About the Symposium
As part of the celebration of its 70th Anniversary, on October 2 & 3, 2025, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will host the Pamela and Edward Avedisian Graduate Symposium in Armenian Studies at the NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building. An international lineup of speakers will present papers on a wide range of topics. The public is invited to attend sessions.
This symposium is presented in honor of Pamela and Edward Avedisian in recognition of and with gratitude for their generous support of NAASR and its mission.
Co-sponsored by: The Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University
Location: National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Panel 1: Art & Architecture
10:15 AM - 11:45 AMChair: Daniel Ohanian (Gesaria Armenian Research and Academic Services)
- Grace Rotermund University of Chicago Divinity School "Space, Place, and the Senses in a Second Look at Geghard Monastery"
- Veronika Džugan Hermanová University of Florence "The International and the Local in Late Antique Armenia: Architecture, Cult, and Politics Through the Lens of the Kamsarakans"
Panel 2: Music & Poetry
1:15 PM - 3:15 PMChair: Ani Babaian (NAASR)
- Tzovinar Artzrouni Institute of Arts, National Academy of Sciences of The Republic of Armenia "Bedros Alahaydoyan: Documenting Songs and Stories, Preserving the Virtual Homeland"
- Alexandra Yaralian University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Singing the Nation: Armenian Revolutionary Songs and Identity Formation in the AYF Washington, D.C. 'Ani' Chapter"
- Arthur Ipek New York University "From the Shores of Scutari to San Luis Obispo: Tracing the Emergence of a Contemporary Voice in Armenian Poetic Tradition"
- Lilia Yaralian University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope: Music and Genocide Commemoration in the Washington, D.C. Area Armenian Community"
Panel 3: Late Ottoman Genocide & Mass Violence 1
3:30 PM - 5:00 PMChair: Marc A. Mamigonian (NAASR)
- Tatevik Saroyan Yerevan State University History Museum "The Spread of Coffee Culture Across Continents by Armenians Displaced by the Genocide"
- Sesil Artuc City University of New York "Reordering the East: Settlement of North Caucasians to Ottoman Armenia"
- Mete Ulutaş Pennsylvania State University "Spaces of Confinement, Sites of Becoming: Armenian Political Prisoners in the Late Ottoman Empire"
Friday, October 3, 2025
Panel 1: Literature and Language
10:15 AM - 12:00 PMChair: Houri Berberian (University of California, Irvine)
- William WalkHarvard University"The Poetics of Purple Prose: Toward a Straussian reading of Grigor Magistros"
- Nora Bairamian University of California, Los Angeles "Burden, Belonging, and the Bantukhd: The Depiction of the Migrant Laborer in Ottoman-Armenian Literature"
- Lorenzo Colombo University of Geneva "Euripides in Armenia: New Suggestions"
- Basak Yagmur Karaca University of Southern California "Arousyak Papazian's Influence in the Late Ottoman Society: Theatre as a Space for Women's Confinement and Liberation"
Panel 2: Late Ottoman Genocide and Mass Violence 2
1:15 PM - 2:45 PMChair: Taner Akçam (Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA)
- Ani Ohanian Clark University "Bloodlines of Strife and Sorrow: Armenians a Century after Genocide"
- Orhun Yalcin Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich "The Ottoman Constitutional Crisis and Azadamard Newspaper: Armenians in the Provinces and the Unending Cycle of Violence"
- Hasmik Grigoryan Clark University "Toward the April Self-Defense of 1915: Regional Violence and Survival in Van Province"
Panel 3: Modern Armenia and Diaspora
3:00 PM - 5:00 PMChair: Lerna Ekmekcioglu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Lori Pirinjian University of California, Los Angeles "The Domestic Violence Law of Armenia, 2018 – 2019: A Time of Newfound Hope?"
- Gegham Mughnetsyan University of Southern California "Framing Montebello: East Los Angeles as an Early Center of the Contemporary Armenian American Community"
- Nelli Manucharyan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of The Republic of Armenia "Secret Baptism Practices in Soviet Armenia (1930s–1950s): Faith, Resistance, and Cultural Continuity under State Atheism"
- Ruzanna Gasparyan University of California, Irvine "Dreaming in the Dark: Armenian Identity and Emotional Lives During the Mut' Tariner Energy Crisis"