Cummings Foundation Grant Recipient

Event Videos (2020–2025)

The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century

The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century

The Horrors of Adana offers one of the first close examinations of these events, analyzing sociopolitical and economic transformations that culminated in a cataclysm of violence. Drawing on primary sources in a dozen languages, he develops an interdisciplinary approach to understand the rumors and emotions, public spheres and humanitarian interventions that together informed this complex event.

Literary Lights: We Are All Armenian ~ Part II

Literary Lights: We Are All Armenian ~ Part II

We Are All Armenian is a groundbreaking collection of personal essays–by established and emerging Armenian voices–exploring the multilayered realities of life in the Armenian diaspora.

Witnessing the Armenian Massacres ~ The Story of a Physician, a Poet, an a Book of Poems: Dr. Diran Balakian, Siamanto, and Bloody News from My Friend

Witnessing the Armenian Massacres ~ The Story of a Physician, a Poet, an a Book of Poems: Dr. Diran Balakian, Siamanto, and Bloody News from My Friend

Peter Balakian discusses the book of poems Bloody News from My Friend by Siamanto (1878-1915). Dr. Diran Balakian, Peter Balakian’s grandfather, at the time of the 1909 Adana massacres was working as a physician tending to the wounded and was also an eyewitness to the atrocities.

That Troublesome Word, Genocide: How Should We Understand It?

That Troublesome Word, Genocide: How Should We Understand It?

Professor Ron Suny, emeritus of the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan -- and author of a major study of the massacres and deportations committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, "They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton University Press, 2015) -- uses the insights of Moses' work to take a fresh look at the Armenian tragedy and how it provides another lens to look at the concept of genocide.

The Extraordinary Humanitarian Legacy of the Near East Relief and Three Generations of Kerrs

The Extraordinary Humanitarian Legacy of the Near East Relief and Three Generations of Kerrs

This audio-visual presentation, featuring rare archival material, photographs and video clips, sheds light on the massive life-saving impact of the Near East Relief and more specifically, the Kerr family, on a generation of survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Responding to horrific eyewitness accounts and urgent pleas for help, the U.S. mobilized an unprecedented campaign of humanitarian assistance led by the Near East Relief (NER) and given legs by a small army of relief workers who risked their lives to help the destitute survivors in distant, dangerous lands. Among the volunteers was Stanley Kerr, a young biochemist in the U.S. Army who, learning of the opportunity to join the relief effort, in 1919 boarded a ship to the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

For A Better Understanding of St. Gregory of Narek's Prayers: A Conversation between Dr. Abraham Terian and Dr. S. Peter Cowe

For A Better Understanding of St. Gregory of Narek's Prayers: A Conversation between Dr. Abraham Terian and Dr. S. Peter Cowe

A conversation between Dr. Abraham Terian and Dr. S. Peter Cowe "For a Better Understanding of St. Gregory of Narek's Prayers"

Literary Lights: Featuring A Book, Untitled by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz

Literary Lights: Featuring A Book, Untitled by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz

A Book, Untitled unfolds an imagined encounter between two early twentieth-century feminist writers, Zabel Yesayan and Shushanik Kurghinian, juxtaposed with a conversation between the author and a friend. Learn more about the book here: bit.ly/3X4e8ZC

They Vowed Never To Return: Armenian Transatlantic Mobility and ‘Undesirable Subjects’ at the end of the Ottoman Empire

They Vowed Never To Return: Armenian Transatlantic Mobility and ‘Undesirable Subjects’ at the end of the Ottoman Empire

This talk by Hazal Özdemir expands the category of anti-Armenian violence in the Hamidian era to contain the denaturalization of targeted populations and methods devised to control their movements, such as photo registers. It will focus on the Armenian mobility between the Ottoman Empire and the United States between 1896-1908.

What's Next? Armenian Genocide Restitution in the Post-Recognition Era

What's Next? Armenian Genocide Restitution in the Post-Recognition Era

In 2019, both houses of U.S. Congress recognized the Armenian Genocide, followed by President Biden’s official recognition on April 24, 2021. Their goal achieved, Armenian activists and organizations were now faced with the question: “What’s next?” This conference begins to examine this question.

Armeno-Indica: Four Centuries of Togetherness and Familiarity

Armeno-Indica: Four Centuries of Togetherness and Familiarity

This international conference celebrates the bicentenary of the founding of Kolkata's famed Armenian College (est. 1821), one of three centers of Armenian higher learning in the diaspora during the nineteenth century and the only one that has survived and is thriving today. Bringing together economic, literary, legal, and cultural historians from India, Armenia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, the conference highlights how, beginning in the early modern period and continuing to the present, Armenians have traveled to India to make its distant shores and cultures their own.