Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History

The Unspoken as Heritage: The Armenian Genocide and Its Unaccounted Lives
2021-04-22 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom Webinar
The Inaugural Raymond H. Kévorkian Armenian Genocide Commemoration Lecture delivered by Dr. Harry Harootunian.
Harry Harootunian’s The Unspoken as Heritage: The Armenian Genocide and its Unaccounted Lives is an attempt to reach an unattainable history by addressing the experience and memories of his parents, who escaped the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1916 and migrated to the United States to confront the magnitude of a second challenge of adaptation and economic security in an entirely different environment. Their afterlives in Detroit, where they raised three children, were marked by a void of silence provoked by what they had experienced and the loss they had incurred to configure a daily life continually mediated by the defeating historical effects of genocidal policies Armenians had been subjected to during the closing years of Ottoman rule.
Born in 1929 in the United States, Harry Harootunian is among the leading professional historians of East Asia, focusing on Japan’s early modern and modern history. He is the author of Marx after Marx: History and Time after Capitalism (Columbia University Press, 2015) and Uneven Moments: Reflections on Japan’s Modern History (Columbia University Press, 2019). He was formerly the Max Palevsky Professor, Emeritus of History and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, the dean of Humanities at the University of California, Santa Cruz, editor of Journal for Asian Studies, and co-editor of Critical Inquiry. His newest book is The Unspoken as Heritage: The Armenian Genocide and Its Unaccounted Lives.
*Please note that Todd Presner has replaced Michael Rothberg as the Discussant for this event.
Registration is required for this Webinar event.

You can watch a video of this event below:

Ronald G. Suny, Armenians and the Wages of Nationalism
2021-02-12 11:00 - 14:00 | Zoom Webinar
This event is free, but registration is required. RSVP at bit.ly/PAI3Web.

Taner Akcam, Decision to Annihilate Armenians
2020-09-14 11:00 - 14:00 | Zoom Webinar
This event is free, but Registration is required. RSVP at bit.ly/3icR1In.

The Unspoken as Heritage: The Armenian Genocide and its Unaccounted Lives
2020-04-17 18:30 - 20:30 | Royce Hall 314, 405 Hilgard Avenue, los angeles, CA, 90095, United States

Sultanic Saviors and Tolerant Turks: Writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide
2020-04-16 12:00 - 14:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States

Transforming Invisible Street Types into Subjects Worthy of Attention: The Intimate Portrait as Agent for Social Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Ottoman Armenian Realism
2020-04-03 18:30 - 20:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States

The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America
2020-03-12 18:30 - 20:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
This event has been postponed. (updated 3/11/2020, 5:00 pm)

The Republics of the Caucasus, 1918-1920: A Failed Project of Interdependence
2019-11-26 12:00 - 13:30 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
A Public Lecture by Beka Kobakhidze
Event Flyer

Cosponsored by:
UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies
UCLA Program on Central Asia
The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History

"Diaspora and 'Stateless Power': Social Discipline and Identity Formation Across the Armenian Diaspora during the Long Twentieth Century"
2019-10-12 09:00 - 2019-10-13 17:15 | Rolfe Hall 1200, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A Conference in Honor of Khachig Tölölyan
Event Program

Sponsored by:
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in
Modern Armenian History (UCLA)
The Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies (UCLA)
The Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair
(University of California, Irvine)
The Institute of Armenian Studies
(University of Southern California)
The Armenian Studies Program
(California State University, Fresno)
The Armenian Studies Program
(California State University, Northridge)
The National Association for Armenian Studies
and Research (Belmont, MA)
Armenian Bar Association

Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian
2019-09-26 18:30 - 20:30 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
Join us for this book talk as Sato Moughalian details the lineage of her grandfather David Ohannessian’s ceramic tradition and document the critical roles his deportation and his own agency played in its transfer—aspects of the story obscured in the art historical narrative. She will speak about the process of coming to terms with her family’s past, the ways in which that served as an impetus to excavate and reconstruct her grandfather’s history through archival research, and the importance of preserving the stories of peoples displaced through migration.
Event Flyer

Daily Life in the Abyss: Genocide Diaries, 1915-1918
2019-03-14 19:00 - 21:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
Join us for this book talk as Vahé Tachjian recreates the quotidian world of deportees from Ayntab, ordinary lives caught in an extraordinary historical moment. Through analysis of diaries and other source material, the talk reconstructs the rhythms of daily life within an often bleak and hostile environment, in the face of a gradually disintegrating social fabric.
Event Flyer

Armeno-Iranica: A Shared History
2019-01-27 09:30 - 21:30 | Royce Hall 314, 405 Hilgard Avenue, los angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A Conference in Honor of Nina Garsoïan
Event Flyer and Program
Conference Co-Sponsor: The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

William Saroyan: The Unpublished Plays in Performance
2018-10-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Jan Popper Theater, Schoenberg Hall, 445 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A world premier Vista Players production created and directed by Aram Kouyoumdjian and performed by Jade Hykush, Will Maizel, Bailey Sorrel, and Robert Walters.
Event Flyer

Voice Signatures: Recordings of Russian Armenian POWs in German Camps, 1916-1918
2018-05-10 18:00 - 19:30 | 1234 Public Policy, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
A Lecture by Melissa Bilal
University of Chicago
Event Flyer

Photography in the Ottoman Middle East & Beyond
2018-03-25 10:30 - 16:00 | Brand Library, 1601 West Mountain Street, Glendale, CA, 91201, United States
A Symposium Moderated by Dr. Armen T. Marsoobian
Co-Curator of Continuity and Rupture: An Armenian Family Odyssey

Event Videos

Sultan Abdulhamid II: Founding Father of the Turkish State?
2018-03-23 14:00 - 17:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
A Lecture by Edhem Eldem
College de France
Event Podcast

Marriage Law and Marriage Culture among Western Armenians, 1860-1908
2018-03-08 18:30 - 20:00
A Lecture by Dr. Hasmik Khalapyan

UCLA Haines Hall, Room A18
Thursday, March 8, 2018, 6:30-8:00 PM
Event Flyer
This event is Co-Sponsored by The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History, and the UCLA Gustave von Grunebaum Center for Near East Studies

Confessionalization and Reform: The Mkhit‘arist Enterprise from Constantinople to Venice, Trieste, and Vienna
2017-12-16 - 2017-12-17 | UCLA Faculty Center, California Room, 480 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A Conference in memory of Father Sahak Djemjemian and on the Occasion of the 300th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Congregation in Venice
Event Flyer and Program Details
Event Videos

Interculturalism and the Integration of Syrian-Armenian Refugees to Montreal, Quebec
2017-10-26 18:30 - 20:00
A Lecture by Gabriella Djerrahian
Concordia University, Montreal

UCLA School of Law, Room 1314
Thursday, October 26, 2017, 6:30-8:00 PM
Event Flyer
This event is Co-Sponsored by The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History, the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, and the UCLA School of Law Promise Institute for Human Rights.

The King and the Forty Orphans: The Invention of an Armenian Homeland in Ethiopia
2017-10-12 18:30 - 20:00 | UCLA School of Law, 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A Lecture by Boris Adjemian
Historian and Director of AGBU Nubar Library (Paris)

UCLA School of Law, Room 1420
Thursday, October 12, 2017, 6:30-8:00 PM
Event Flyer
This event is Co-Sponsored by The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History, the UCLA African Studies Center, and the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Dissent in an Age of Populism: Sustaining Political Opposition after Turkey's 2017 Referendum
2017-10-09 17:30 - 19:00 | UCLA School of Law, 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Garo Paylan
MP, Peoples’ Democratic Party, Member of the Parliamentary Committees on Constitution and Budget

UCLA School of Law, Room 1314
Monday, October 9, 2017, 5:30-7:00 PM
Event Flyer
This event is Co-Sponsored by the UCLA School of Law’s The Promise Institute for Human Rights, The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History, and the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Abbot Mkhit‘ar of Sebastea: A Sacred Genius and an Enduring Challenge for Today
2017-09-24 13:30 - 15:00 | Royce Hall, 10745 Dickson Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A lecture by His Eminence, Archbishop Levon Zekiyan
Royce Hall 314, UCLA
Sunday, September 24, 2017, 1:30-3:00 PM
Event flyer in Armenian
Event flyer in English
A light lunch and refreshments will be served before the lecture. Talk will be given in Armenian and English.
This event is presented by The Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History with the co-sponsorship of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

Contemporary Challenges in Human Rights
2017-04-17 | UCLA School of Law, 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
A Talk with Geoffrey Robertson, Q.C.

