Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) 50th Anniversary Conference Program (September 13-15, 2024)

Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) 50th Anniversary Conference

Armenian Studies: Evolving Connections and Conversations

September 13-15, 2024

Harvard University

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

Co-Sponsored by:

The Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies (Harvard University)

The Promise Armenian Institute (University of California, Los Angeles)

The Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History (University of

California, Los Angeles).

The Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies (University of California, Los Angeles)

The Armenian Studies Program (California State University, Fresno)

The Institute for Armenian Studies (University of Southern California)

The Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian

Genocide Studies (Clark University)

The Center for Armenian Studies (University of California, Irvine)

The Center for Armenian Studies (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

The Institute of Armenian Studies (University of Southern California)

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

The Armenian Studies Program (University of California, Berkeley)

The Armenian Research Center (University of Michigan, Dearborn)

Friday, September 13, 2024

DAY ONE

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Sackler Lecture Hall

485 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass, 02138

Welcoming Remarks and SAS History (4:00-4:30 pm)

Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Christina Maranci (Harvard University)

Tributes

Panel 1 (4:30-5:30 pm)

Chair: Marc Mamigonian (NAASR)

Kevork Bardakjian (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) in honor of Robert Thomson

Tamar Boyadjian (Stanford University) in honor of Avedis Sanjian & Robert Hewsen

Levon Avdoyan (Library of Congress) in honor of Nina Garsoian

Christina Maranci (Harvard University) in honor of Sirarpie Der Nersessian & Lucy Der Manuelian

Panel 2 (5:30-6:30 pm)

Chair: Hratch Tchilingirian (Oxford University)

Stephen Badalyan Riegg (Texas A&M University) in honor of George Bournoutian

Houri Berberian (University of California, Irvine) in honor of Anahide Ter Minassian & Louise Nalbandian

Marc Mamigonian (Boston University) in honor of Richard G. Hovannisian

Barlow Der Mugrdechian (California State University, Fresno) in honor of Dennis Papazian

Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) in honor of Vahakn N. Dadrian

Reception: (For conference participants only)

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 3rd floor, 6 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, Mass 02138

Special Presentation of Armenian Folk Music

DAY TWO

Saturday, September 14, 2024

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Sackler Lecture Hall

485 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass, 02138

BREAKFAST (8:30-9:30 am) (For conference participants only)

Panel 1 – Gender in Armenian Studies (9:30-11:30 am)

Chair: Elyse Semerdjian (Clark University)

Melissa Bilal (University of California, Los Angeles): The Other Teotig: Arshaguhi Teotig’s (1875-1922) Political Thought

Lerna Ekmekcioglu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Siran Seza: The Last Grande Dame of the Armenian Middle East and Her Yeridasart Hayuhi

Shushan Karapetian (University of Southern California): Performing Ethnolinguistic Masculinities

LUNCH (11:30 am-12:30 pm) (For conference participants only)

Panel 2- Genocide Refugees and Survivor Stories (12:30-3:30 pm)

Chair: Ümit Kurt (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Asya Darbinyan (Chhange): Refugees in the Caucasus: Novel Approaches to the Armenian Genocide Research

Victoria Abrahamyan (University of Geneva): Armenian Refugees Between Greece, Soviet Armenia and Syria, 1922-1926: The Entangled History of Population Exchanges and Partitions

Ayşe Parla (Boston University): Hostage Writing and Surviving Genocide in Hagop Mnts‘uri’s Istanbul Memoirs (1897)

Manuk Avedikyan (University of Southern California): Collecting Armenian Genocide Oral Histories Coast to Coast: Initiative and Cooperation

Coffee Break

Panel 3-Armenians in Turkey: Ambiguity, Erasure, and Pitfalls (3:45-5:15 pm)

Chair: Sossie Kasbarian (University of Stirling)

Hülya Delihüseyinoğlu (Newberry Library): Governing Armenian Schools Through Ambiguity

Hakem Al-Rustom (University of Michigan): Denativization: The Ongoing Erasure of Armenians in Contemporary Turkey

Hrag Papazian (University of Southern California): From “Crypto” to “Islamized” to “Muslim” Armenians of Turkey: Analytical Shortcomings and Ethico-Political Pitfalls of Classificatory Labels

Reception

The Armenian Museum of America (ALMA) (6:30-8:00 pm)

65 Main St, Watertown, MA 02472

DAY THREE

Sunday, September 15, 2024

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

395 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA 02478

Breakfast (8:00-9:00 am) (For conference participants only)

Introductory Remarks: Houri Berberian (University of California, Irvine) & Marc Mamigonian (NAASR) (09:00-09:15 am).

