What Does A Small Nation Know? Armenians and the Wages of Nationalism

Friday, February 12, 2021 at 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific
On Zoom and the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute YouTube channel.

The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute Distinguished Lecture Series

PRESENTER
RONALD G. SUNY: William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago

DISCUSSANT
SOSSIE KASBARIAN: Senior Lecturer in Politics University of Stirling, Scotland

SYNOPSIS
Nations are imagined but in different styles. In the 20th century Armenians have imagined their nation in conflicting ways, as territorial, diasporic, independent, Soviet, ethnonational, cosmopolitan, and even imperial. Many believe that without a strong, coherent, and united sense of nation, a nation can disappear and knows it (to paraphrase Milan Kundera). Others have argued that it is precisely in the divided sense of nation, the ongoing dialogue about what constitutes the nation, that Armenia is most vital and least likely to be forced to subscribe to the imperatives set by nationalists posing as patriots.

Professor Ronald Grigor Suny explores the benefits and the wages of nationalism, its costs to a small nation, and how it has contributed to the tragic moment the country faces today.

For more information, please contact The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute at armenian-info@international.ucla.edu, 310-569-6325, or visit The Institute’s website.

ORGANIZER
The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA

CO-SPONSORS
Ararat-Eskijian Museum (AEM)
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies