Saturday & Sunday, September 17-18, 2022
In Person Event. Open to the public.
Focusing on technologies of communication (i.e., manuscripts, print, visual, and digital media) The Technologies of Communication and Armenian Narrative Practices Through the Centuries: International Conference aims to foster an interdisciplinary conversation with researchers working across historical periods around the question of how technologies of communication have impacted Armenian narrative style and practices (such as modes of storytelling, narrative structure, and exegetical principles), and reversely how Armenian narrative practices have shaped each new technology. Scholars from Armenia, the U.S., Hungary, and Australia, will deliver exciting papers on the topic.
PROGRAM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
2:00pm WELCOMING REMARKS
- BEDROSS DER MATOSSIAN: University of Nebraska, Lincoln, President of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)
- MARC A. MAMIGONIAN: Director of Academic Affairs, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
OPENING REMARKS: DZOVINAR DERDERIAN, University of California, Berkeley
2:30-4:30pm PANEL 1: NARRATIVE PRACTICES AND POWER
Discussant: Marc A. Mamigonian (NAASR)
- ARMEN ABKARIAN (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), "Forging The Crown of Togarmah: Vahram’s Chronicle and the Creation of Cilician Armenian Kingship"
- ASYA DARBINYAN (Clark University), "Stories of Refugee Struggle and Assistance through the Periodicals of Imperial Russia"
- HASMIK KHALAPYAN (American University of Armenia), "Narratives of Atheism in Forging a Soviet Armenian Citizen"
- HARUTYUN MARUTYAN (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia), "Visual Forms of Communication as a Tool and Sign for Revolutionary Changes"
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2022
9:00-10:30am PANEL 2:
TECHNOLOGIES OF COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITY MAKING
Discussant: Nora Lessersohn (University College London)
- NATASHA PARNIAN (Macquarie University), "A World in Crisis: Reconstructing Identity in Late Antique Armenia"
- DIANA GHAZARYAN (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), "Through the Lens of History: Photographic Modes of Inhabiting the Holy Land by 19th and 20th Centuries Armenians"
- SHUSHAN KHACHATRYAN (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute), "Sacred Objects as Symbols of the Armenian Genocide Survival Stories"
11:00am-12:30pm PANEL 3: ADAPTING TO CHANGE: MOBILITY, CHANGING SOCIO-ECONOMIC PATTERNS, AND TECHNOLOGIES OF COMMUNICATION
Discussant: Christina Maranci (Harvard University)
- JESSE S. ARLEN (Zohrab Center), "An Old Technology in a New Era: The Use of the Scroll (Hmayil) among Early Modern Armenians"
- GAYANE AYVAZYAN (Harvard University), "The ‘Diary’ of Eremia Komurjian: The Writing of Everyday"
- ANUSH SARGSYAN (Matenadaran), "'Palimpsest' Study on the Medieval Armenian T-O Map in Matenadaran Manuscript Collection (MS 1242)"
12:30-2:00pm Lunch
2:00-3:30pm PANEL 4: CAN THE PROVINCES SPEAK? Mainstreaming Peripheral Narratives and Perspectives on Ottoman-Armenians
Discussant: Lerna Ekmekçioğlu (MIT)
- ANNA ALEKSANYAN (Clark University), "Provincial Khmoratip School Press as a Platform for Representation of Women's Issues"
- NORA BAIRAMIAN (UCLA), "Assessing the Development of Armenian Nationalism in the Ottoman Borderlands Through the Genre of the Short Story"
- VARAK KETSEMANIAN (Princeton University), "The Memoirs of Boghos Shadig (1874-1951): Subaltern Voices of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement"
4:00-5:00pm CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
CONCLUDING REMARKS: CHRISTINA MARANCI, Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies, Harvard University
ORGANIZERS
Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
CO-SPONSORS
University of Southern California, Institute of Armenian Studies
Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies, Harvard University
Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno
Armenian Studies Program, University of California, Irvine
Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, NYC
Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor