This lecture articulates a mode of using Armenian theological categories as a mode for thinking about broader problems in the social sciences: community development, political belonging, and hermeneutics as method, and semiotic debates about language and representation. Dr. Sheklian will work through two case studies, what we call “comparative analysis of embedded cultural concepts.” First, he will develop Armenian Miaphysite Christology as a semiotic mode, emphasizing reflection on Jesus Christ as “the Word” and drawing connections to exegetical practices within the Armenian Christian tradition. Secondly, he will compare the Armenian concepts of derutyun (“dominion”) and ishkhanutyun (“authority”) to ideas about sovereignty and the sovereign state. Through these examples, the lecture will present and develop the possibility for deploying concepts internal to the Armenian textual tradition themselves as part of a robust social theory and mode of theorizing the (Armenian) present.

Christopher Sheklian studies secularism, minority rights, contemporary urban politics, and the connections between theology and social theory. His work deploys theological categories and liturgical practice in order to explore modes of belonging and forms of attachment available to religious minority populations in urban centers. He received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago in 2017. In his dissertation, "Theology and the Community: The Armenian Minority, Tradition, and Secularism in Turkey," he argues that a liturgical subject immersed in the music and temporality of the Armenian Church can be attuned to the city of Istanbul in a way that highlights both the possibilities and limits for minority inclusion in Turkey today.

Sponsors: Armenian Studies Program and Department of Anthropology.

Image: Ruins of Sis | Credit: Christopher Sheklian