Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. CAS Webinar | From the Alexander Romance to the Base of the City of Brass: Movements of Medieval Armenian Poetry (September 9, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76238 76238-19679536@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance for the webinar here:

http://myumi.ch/mnYVk

After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

The Armenian “Alexander Romance,” translated as early as the 5th century, was accompanied in the medieval period by short poems that heightened the sensory or emotional stakes of a scene, moralized on Alexander’s actions, or fit the marvels of the world’s edges into Christian Creation. These poems traveled further: into the early modern, abbreviated version of the “Alexander Romance” where new poems were composed; and into separate anthology manuscripts, where they were copied in short, standalone collections alongside hymns, poetry, or entire wonder tales. This lecture will explore the movements of these poems, offering a guide into their fluidity and change between texts and manuscripts across the centuries.

Alex MacFarlane earned their PhD from the University of Oxford in 2020. Their dissertation titled “Alexander Re-Mapped: Geography and Identity in the ‘Alexander Romance’ in Armenia” examines how medieval Armenian literary traditors composed ‘kafas’ (short, monorhymed poems) to accompany the “Alexander Romance.” Using these ‘kafas’, Dr. MacFarlane is able to situate the text’s more fantastical parts – where Alexander journeys to the edges of the world – within a broader Christian cosmology. Dr. MacFarlane’s current research interests include the translation and circulation of wonder tales in the medieval and early modern Caucasus and Middle East, especially the “Alexander Romance” and the “History of the City of Brass.”

If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please reach out to us at least 2 weeks in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 02 Sep 2020 16:01:19 -0400 2020-09-09T12:00:00-04:00 2020-09-09T13:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Alex MacFarlane, 2020-21 Manoogian Postdoctoral Fellow, U-M
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 18, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735036@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 18, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-18T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-18T23:59:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 19, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735039@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Saturday, September 19, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-19T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-19T23:59:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 20, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735040@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Sunday, September 20, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-20T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-20T23:59:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 21, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735041@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, September 21, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-21T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-21T23:59:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 22, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735042@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-22T23:59:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian (September 23, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/76677 76677-19735043@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

This special edition includes the following short films:
1) Visions
2) Girl from Moush
3) Drowning in Flames
4) Pomegranate Tree
5) Sparklehorse
6) Babies on the Sun
7) Shadowy Encounters
8) Hypnotize/Mezmerize - System of a Down

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:40:03 -0400 2020-09-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-23T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Film Screening | Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian
Film Discussion | Post-Screening Q/A with Filmmaker Gariné Torossian (Artist Spotlight Series: Gariné Torossian) (September 23, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76678 76678-19735037@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/ZQN9R

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from September 18 to 23.

In her lush, intricately constructed works, Gariné Torossian explores film form, hybrid film and video technologies, and themes of belonging, identity, and the body. "Mining a rich palette of colours and textures, superimpositions and dissolves, mixing formats of Super 8, 35mm and video, [she] creates films that bridge the gaps between visual art, sound art, cinema and the rock video" (Lux Distribution).

Torossian's style of filmmaking draws attention to the most basic component of her work, the strip of film, the celluloid on which images are laid to be projected. She alters the photographed images, transforming them into other objects; she juxtaposes them; and she makes them move outside the original photographed movement in ways that create a kind of rich collage, suggesting another dimension to the moving images with which she began... This Spotlight compilation is highly recommended for academic areas dealing with women in art and film as well as art history and film studies. - Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online

Download the study guide HERE (http://myumi.ch/WwzAw). It includes an essay by Ian Balfour, York University.

Gariné Torossian was born in Lebanon to parents of Armenian descent. Growing up in the vibrant Armenian community in Beirut, Torossian learned about Armenia largely through music and art, which her family held in high regard. She moved to Canada in 1979. Torossian is a filmmaker and visual artist living and working in Toronto. She is primarily a self-taught filmmaker and photographer. Her early films focused on transformations of the still image to moving image, followed by an interest in dance, body movement, and text. Her primary interests now lie in fiction and storytelling. Torossian’s award-winning works have shown internationally, including retrospectives at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Berlin Arsenal, Telluride Film Festival, and Cinematheques in Armenia, Lebanon, Canada, and Germany.

Marie-Aude Baronian is Associate Professor in visual culture and film at the University of Amsterdam where she teaches in the field of media and memory, film-philosophy, fashion studies, and French thought. She has extensively lectured and published on film and visual arts in relation to issues of memory, archive, testimony, and the Armenian diaspora.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 21 Sep 2020 11:09:45 -0400 2020-09-23T12:00:00-04:00 2020-09-23T13:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Gariné Torossian, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker and visual artist
CAS Panel Discussion | The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Between Diplomacy and Spheres of Influence (October 3, 2020 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/78032 78032-19955558@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Saturday, October 3, 2020 11:30am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Panelists: Laurence Broers, Associate Fellow at Chatham House and Program Director of Conciliation Resources; Professor Gerard Libaridian (Emeritus), former senior advisor to the first President of the Republic of Armenia; Anna Ohanyan, Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Stonehill College; and Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History, U-M.

