Event Videos — #NAASR

Featured Speakers: Peter Balakian Diana Arterian Date:  Sunday February 8, 2026 1:00 PM Eastern | 10:00 AM Pacific   About:  Join us for the launch of Literary Lights 2026 featuring Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of New York Trilogy, in conversation with writer, critic, editor and translator, Diana Arterian.  In an inventive, elliptical language, New York Trilogy explores one man’s journey from the late 1960s to the twenty-first century, as he moves through a series of experiences centered in New York City and the surrounding New Jersey Palisades. Throughout this long poem in three parts, the protagonist’s life is impacted by historical events including the Armenian Genocide,...

Join Dr. Benjamin F. Alexander at NAASR for a discussion about Ararat in America, which examines the role of community leaders and other key community members who play a role in the sense of Armenian identity.  

Featured Speaker: Dr. Pietro A Shakarian Date: Sunday, November 16th Join Pietro A. Shakarian for a book talk on Anastas Mikoyan, a key figure in Soviet politics, from the Lenin to Brezhnev eras. Sponsored by:NAASR / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues and the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)  

Peter Balakian reads from his new book, New York Trilogy, at NAASR.

A conversation with author Armen Der Kiureghian led by NAASR Director of Academic Affairs Marc A. Mamigonian. 

Featured Speaker: Nicole Haroutunian Olivia Katrandjian Date: October 19, 2025 Virtual event The October edition of Literary Lights 2025 featured Nicole Haroutunian, author of Choose This Now, in conversation with writer, journalist and IALA founder Olivia Katrandjian. Inseparable friends Val-and-Tal are used to making their decisions together. But what happens when their choices become their own? CHOOSE THIS NOW, a novel-in-stories, illuminates the small moments that shape their lives across nearly twenty years. On Val’s 21st birthday—which falls on Halloween—a sudden act of violence interrupts a longed-for kiss. This unfinished moment haunts Val year after year until she materializes in...

Author Mischa Geracoulis will discuss how the role of journalism and the media during times of conflict is to report information from the front lines and war zones with integrity, and report accurately when states or other combatants engage in human rights violations.

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues Presents Demography, Politics, Resettlement: Artsakh’s Refugees in Armenia Today A Webinar with Antranig Kasbarian and Gegham Stepanyan Friday, August 22, 2025 12:00 p.m. (Eastern) / 9:00 a.m. (Pacific)  For some 30 years, significant efforts and resources were devoted to assisting the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) to build secure and prosperous lives. The violent expulsion in 2023 of all Armenians from the region, however, resulted in a massive exodus to the Republic of Armenia and the dissolution of the Artsakh Republic. The...

Our June edition of Literary Lights 2025 reading series features Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, professor, curator and author of Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, in conversation with award-winning writer Nancy Kricorian. 

Watch this special webinar, organized by the Armenian Genocide Research Program of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, presenting groundbreaking research on the fate of Armenian properties confiscated during and after the Armenian Genocide of 1915.