Panel 1- Identity Politics and Memory (9:15-11:15 am)

Chair: Richard Antaramian (University of Southern California)

Dzovinar Derderian (University of California, Berkeley): Complicating Relations of Power in the Ottoman Empire Through Armenian Petitions from of Van in the Mid-19th Century

Hasmik Khalapyan (American University of Armenia): Politics and Social Agendas of Fashion Among Ottoman Armenians in the Late Ottoman Empire

Bedros Torosian (University of California, Irvine): Sex, Patriotism, and Redefining Ottoman Citizenship in Exile

Flora Ghazaryan (Central European University): On the Eve of National Awakening: Early 19th Century Sectarian Violence of Armenian Communities in Istanbul

Diana Yayloyan (Georgetown University): Land, Power, and Armenian-Kurdish Relations in the Late-Ottoman East: A Testimony of an Armenian Survivor from Van

Coffee Break

Panel 2- Translation, Knowledge Production, and Mobility (11:30 am-1:15 pm)

Chair: Helen Makhdoumian (Vanderbilt University)

Henry Shapiro (Ibn Khaldun University): Early Modern Armenian Mobility and the Rise of Diary-Writing

Erin Piñon (Princeton University): Translating Translators: Armenian Vernacular Images in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Hülya Çelik (Ruhr University): Much the Same in Other Words? On Armeno-Turkish Translations in the Early 19th Century

Hratch Kestenian (City University of New York): Between Empires and Epidemics: Armenian Doctors and the Global Circulation of Medical Knowledge in the 19th Century

PARALLEL Panel 2 – Philology, Manuscripts, and Archives (11:30 am-1:15 pm)

Chair: Jirair Libaridian (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Zohrab Gevorgyan (American University of Armenia): The Voyages of “Knowledge” in the Mediterranean According to Venetian and Genoese Notarial Documents Drawn up in Cilician Armenia (13th-14th cent.)

Ani Yenokyan (Matenadaran): The Legacy of the Prominent Bibliophile Vardan Bałišec‘I: Reconstructing the 17th-century Library at Amirdōlu Monastic School

Julia Hintlian (Harvard University): Searching for Molino: Sibyls and Amazons in a 17th-Century Armenian Manuscript

Lunch (1:15-2:15 pm) (For conference participants only)

Panel 3- Art, Architecture, Artists, and Dealers (2:15-4:15 pm)

Chair: Christina Maranci (Harvard University)

Talinn Grigor (University of California, Davis): The Description of Persia’s Notable Edifices and the Diasporicity of post-Safavid Armenian Art History

Alyson Wharton-Durgaryan (University of Lincoln): Life Stories of Armenian-Ottoman Antiquities Dealers: The Curious Case of Dikran Garabed/Khan Kelekian

Vazken Davidian (Oxford University): Exiles, Émigrés, Refugees: Ottoman Armenian Artists and The Arts of Dispersion

Sato Moughalian (City University of New York): The Union of Armenian Artists, 1916-1921: A Cultural Expression of “Nation”

PARALLEL Panel 3 – Architecture, Landscape, Memory, and the Senses (2:15-4:15 pm)

Chair: Rachel Goshgarian (Lafayette College)

Anahit Galstyan (University of California, Santa Barbara): Illuminating the Dead: Light and Commemoration in Medieval Anatolia

Whitney Kite (Columbia University): The Virtues of Tillage: Interactions Between Monastery and Landscape and Tat’ev

Polina Ivanova (Harvard University): Land Inscribed in Stone and Parchment: Historical Geography, Local Memory, and Archiving Practices in the Story of a Fourteenth-Century Armenian Endowment, Its Ottoman Life, and Modern Afterlife

Coffee Break

Future Directions of the Field(s): An Open Discussion (4:30-6:00 pm)

Chair: Tsolin Nalbantian (Leiden University)

Artsakh Cultural Heritage – Lori Khatchadourian (Cornell University), Simon Maghakyan (California State University, Fresno)

Armenian Diaspora Studies – Hratch Tchilingirian (Oxford University), Khachig Tölölyan (Wesleyan University)

Armenian-American Studies – Nora Lessersohn (Harvard University)

Armenian History for the Twenty-First Century – Aram Ghoogasian (Princeton University)

Concluding Remarks (6:00-6:15 pm)

Barlow Der Mugrdechian (California State University, Fresno)

Dinner (7:30-10:00 pm) (For conference participants only)

Organizing Committee

Chair, Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)