University Business Center
“Khatchkars: Emblematic Art of Armenians” by Hrair Hawk Khatcherian
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesAmong the creations of Armenian artistic genius, which gives this nation an important place in art's universal history, the khatchkar (khatch=cross; kar=stone) is probably the most iconic example of this in Armenia. Hrair Hawk Khatcherian was born in Lebanon in 1961. In 1982 he earned his wings as a commercial pilot in Hayward California. He… Continue reading “Khatchkars: Emblematic Art of Armenians” by Hrair Hawk Khatcherian
“The Future of the Past: Pathways for Saving Armenian Vestiges in Turkey” by Dr. Simon Maghakyan
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesThe lecture will identify and assess domestic, interstate, and international opportunities and challenges for preserving Armenian heritage remnants in the Turkish Republic. It will then discuss three scenarios, detailing the agencies of key stakeholders, for the future of Turkey’s Armenian material past, making the case that a total erasure of all traces of Armenian heritage… Continue reading “The Future of the Past: Pathways for Saving Armenian Vestiges in Turkey” by Dr. Simon Maghakyan
“Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908” by Dr. İlkay Yılmaz
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United Statesİlkay Yılmaz reconsiders the history of two political issues, the Armenian and Macedonian questions, approaching both through the lens of mobility restrictions during the late Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1908 in her book Ottoman Passports. Yılmaz investigates how Ottoman security perceptions and travel regulations were directly linked to transnational security regimes battling against anarchism.… Continue reading “Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908” by Dr. İlkay Yılmaz
“The Portrayal of Women in Early Armenian Literature” by Dr. David Zakarian
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesThe richness of native literary texts and translations produced by the Armenians in the fifth century CE prompted the Mekhitarist fathers to characterize that century as the “Golden Age” of Armenian literature. This lecture explores the portrayal of women in the most influential texts from this period, evaluating how they present women’s roles within the… Continue reading “The Portrayal of Women in Early Armenian Literature” by Dr. David Zakarian
“The Present of the Past: The State of Armenian Heritage in Turkey” by Dr. Simon Maghakyan
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesThe lecture will address the official and unofficial treatment of Armenian heritage sites — active and “abandoned” alike — in Turkey since the early 2000s, tracking the transformation of Erdogan’s history-related politics, and exploring the ongoing mass looting of Armenian properties. Seeking preservation prospects, the lecture will assess the agency of state and non-state stakeholders… Continue reading “The Present of the Past: The State of Armenian Heritage in Turkey” by Dr. Simon Maghakyan
“The Past of the Past: Armenian Heritage in Ottoman and Republican Turkey”
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesThe presentation will address the Ottoman Empire’s and the pre-Erdogan Turkish Republic’s approaches to Armenian cultural heritage as reflective of broader policies towards Armenians, highlighting a mixed record of destruction, dispossession, and accommodation. It will dissect the securitization of and subsequent state-sanctioned heritage crime against religious-cultural sites starting in the 19th century, policies that escalated… Continue reading “The Past of the Past: Armenian Heritage in Ottoman and Republican Turkey”
Strangers in a Promised Land – Remastered
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United States“Strangers in a Promised Land” is the story of the Fresno Armenian community over a hundred-year period. This newly remastered film from the original 16mm print, depicts the universal experience of immigration, the overcoming of adversity, discrimination and the achievement of success by Fresno Armenians. Narrated by Governor George Deukmejian, the film tells the story… Continue reading Strangers in a Promised Land – Remastered
“Armenian Memory, Writing Across Borders: A Reading and Talk” with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Peter Balakian
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesBalakian will read and discuss his poetry and prose with a focus on Armenian historical and cultural memory and disaporan imagination. In his many books of poems and his memoir Black Dog of Fate, Balakian has explored-in his distinct poetic form and elliptical language-traumatic intergenerational memory of the Armenian Genocide, as well as the power… Continue reading “Armenian Memory, Writing Across Borders: A Reading and Talk” with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Peter Balakian
Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesThis lecture will discuss the Ottoman Tanzimat era through the lenses of the Armenian Patriarchate Archives along with the Ottoman Archives. It will argue that while Tanzimat has long been portrayed as a progressive period that granted rights to all peoples of the empire, in fact it set the mold for policies of oppression which… Continue reading Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces
Eradicating Cultures, Erasing Lives: Children and the Armenian and Native American Genocides
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesIn this talk, Keith David Watenpaugh, Professor and Director at UC Davis Human Rights Studies, draws the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire into the comparative study of indigenous genocide. He focuses on the erasure of indigenous children's identity by state authorities through boarding schools to argue that the ideology and practice of… Continue reading Eradicating Cultures, Erasing Lives: Children and the Armenian and Native American Genocides
Armenian Manuscript Painting: The Early Tradition
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United Statescant areas of early Armenian Christian Art. Although the Armenian alphabet was created in the 5 c. AD, the earliest surviving illustrated/painted manuscripts date only from the 9th c. AD. These 9th century manuscripts, such as the Etchmiadzin Gospel and the Queen Mlk'e Gospel give us insight into the early tradition of Armenian Manuscript painting.… Continue reading Armenian Manuscript Painting: The Early Tradition
Echoes of Kef Time
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesSynopsis of the Film: Richard Hagopian, a legendary Armenian-American musician, pioneered one of the most fruitful genres of Armenian cultural folk music and the joyous, dance-filled events that his band was notorious for holding: Kef Time. But times change, and the once sold-out shows faded into history. Echoes of Kef Time dives into Richard’s quest… Continue reading Echoes of Kef Time
Armenia Summer Study Program 2023 : Reflections
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesProfessor Barlow Der Mugrdechian led a group of eleven students on the Armenia Summer Study Program, May 23-June 8, 2023. While in Armenia students visited the major cultural and religious sites in Armenia, including a visit to Holy Etchmiadzin. They visited the Armenian Genocide Monument-Institute and the Armenian Genocide Museum. A visit to Mer Hooys-House… Continue reading Armenia Summer Study Program 2023 : Reflections
Jerusalem and the Armenians until the Ottoman Conquest (1516)
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesIn the four-fold division of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Christian and the Armenian Quarters are contiguous but independent. This situation corresponds to the ancientness and the importance of the Armenian presence. Jerusalem has indeed remained a myth for Armenians since the 4th century, when Christianity was proclaimed a national religion. The relations of… Continue reading Jerusalem and the Armenians until the Ottoman Conquest (1516)
Microhistories in Armenian Studies
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United States +1 moreA two day international conference Day 1-7:00PM-University Business Center, Fresno State Keynote speaker: Dr. Hans Lukas Kieser Victoria Abrahamyan (University of Neuchâtel) "The Contested Armenian Participation in the Syrian Great Revolt, 1925-1926" Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute) "The Great Drought/Famine of Van and Kurdish Armenian Relations cir. 1880" Sam Dolbee (Vanderbilt University) "Hovhannes Doumanian and the… Continue reading Microhistories in Armenian Studies
Microhistories in Armenian Studies
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United States +1 moreA two day international conference Day 1-7:00PM-University Business Center, Fresno State Keynote speaker: Dr. Hans Lukas Kieser Victoria Abrahamyan (University of Neuchâtel) "The Contested Armenian Participation in the Syrian Great Revolt, 1925-1926" Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute) "The Great Drought/Famine of Van and Kurdish Armenian Relations cir. 1880" Sam Dolbee (Vanderbilt University) "Hovhannes Doumanian and the… Continue reading Microhistories in Armenian Studies
Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan
University Business Center 5245 N. Backer Ave., Fresno State, United StatesIn 1988, a single innocent comment made at her college in southern California leads Katia, a new immigrant, to the discovery of long-lost relatives she knew nothing about. These were descendants of her grandmother’s siblings from whom she was separated because of the Genocide. As Katia decides to find answers to questions she had struggled… Continue reading Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan