SAS 35th Annual Conference

SAS 35th Anniversary Conference
"Armenian Studies at a Threshold"
March 26-28, 2009

Conference Sponsors:
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

 

Thursday, March 26, 2009, 314 Royce Hall, UCLA, 1:00–6:30 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 Y?ld?z, 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, Chair, California State University, Long Beach

• 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, Babe?-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.
Sexual Perversions in Armenian Literature
Rubina Peroomian, Chair and Discussant

• Tamar Boyadjian, UCLA, “Crusader Jerusalem: The Fallen Female and the Savior Warrior”
• 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 Hospital”

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”
• Fuat Dündar, L'École des Haute Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Michigan-Ann Arbor, “Mapping and Counting Armenians by the Young Turk Government”
• Janet Klein, University of Akron, “The Kurds and the Armenian Genocide: Reflections on Historiography”
• Lerna Ekmekcio?lu, 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 Armenian 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, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Yerevan, “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 K?l?çda??, Bilgi Universiety, 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
• Anny Bakalian, Armenian Center, Columbia 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,Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “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.
ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBIT BY U.S. CHAPTER OF
“ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIAN ARCHITECTS,” YEREVAN