
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 7 P.M. EST
In-Person at Baikar Building, 755 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown, MA, 02472 (use Norseman Ave. entrance)
Admission is complimentary, and the lecture will be followed by a reception. For more information, contact Sossy Yogurtian at syogurtian@comcast.net or call 617 281-1647.
FEATURED SPEAKER:
Sergio La Porta, the Acting Dean of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. Prior to assuming this role, he was the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and the Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies. His most recent book publication, co-authored with Dr. Alison Vacca, is entitled, An Armenian Futūḥ Narrative: Łewond’s Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate (Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2024). In addition, Dr. La Porta has published on the Armenian commentaries on the works attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, and numerous articles on medieval Armenian intellectual history and cultural interactions with the Islamicate, Byzantine, and Latinate worlds.
Presented by the Grace and Paul Shahinian Armenian Christian Art and Culture Lecture Series
The Turkish invasions of the late eleventh century created disruptions to political and social life in Armenia. The disappearance of the kingdoms of the Bagratuni and Artsruni created a political vacuum, and the departure of Armenians for other lands and the emergence of Turkish and Kurdish populations shifted the demographics of the region. Besides the conflicts waged between the major geopolitical actors of the time, rulers and communities had to manage relationships between competing interests on more local levels as well.
Over the course of the twelfth century, relationships between many Christian and Muslim communities in Armenia began to break down. This talk will present Armenian narratives of the period that point to the entanglement of Armenian Christian and Muslim communities, the deterioration of relations between them, and the pressures that exacerbated the decline. In addition, it will analyze a set of 12th-century martyrologies and argue that they provide unique insights into strategies promoted to negotiate the rapidly changing socio-political context.
CO-SPONSORS:
Armenian Cultural Foundation
NAASR