September 2022 Conference: Technologies of Communication and Armenian Narrative Practices Through the Centuries

An International Conference
Sponsored by

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont, MA

Co-sponsored by

University of Southern California, Institute of Armenian Studies
Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies, Harvard University
Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno
Center for Armenian Studies, University of California, Irvine
Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, NYC
Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

September 17-18, 2022

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

395 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA 02478

Open to the public

Saturday, September 17:

2:00pm Welcoming Remarks:

Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln, President of the Society for Armenian Studies)
Marc Mamigonian (National Association for Armenian Studies and Research)

Opening Remarks:

Dzovinar Derderian (University of California, Berkeley)

2:30-4:30pm

Panel 1: Narrative Practices and Power

Discussant: Marc A. Mamigonian (NAASR)

Armen Abkarian (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), “Forging The Crown of Togarmah: Vahram’s Chronicle and the Creation of Cilician Armenian Kingship”
Asya Darbinyan (Clark University), “Stories of Refugee Struggle and Assistance through the Periodicals of Imperial Russia”
Hasmik Khalapyan (American University of Armenia), “Narratives of Atheism in
Forging a Soviet Armenian Citizen”
Harutyun Marutyan (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute and Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia), “Visual Forms of Communication as a Tool and Sign for Revolutionary Changes”

Sunday, September 18

9:00-10:30am

Panel 2: Technologies of Communication and Identity Making

Discussant: Nora Lessersohn (University College London)

Natasha Parnian (Macquarie University), “A World in Crisis: Reconstructing Identity in Late Antique Armenia”
Diana Ghazaryan (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), “Through the Lens of History: Photographic Modes of Inhabiting the Holy Land by 19th and 20th Centuries Armenians”
Shushan Khachatryan (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute), “Sacred Objects as
Symbols of the Armenian Genocide Survival Stories”

10:30-11:00am Coffee Break

11:00am-12:30pm

Panel 3: Adapting to change: Mobility, Changing Socio-Economic Patterns, and
Technologies of Communication

Discussant: Christina Maranci (Harvard University)

Jesse S. Arlen (Zohrab Center), “An Old Technology in a New Era: The Use of the Scroll (Hmayil) Among Early Modern Armenians”
Gayane Ayvazyan (Harvard University), “The ‘Diary’ of Eremia Komurjian: The
Writing of Everyday”
Anush Sargsyan (Matenadaran), “‘Palimpsest’ Study on the Medieval Armenian T-O Map in Matenadaran Manuscript Collection (MS 1242)”

12:30-2:00pm: Lunch

2:00-3:30pm

Panel 4: Can the Provinces Speak? Mainstreaming Peripheral Narratives and Perspectives on Ottoman-Armenians

Discussant: Lerna Ekmekçioğlu (MIT)

Anna Aleksanyan (Clark University), “Provincial Khmoratip School Press as a Platform for Representation of Women’s Issues”
Nora Bairamian (UCLA), “Assessing the Development of Armenian Nationalism in the Ottoman Borderlands Through the Genre of the Short Story”
Varak Ketsemanian (Princeton University), “The Memoirs of Boghos Shadig (1874-1951): Subaltern Voices of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement”