This panel conversation will try to contextualize the recent developments in Lebanon by looking at the country’s socio-political structure, the role of the Armenian community within that fabric as well as the possible futures of the country and the community.
Dr. Utijian's recent publications include the volumes They Who Imbibed the Effusions of the Spirit: The Art of the Armenian Book through the Ages (Mervart, 2016),Treasures of the Earliest Christian Nation: Spirituality, Art and Music in Mediaeval Armenian Manuscripts (Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov in Prague, 2018) and Tntesean and the Music of the Armenian Hymnal (Mervart, 2018). He is currently preparing his monograph entitled “Sweet in melody and voice: Words, neumes and music in the odes of St. Gregory of Narek," for publication.
This NAASR program will be the first of a series to raise awareness throughout the world about this act of cultural destruction, as well as the artistic, cultural, and religious significance of khachkars through the ages, ongoing efforts at preserving ancient ones still standing, and the art of the khachkar today.
Portraits of Unbelonging investigates the history of Ottoman Armenian emigration from the Ottoman east to the United States from the politically fraught and often violent 1890s to the end of Abdülhamid II's reign in 1909. Between 1896 and 1909, Ottoman Armenian subjects could emigrate legally only if they renounced their nationality and promised to never return to the empire. Having their photograph taken was a key step in the process. These photos recorded their “renunciation of nationality” and became one of the first uses of photography to police borders anywhere in the world.
In this online presentation Dr. Ümit Kurt will discuss the new publication Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire (Armenian Series of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Fresno, 2020), co-edited with Ara Sarafian.