Microhistories of Armenian Early Modernity, A UCLA Workshop on Diaspora, Print Culture, Confession Building, and Governmentality, c. 1512/1604-1789

MICROHISTORIES OF ARMENIAN EARLY MODERNITY

A UCLA Workshop on Diaspora, Print Culture, Confession Building, and Governmentality

UCLA University Club, Sequoia Room

 May 29–30, 2026

Organized by the Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History

Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, the UCLA Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and the Centre for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) at UCLA

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DAY 1 — MAY 29, 2026
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Breakfast — 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Welcome & Opening Remarks — 10:00 AM – 10:10 AM
Sebouh D. Aslanian and Sona Tajiryan

Framing Address — 10:10 AM – 10:30 AM
Sebouh D. Aslanian
Through the Eye of a Needle: Global Microhistory and Armenian Early Modernity

PANEL I — THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ARMENIAN PRINT
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Discussant: Dr. Sona Tajiryan

• Aram Ghoogasian (UCLA)
The Uses and Misuses of Early Modern Books, 1512–1800

• Anush Apresyan (Matenadaran-Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute)
The Mekhitarists’ Contribution to Early Modernity: Abbot Mekhitar in Armenian Old Printed Books

• Hratch Kestenian (Orient-Institut Beirut)
Making Medicine Legible: Mik‘ayēl Rēstēn Tēr-Petrosean and Early Modern Armenian Medical Print

Lunch Break — 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

PANEL II — OBJECTS IN MOTION: MATERIALITY, POWER, AND PATRONAGE
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Discussant: Dr. Sebouh D. Aslanian (UCLA)

• Ani Margaryan (Soochow University)
Patronage, Materiality, and Identity: A Microhistorical Inquiry into Armenian Mercantile Networks through Objets d’Art

• Emma Harutyunyan (Harvard)
Liturgical Objects and the Construction of Patronal Identity

• Sona Tajiryan (Independent Researcher)
A Merchant’s Extraordinary Gem Portfolio: An Early Modern Phenomenon?

PANEL III — MOBILITY AND MEMORY IN PERIPHERAL AND URBAN SPACES AND LIVED EXPERIENCE
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Discussant: Dr. S. Peter Cowe (UCLA)

• Naira Poghosyan (Yerevan State University)
Armenians in the Ottoman Province: A Microhistorical Reading of Hakop Divrikts‘i’s Chronicle (1759–1783)

• Başak Yağmur Karaca (USC)
Diaspora in Built Form: Armenian Mobility and Commercial Buildings in Eighteenth-Century Intra-Muros Istanbul

• Haykuhi Muradyan (Yerevan State University)
A Microhistory of the Armenian Church of Dhaka (1781): Diaspora, Mobility, and Memory

Dinner (By Invitation Only) — 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
At Professor Aslanian’s home

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DAY 2 — MAY 30, 2026
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PANEL IV — HISTORIES OR STORIES? WORDS AND LITERATURE AS WITNESSES TO INTERACTION, MIGRATION, AND IMAGINATION
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Discussant: Dr. Maran Momdjian (UCLA)

• Suman Pal (University of Calcutta)
Grigor Harutiunian in Eighteenth-Century Bengal: Diaspora and Historical Imagination

• Kristine Baghdasaryan (Pázmány Péter Catholic University / Free University of Berlin)
Armenian Words and Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Dede Qorqud Epic, c. 1512–1789

• Vera Sahakyan (Matenadaran-Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute)
Surviving Memory: Shah Abbas’s Deportations and the Transmission of Environmental Toponyms

Lunch Break — 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

PANEL V — CONFESSIONALISM BETWEEN TEXT AND TRIBUNAL: VERNACULAR CULTURE, IMPOSTURE, AND THE LAW
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Discussant: Dr. Hagop Gulludjian (UCLA)

• Anna Ohanjanyan (Matenadaran Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts)
Confessional Mobility and Imposture: A Microhistory of an Armenian “False Priest” in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman World

• Sebouh D. Aslanian (UCLA)
Inquisitorial Ashkharhabar: Inventing Eastern Armenian in Confessional Manila, c 1740-1760

• Yavuz Aykan (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
From the Subject of Desire to the Subject of Law: Towards a Microhistory of Metropolitan Toros in Ottoman Trabzon, 1723

3:30 PM — Closing & Farewell