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DTSTAMP:20260818T130814
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20260916T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20260916T200000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:2026 Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture | Poetry\, Traumatic History\, Memory: Thinking about the Armenian Genocide
DESCRIPTION:How can a past historical event be transformed by literature that comes after? Pulitzer Prize winning poet Peter Balakian will discuss the impact of the Armenian Genocide on his work. He will explore the transmission of trauma across generations and how poetry’s resources can ingest the past. Balakian examines how his ancestors have provided a grounding for his work\, ancestors like  his great-great uncle\, Krikoris Balakian (Bishop in the Armenian Church)\, one of the 250 cultural leaders arrested on April 24\, 1915\, and his grandmother\, Nafina Shekerlemdjian who along with her two young daughters survived the Genocide enduring a harrowing death march into the Syrian desert.\n\nPeter Balakian is an award winning poet\, author and translator. His *Ozone Journal* was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Most recently he has published a  book of poems\, *New York Trilogy* (2025)\, that moves between decades of tumultuous life in New York City and the politics of the Middle East. Balakian’s poems have appeared widely in leading magazines and journals including\, *The New Yorker: 100 Years of Poetry*.  His prose books range from *Vice and Shadow: Essays on the Lyric Imagination*\, poetry\, art and culture\, to *Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir*\, — winner of the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for the Art of the Memoir (a best book of the year for the New York Times\, the LA Times\, and Publisher’s Weekly). Balakian is the recipient of many awards and prizes amongst them: the Pulitzer Prize\, The Presidential Medal and the Movses Khorenatsi Medal from the Republic of Armenia\,  a Guggenheim Fellowship\,  and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.  He is the Rebar Professor of the Humanities\, Professor of English at Colgate University.\n\nhttps://umich.zoom.us/j/99080532632\n\nCosponsors: Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies\, Department of Middle East Studies\, Department of English Language and Literature\, Residential College\, and National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)\n\n–––––\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu
UID:150146-21908257@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150146
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:armenia,Armenian Studies,Discussion,Lecture,Poetry
LOCATION:Museum of Art - Helmut Stern Auditorium
CONTACT:
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DTSTAMP:20260811T163745
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261007T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261007T180000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:Manoogian Postdoctoral Lecture | Purist Pursuits: Language\, Global Ideas\, and the Creation of Western Armenian in the Ottoman Empire
DESCRIPTION:This lecture follows Armenians in the Ottoman Empire through a dramatic linguistic transformation\, the aftershocks of which are still being felt today throughout the Armenian diaspora. It chronicles how and why Armenians in the Ottoman Empire fashioned a new language called Western Armenian in the eighteenth\, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and explores the evolution of an ever-changing ideology that undergirded all phases of the language's formation: linguistic purism. Manoukian will examine the power of global intellectual movements in crafting new language ideologies in the Ottoman Empire and reimagines what language histories can be for Ottoman-era language communities.\n\nJennifer Manoukian is a historian of language. Her work explores the language practices and ideologies of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and post-genocide diaspora. She earned her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California\, Los Angeles\; her MA in Middle Eastern\, South Asian and African Studies from Columbia University\; and her BA in French and Middle Eastern Studies from Rutgers University. She is the author of *Purist Pursuits: Language\, Global Ideas\, and the Creation of Western Armenian in the Ottoman Empire* and two book-length literary translations from Western Armenian: *The Gardens of Silihdar by Zabel Yessayan* and* The Candidate by Zareh Vorpouni*. She is also the author of a number of articles and the co-founder of Gesaria Armenian Research and Academic Services.
UID:150148-21908292@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150148
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Lecture,history,eurasia,Discussion,Armenian Studies,armenia
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260811T161617
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T180000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:Guest Lecture | Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict
DESCRIPTION:This talk introduces the concept of heritage forensics\, a framework for studying abuses of cultural heritage in contexts of conflict\, genocide\, and ethnic cleansing. Drawing on the new co-authored volume\, *Heritage Forensics: Cultural on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict*\, the presentation examines how cultural sites became entangled in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh during the interwar period (1994-2020). The talk considers how satellite-based heritage forensics is being deployed prospectively\, to monitor hundreds of Armenian sites in Karabakh following Azerbaijan's 2023 takeover of the region and the displacement of its Armenian population. In doing so\, it asks: how can satellite-based monitoring function as a form of \"counter-forensics\,\" turning surveillance technologies developed for military purposes back on the state? Can heritage forensics move us beyond retrospective documentation to actively deter erasure and support truth\, reconciliation\, and accountability wherever cultural heritage is at stake?\n\nLori Khatchadourian is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University\, and co-founder and co-director of Caucasus Heritage Watch. She currently serves as Director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. Khatchadourian’s research spans the fields of archaeology\, social anthropology\, and heritage studies\, with a particular focus on Armenia\, the wider South Caucasus\, and neighboring regions. Current projects explore the archaeology of modernity\, including problems of genocide\, deindustrialization\, and the entanglements of cultural heritage and war. She is the co-author of *Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict* (Cornell\, 2026) and author of Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires (UC Press\, 2016). She is also co-editor of *Rethinking Empire: Materiality\, Metaphysics\, and Imperial Politics* (SAR\, 2026) and *Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics: The Archaeology of Eurasia *(2017).\n\nhttps://umich.zoom.us/j/99311308952\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu
UID:150145-21908256@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150145
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Lecture,History,Discussion,Armenian Studies,armenia,Area Studies
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
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