News & Events

The Society for Armenian Studies

A Conference Marking the 40th Anniversary of its Founding
(1974-2014)

“Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th-20th Centuries”

November 21-22, 2014
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Washington, DC

Friday, November 21, 2-6pm, Maryland A (L)

WELCOMING REMARKS
Kevork Bardakjian (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)

OPENING REMARKS
Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

SESSION I: CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARMENIANS TO
OTTOMAN CULTURE, SOCIETY, ART, AND ARCHITECTURE
2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Chair: Levon Avdoyan (Library of Congress)
Discussant: Rachel Goshgarian (Lafayette College)

Presenters:
Murat Yildiz (University of California-Los Angeles)
“Reassessing Cultural Transformation in Early-Twentieth-Century Bolis:
Armenian Contributions to a Shared Ottoman Physical Culture”

Nora Cherishian Lessersohn (Harvard University)
“‘Provincial Cosmopolitanism’ in Late Ottoman Anatolia: An Armenian
Shoemaker’s Memoir”

Anahit Kartashyan (Saint Petersburg State University)
“The Discourse of First-Wave Ottomanism Among the Armenian
Intellectuals and Statesmen in the Ottoman Empire”

Heghnar Watenpaugh (University of California-Davis)
“Reconstructing the Urban and Architectural History of
Ottoman Armenian Communities: Zeytun, 1850-1915”

SESSION II: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH-I
4:00pm-6:00pm

Chair: Barlow Der Mugrdechian (California State University-Fresno)
Discussant: Rouben Adalian (Armenian National Institute)

Presenters:
Asya Darbinyan (Clark University)
“The Armenian Genocide and Russian Response”

Hagop Kouloujian (University of California-Los Angeles)
“Naim Bey from Sis to Meskeneh. Testimony, Between Survivor Reticence and
Descendants’ Consumption Binge”

Khatchig Mouradian (Clark University)
“The Meskene Concentration Camp, 1915-1917: A Case Study of Power,
Collaboration, and Humanitarian Resistance during
the Armenian Genocide”

SESSION III: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH-II
Saturday, November 22, 10am-1pm, Jefferson (M)

Chair: Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Discussant: Simon Payaslian (Boston University)

Presenters:
Carina Karapetian Giorgi (Pomona College)
“Critical Reevaluation of the Historiography of the Armenian Women
during the Armenian Genocide”

Richard Hovannisian (University of California-Los Angeles)
“Armenian Genocide Denial 100 Years Later: The New Actors
and Their Trade”

Keith Watenpaugh (University of California-Davis)
“The Practical Failures of the League of Nations’ Interwar Humanitarian
Project for Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Origins of International
Human Rights”

Ümit Kurt (Clark University)
“The Emergence of the New Wealthy Class between 1915-1921:
The Seizure of Armenian Property by the Local Elites in Aintab”

Gregory Aftandilian (Boston University)
“The Impact of the Armenian Genocide on the Offspring of Ottoman
Armenian Survivors”

CONCLUDING REMARKS:
Barlow Der Mugrdechian (California State University-Fresno)

*All session are free and open to the public. No registration is required.*
For more information contact Bedross Der Matossian at bdermatossian2@unl.edu