Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) Statement on Anti-Racism

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) condemns the continuing violence against Black communities within and outside the United States, and we feel it is a matter of human dignity and our duty to express our outrage.  As a professional organization dedicated to understanding the complexities of the past and the present, we stand in solidarity with the Black Community and other Communities of Color and commit alongside them to the eradication of white supremacy, institutional and systematic  racism, and anti-Black violence with the aim to institute justice and human rights. We acknowledge that we are working in an academic system that was built on racist hierarchies. There is no meritocracy when racism is so deeply rooted in our society.  Silencing the voices of anyone (whether based on religion, language, gender, sexuality, skin color, ethnicity, etc) irreparably diminishes us all. The Executive Council of SAS stands with the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black community not only in working against anti-Black violence, but against all types of racial discrimination which is built on past historical injustices. 

Celebration of 400 Years of Armenian-American Heritage, 1618-2018

Reflections on Armenian Language Learning’s Impact on the Armenian-American Experience

Georgi Ann Bargamian-Oshagan

 

I don’t know whether it was a fluke or by design, but the Armenian Weekly’s Aug. 26, 2017 issue included three articles about the role Armenian-language knowledge plays—or doesn’t play—in one’s Armenian identity: Marie Papazian’s “A Generational Question: ‘If You Don’t Speak Armenian, Are You Really Armenian?’”; Garen Yegparian’s “Language vs. Spirit”; and Rupen Janbazian’s “‘Where Are You From?’ and the Huge Pile of Complexes.” Those articles were followed by the Weekly’s Oct. 6, 2017 online posting of Ani Bournazian’s “How Do You Measure Armenian Identity?” I read each with interest, and here I offer my reflections that resulted from those readings.

Dear Armenian-American Millennials

Alik Ourfalian

 

Dear Armenian-American Millennials,

I’m sick and tired of Armenian-Americans, especially our generation of millennials, thinking our biggest concern is genocide recognition when it comes to supporting political candidates.

Over the past few days, I’ve seen a lot of “s/he isn’t going to recognize the genocide”-type comments on social media, as well as people criticizing others for voting with Armenian-American issues in mind because “neither candidate will recognize the genocide anyway.” The U.S. stance on Armenian-American issues extends far beyond genocide recognition. This is not me making a case for any specific candidate. All I’m asking is that you recognize that we have other concerns and issues and to think about how those concerns are affecting our community.

Society of Armenian Studies to Host Conference on ‘Armenians in America’

The Society for Armenian Studies has organized an international conference titled, ‘The Armenians in America,’ to take place on Nov. 17, in Boston.

The SAS organized conference will feature two panels beginning at 1 p.m. in Salon B of the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel. The conference is free and open to the public.

The Perils of Bigotry

Vartan Matiossian

More than two dozen prominent Armenians in the Diaspora (essentially from the United States and Canada) have signed a statement supporting equality and justice for all in Armenia, reported "The Armenian Weekly" on November 1, 2013. Among the signatories are poet Diana Der Hovanessian, filmmaker Atom Egoyan, actor and producer Arsinée Khanjian, musician Serge Tankian, and photographer Scout Tufankjian. This array of Armenian artists, intellectuals and professionals felt moved to release this statement in the light of anti-gay legislation that was recently proposed, and later withdrawn, in Yerevan.

Stories of a Silent Generation

Abby Alexanian

I don’t speak Armenian. I’ve never been to the Republic of Armenia. I rarely eat the food or attend Armenian Church services. But I can’t shake the feeling that I am definitely Armenian. Yet as much as I feel that I am Armenian, I also can’t seem to figure out what that means.

Human beings are “meaning makers” – we turn our memories into stories that give meaning to the past. Meaning helps us understand pain and joy, it teaches us about ourselves, and it gives us various parts of our identities. Family histories especially confer meaning on each new generation; in many ways, our family stories create us. Yet what happens when those stories are immensely painful? And what happens when these stories in particular are not told?

More Than Books: NAASR Brings Community Together in Quest for Armenian Studies

Aram Arkun

BELMONT, Mass. — Many people know the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), based in this suburb of Boston, as a bookstore specializing in English language works on Armenians and Armenian studies, but it actually conducts a much broader range of work in support of Armenian studies.

Losing the Core

Historian Hovann Simonian, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, has written a thought-provoking article in the July 26 issue of Hetq Online (http://www.hetq.am/), the publication of the Investigative Journalists of Armenia. Simonian argues that the fashionable topic of Turkified, Kurdified, and Islamicized Armenians deals around a few thousand people who may want or may not want to reintegrate into the fold of the Armenian nation. Meantime, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are on the verge of being lost, because of both diasporan processes and exodus from Armenia over the past two decades. The core of the Armenian is on danger (the demographic decline of Armenia, including Mountainous Gharabagh, is a case in point), while we play around third- or fourth-generation citizens of Turkey, for instance, who have started to realize that they have some kind of Armenian ancestry forcefully imposed on their identity after 1915. The challenge needs strategic thought at the level of leadership. Some passages from Simonian's essay are excerpted below: 

Armenian Day Schools: Some Random Thoughts

One can safely assume that the number of students in Armenian day and Saturday schools throughout the Eastern United States is pretty much smaller than that of Sunday schools students. A comparative and updated statistics remains to be done, but let us take this assumption, however well-grounded it might be, as a starting point to confront an old debate in the Armenian-American community: what is the source of Armenian identity in this community? Church or school?

The Riddle of Arshile Gorky's Letters

In the last 25 years Arshile Gorky has become an iconic name in Armenian-American consciousness. A steady flow of exhibitions, catalogues, biographies, and also Aram Egoyan’s film, “Ararat”, has contributed to bring him to the forefront of public exposure. Ironic as it is, it has been the fate of many struggling artists, deeply neglected in their lifetime.