cooperative; and most recently as Assistant uperintendent of Schools in Westwood, MA. He continues to do consulting and expert witness work part time. Mary Ann Arakelian Kazanjian is a former elementary school teacher in Woburn, MA, and has been a church organist for 46 years first at St. James and currently at St. Stephen's Armenian Churches in Watertown.

The above photo shows the 16-ft.-high khatchkars at Abarank Monastery.

The Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC)
and
NAASR

Present

A Lecture by Gregory Aftandilian

World War II and Ethnic Identity:
The Armenian-American Experience





Sociologists and historians have long considered that World War II was a watershed period for millions of ethnic Americans, as wartime service and sacrifices enabled so-called hyphenated Americans to prove they were just as "American" as anyone else and to shed the "foreigner" label that was often attached to them. On one level, the Armenian-American experience was no different than that of other ethnic groups. However, on another level, the experience of Armenian-American soldiers was unique because they were usually the sons or daughters of genocide survivors, making the wartime period especially traumatic for the Armenian family, as the parents of the soldiers now faced the prospect of losing their loved ones once again. These soldiers thus became more sensitive to their parents' suffering, and this sensitivity was especially heightened for those who liberated the concentration camps and witnessed the victims of another genocide.

In addition, as part of a worldwide diaspora, Armenian-American soldiers encountered their ethnic brethren all over the globe; they were on the receiving end of Armenian hospitality in some places, while in others they did their best to aid destitute Armenian refugees. Thus, the war enhanced these soldiers' American and Armenian identities at the same time.

Gregory Aftandilian is a writer on Armenian-American history and a consultant and adjunct university lecturer on Middle East affairs. He worked for more than twenty years in government service, mostly with the State Department and Congress. Aftandilian holds a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago, and a M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He is the author of Armenia: Vision of a Republic: The Independence Lobby in America, 1918-1927 as well as several publications dealing with Middle Eastern politics and U.S. foreign policy. He is presently working on the World War II generation of Armenian Americans. He has been a member of the NAASR Board of Directors since
2004.
The National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

Presents a Lecture by

NAASR