The City as Anthology: Visualizing Cultures of Literacy in Early Modern Isfahan
2017-04-06 14:00 - 17:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
A lecture by Kathryn Babyan
Associate Professor of Iranian History & Culture, Director Armenian Studies Program
University of Michigan
Event Flyer
The City as Anthology will encapsulate the story of Isfahan through private collections assembled in the domestic sphere of urban households. Thousands of anthologies were produced in seventeenth century family libraries, shaping tastes and aesthetics as they participated in the making of a graphic culture. Paintings and drawings were commissioned and purchased; private letters, verses of poetry, and talismans, along with all sorts of fragments were arranged and recorded on paper. This talk will serve as a guide to my reading of these anthologies as an account of households and communities of literacy before print.
Co-sponsored by UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies

The Age of the Gharib: Strangers and Estrangement in the Pre-modern Mediterranean
2017-03-02 18:00 - 19:30 | 220 Haines Hall
A lecture by Michael Pifer
National Endorsement for the Humanities Fellow
University of Michigan

The trope of the wandering stranger, the outcast with secret prestige, can be found in pre-modern literatures around the world. This lecture will shed light on an intersecting discourse about strangers across Jewish, Muslim, and Christian societies, with the intention of illuminating the peregrinations of the restless outcast known as the gharib in Middle Armenian poetry in particular. As it will argue, the mobile figure of the gharib, which performatively travels across multiple cultural systems, suggests an alternative manner of parsing what is ‘native’ and ‘foreign,’ indigenous and exogenous, in the societies through which it moves.
Co-sponsored by UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies

Homeland(s), Belonging, and Contested Loyalties Among Early Armenian Immigrants in America
2017-02-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Franz Hall 1260
A Talk by Vahe Sahakyan

Moving away from elites- and institutions-centered approaches to the Armenian diaspora, this lecture will address the changing perceptions of belonging and homeland among early Armenian immigrants in America by examining the programs, projects, and activities of their hometown societies in the period between the 1890s and 1930s.
Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of History

Armenia’s Current Political and Social Situation in Global Context
2016-11-03 18:00 - 19:30 | 118 Haines Hall
A Talk by Dr. Armine Ishkanian
Event Flyer
Dr. Armine Ishkanian is an Assistant Professor (tenured) and Programme Director of the MSc in Social Policy and Development in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. She has expertise in civil society, democratization, gender, social policy and development in the post-socialist countries of the former Soviet Union and Europe. She will speak about the current situation in Armenia and how it has been shaped by, and is a consequence of, the politics and policies of the past twenty-five years of independence.
Co-sponsored by UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies

Survivors into Minorities: Armenians in Post Genocide Turkey
2016-04-19 14:00 - 15:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, United States
A Book Talk by Dr. Lerna Ekmekcioglu
McMillan-Stewart Associate Professor of History
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Ekmekcioglu’s talk follows the trajectories of the survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide who remained inside Turkish borders after the signing of the 1918 Mudros Armistice (and during the Allied occupation years of Istanbul) and after the 1923 establishment of the new country as the Turkish Republic. How did the Kemalist state treat the remaining Armenians? What were the Armenians’ responses to the new (but also old) Turkish regime? The talk discusses multiple strategies that Armenians—including feminist Armenians—crafted in order to cohabit with unapologetic perpetrators and survive the new Turkey.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies

Can the Survivor Speak?
2016-04-14 18:00 - 19:30 | 118 Haines Hall
Dr. Talin Suciyan
Ludwig Maximilian University
Event Flyer
Dr. Talin Suciyan’s talk will present the central findings of her recent publication, The Armenians in Modern Turkey: Post–Genocide Society, Politics and History (I.B. Tauris, 2016). The lecture will discuss the author’s reconstruction of the little–known history of the remarkable survival of Turkey’s Armenian community in the wake of the genocide of 1915 by relying on a painstaking examination of local Armenian sources alongside documentation from the Turkish state archives. By using oral histories, minutes of the Armenian National Assembly,memoirs, personal archives, yearbooks, and various newspapers published during the post–1923 period, Suciyan tries to restore a historiographic voice to those silenced by history.
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Co–sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies

Total Destruction by Despoliation
2015-05-15 18:00 - 19:30 | Haines A25
The Role of Local and Provincial Elites in the Annihilation and Deportation of Aintab Armenians, 1915-1918: A talk by Umit Kurt
Clark University
Event Flyer
Umit Kurt’s talk explores the role of local notables and provincial elites in the process of genocide and deportation directed at Aintab Armenians. It argues that as a result of their participation in the genocide, these local actors prospered and were able to transform themselves into the new wealthy social stratum through the acquisition of Armenians’ property and wealth.
Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
