Cummings Foundation Grant Recipient

David Gutman on The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America, 1885-1915 ~ October 10, 2019

David Gutman, "The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America, 1885-1915"

Thursday, October 10, 2019 at 7:30 pm, Tufts University, Alumnae Lounge, 40 Talbot Ave, Medford, MA 02155

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, The Darakjian Jafarian Chair in Armenian History, and the Tufts Armenian Club Present the Second Annual Prof. Charles B. Garabedian Lecture

The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America, 1885-1915 tells the story of Armenian migration to North America in the late Ottoman period, and Istanbul’s efforts to prevent it. It shows how, just as in the present, migrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were forced to travel through clandestine smuggling networks, frustrating the enforcement of the ban on migration. Further, migrants who attempted to return home from sojourns in North America risked debarment at the border and deportation, while the return of migrants who had naturalized as US citizens generated friction between the United States and Ottoman governments.

Gutman sheds light on the relationship between the imperial state and its Armenian populations in the decades leading up to the Armenian Genocide. He also places the Ottoman Empire squarely in the middle of global debates on migration, border control, and restriction in this period, adding to our understanding of the global historical origins of contemporary immigration politics and other issues of relevance today in the Middle East region, such borders and frontiers, migrants and refugees, and ethno-religious minorities.

Professor Charles B. Garabedian (1917-1991) was born in Everett, Mass., and graduated magna cum laude from Everett High School and Tufts University (A.B. English and History).  He attended Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Boston University Law School. During World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and in the late 1940s he began his teaching career at Suffolk University Law School.  His expertise was tort litigation and damages, courses which he continuously taught at Suffolk University Law School for over 40 years.  At the time of his death, Professor Garabedian was the Senior Faculty Professor at Suffolk University Law School.  The annual lecture in his memory has been established at NAASR by Prof. Garabedian’s niece, NAASR Board Member Joan E. Kolligian.

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