News & Events

Armenian Research Center in Dearborn Announces Full Conference Program of “Armenians and the Cold War”

Armenian Research Center
University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128-2406

Contacts: Ara Sanjian and/or Gerald E. Ottenbreit, Jr.

Tel: 313-593-5181
Fax: 313-593-5219
Email: arasan@umich.edu and/or gottenbr@umich.edu
Web: http://umdearborn.edu/673901

DEARBORN, MI, Monday, 21 February 2016 (Armenian Research Center Press Release)–The Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn will hold an international academic conference on the “Armenians and the Cold War” on its campus on April 1-3, 2016. Around 30 scholars from North and South America and Europe have been invited to deliver papers and participate in the discussions.

The Center is now in position to publicize the full program of this conference.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
5:00-6:30 pm

Meet & Greet with the Participants of the Conference
6:30-7:00 pm

Words of Welcome

1. Representative of the University of Michigan-Dearborn administration

2. Asbed Kotchikian, The Armenian Review

3. Gregory Aftandilian, National Association for Armenian Studies & Research

7:00-7:30 pm
Conference Introduction

Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn, “Why This Conference?”

7:30-9:30 pm

PANEL I: An Armenian “Cold War” before the Global Cold War?

Chair: Cam Amin, University of Michigan-Dearborn

1. Garabet K. Moumdjian, Independent historian, Pasadena, CA, “ARF Collusion in the Kurdish Rebellions of the 1920s and 1930s in Republican Turkey: In Search of the Origins of Islamized Armenians in Turkey”

2. Vahe Sahakyan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Negotiating Politics in a Time of Crisis: The Changing Course of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation During WWII and its Aftermath (1941-1947)”

3. Hazel Antaramian-Hofman, Fresno Community College, “Missing Ethnographic Opportunities: Post-WWII American-Armenian Repatriation to Soviet Armenia, 1947-1956”

Discussant: Astrig Atamian, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016
10:00 am-12:00 pm

PANEL II: Armenian-Americans in the 1950s

Chair: Pam Pennock, University of Michigan-Dearborn

1. Levon Chorbajian, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, “Roily Exchanges: Newspaper Wars at the Hairenik Weekly and the Armenian Mirror-Spectator in 1951”

2. Gregory Aftandilian, American University, Washington, DC, “The Cold War Writings of Reuben Darbinian in The Armenian Review”

3. Benjamin F. Alexander, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), “The Cold Wars of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation”

Discussant: Khatchik DerGhougassian, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina

12:00-12:15 pm
Coffee Break

12:15-1:30 pm

PANEL III: The Armenian “Cold War” in France

Chair: Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor Emeritus, UCLA, and Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California

1. Jirair Jolakian, Nor Haratch, Paris, “The Cold War in the Pages of the Newspaper Haratch”

2. Astrig Atamian, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, “Between Soviet Armenia and the French Communist Party, the ‘Garmir’ Movement in France”

Discussant: Asbed Kotchikian, Bentley University

1:30-3:00
Lunch

3:00-5:00 pm

PANEL IV: The Armenian “Cold War” in South America

Chair: Kevork Bardakjian, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1. Vartan Matiossian, Armenian National Education Committee, New York, “Fighting for History: An Unknown Polemics in the Beginnings of the Cold War”

2. Heitor Loureiro, São Paulo State University (UNESP), “Communism in the Armenian Community in São Paulo and Repression by the Political Police”

3. Khatchik DerGhougassian, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina, “The Diffusion of the Cold War in the (Southern) Periphery of the Armenian Diaspora: The Pro/Against Soviet Divide in the Argentine-Armenian Community 1947-1987”

Discussant: Simon Payaslian, Boston University

5:00-5:15 pm
Coffee Break

5:15-6:30 pm

PANEL V: Armenians: Between a Soviet Homeland and the Diaspora

Chair: Anush Hovhannisyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia

1. Nélida Boulgourdjian, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina, “Background of Soviet Policy Toward the Armenian Diaspora in the Early Cold War: The Case of the Armenian Diaspora in France and Argentina (1930-1950)”

2. Gevorg Petrosyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia, “The Impact of the Cold War and Turkish-Soviet Relations on Armenians in Turkey and Their Relations with Soviet Armenia (1945-1964)”

Discussant: Eldad Ben-Aharon, Royal Holloway, University of London

6:30-9:00 pm
Reception

SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2016
10:00 am-12:00 pm

PANEL VI: The Armenian “Cold War” in the Arab World from 1945 to 1970

Chair: Levon Chorbajian, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

1. Hratch Tchilingirian, University of Oxford, “The Armenian Church During the Cold War Era and the Chasm Between Ejmiatsin and Antelias”

2. James Stocker, Trinity Washington University, “An Opportunity to Strike a Blow? The United States and the Struggle in the Armenian Apostolic Church, 1956-1963”

3. Khatchig Mouradian, Rutgers University, “The Cold War of Genocide: April 24 Editorials in the Lebanese-Armenian Party Political Press, 1945-1970”

Discussant: Benjamin F. Alexander, New York City College of Technology (CUNY)

12:00-12:15 pm
Coffee Break

12:15-1:00 pm

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION I: The Chronologies of Global Cold War and the Armenian “Cold War” Compared

Opening remarks: Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn

1:00-2:30 pm
Lunch

2:30-3:45 pm

PANEL VII: The Middle East in the 1970s and ’80s: The Era of ASALA and JCAG

Chair: Nélida Boulgourdjian, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina

1. Eldad Ben Aharon, Royal Holloway, University of London, “The Cold War and Mid-East Political Violence: An Israeli-American-Turkish Alliance?”

2. Emre Can Daglioglu, Clark University, “Re-Shaped Identity of Armenians in Turkey Under the Conditions of the Cold War”

Discussant: Vahe Sahakyan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

3:45-4:00 pm
Coffee Break

4:00-5:15

PANEL VIII: Soviet Armenian Historiography and the Cold War

Chair: Tamar Boyadjian, Michigan State University

1. Samvel Grigoryan, Independent historian, Moscow, “T‘agawor, Korol‘ or Czar: The Impact of Soviet-Western Relations on the Historiography of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia”

2. Anush Hovhannisyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia, “Remembering the Genocide in Soviet Armenia During the Cold War Era: ‘Private Stories’”

Discussant: Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor Emeritus, UCLA, and Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California

5:15-5:30
Coffee Break

5:30-6:45

PANEL IX: Arts and Popular Culture during the Armenian “Cold War”

Panel chair: Sally Howell, University of Michigan-Dearborn

1. Neery Melkonian, Independent researcher, critic and curator, New York City, “A Third Space: Armenian Diaspora Artists and the Cold War”

2. Tigran Matosyan, American University of Armenia, “Sheepskin Vests in Yerevan: The Story of Soviet Armenian Hippies”

Discussant: Kevork Bardakjian, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

6:45-7:00
Coffee Break

7:00-8:00

ROUNDTABLE II: The Legacy of the Armenian “Cold War” Today; Recommendations for Future Research

Opening remarks: Hratch Tchilingirian, University of Oxford