Please register in advance for the panel discussion here: http://myumi.ch/bvX1x

After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

Territorial and political tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh have marked the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan for over three decades. Fragile cease-fire agreement ended the full-scale war in 1994, after nearly 30,000 people were killed on both sides. Since then, it has been simmering as a low-intensity armed conflict, with significant clashes in April 2016 and July 2020. This current escalation has all the signs of a regional spill-over, capable of pulling in bigger players. Already significant has been Turkey's pronounced political and military support of Azerbaijan - a new development in the dynamics of this conflict. Please join us for a panel discussion that places the current violence in its historical context and analyzes regional implications.

The following text will be included on all II events unless you indicate otherwise:If 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.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 01 Oct 2020 12:03:53 -0400 2020-10-03T11:30:00-04:00 2020-10-03T13:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Panel Discussion | The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Between Diplomacy and Spheres of Influence
Scripts, Sounds, and Songs: Mediating History in the Caucasus and Beyond (Part 1) | Crosscultural Archives and Contrapuntal Reading: Three Texts from an Era of Transition (October 9, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76661 76661-19735023@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 9, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance for the webinar here:
http://myumi.ch/O4zKR
After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

The 10th-century Arab historian and geographer Al-Mas'udi long ago called the Caucasus “jabal al-alsun,” the "mountain of tongues," referencing the densely compacted presence of topographical variation and cultural-linguistic diversity. This description rings true locally, as a dynamic internal to the region’s indigenous inhabitants, as well as transregionally, to the extent that the historical destiny of the Caucasus has generally been determined by external pressures, above all the interimperial rivalry unfolding in recent centuries between Russia, Iran, and Ottoman Turkey. One of the many challenges in studying the Caucasus, then, arises from the need for a crosscultural and multilingual archive which asks to be read “contrapuntally,” as Edward Said would have it, to grasp the entangled nature of historical events and cultural processes. This talk looks at three texts representing two successive military conflicts of the late eighteenth century: Agha Mohammad Khan's campaign of 1795, which briefly reasserted Persian control over the South Caucasus while devastating the region, and Count Valerian Zubov’s campaign of 1796, militarily inconsequential but anticipating Russia's annexation of the South Caucasus in the decades to come. The texts that will be examined are the Russian poet Gavrila Derzhavin’s “On the Return of Count Zubov from Persia” (1797), the Armenian Harutiun Araratian (Artemy of Ararat)’s “Life and Adventures” (1813), and the Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili’s “The Fate of Kartli” (1839). All three texts address the key events of a transitional decade which saw the South Caucasus pass from Persian into Russian hands and reflect shifting perspectives that owe much to the complex interplay between ethnicity, social class, political allegiances, and aesthetic form.

Harsha Ram's first book, “The Imperial Sublime: A Russian Poetics of Empire” (2003), addressed the relationship between poetic genre, aesthetic theory, territorial space, and political power in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russian literature. His recent publications chiefly concern Russian-Georgian and Russian-Italian literary relations in the context of theories of world literature and comparative modernisms. His forthcoming book, “The Geopoetics of Sovereignty. Literature and the Russian-Georgian Encounter,” seeks to provide a historical account of cultural relations between Georgian and Russian artists and writers over the course of the nineteenth century and early Soviet eras, focusing specifically on how the Caucasus region has been mapped geopolitically as contested territory and geopoetically as a space of natural and ethnolinguistic diversity. His third book project, tentatively titled “The Worlding of Russian Literature,” will examine the interaction of Russian and world literatures during two crucial moments of transition and rupture: the 1840s, which saw the emergence of plebeian intellectuals and a new sense of the public sphere, and the 1920s, when the Russian avant-garde sought to reimagine the relationship between society and the written word.

Samuel Hodgkin is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University, who has published on the modern verse, theater, and criticism of Iran, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. His current book project, entitled “The Nightingales’ Congress: Literary Representatives in the Communist East,” shows how the Soviet internationalist project of world literature emerged from sustained engagement between leftist writers of West and South Asia and state-sponsored writers of the multinational Soviet East.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 28 Sep 2020 14:53:30 -0400 2020-10-09T14:00:00-04:00 2020-10-09T15:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Harsha Ram, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley
Scripts, Sounds, and Songs: Mediating History in the Caucasus and Beyond (Part 2) | Other Archives of Armenian History (October 16, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76848 76848-19766694@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 16, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Discussant: Rebecca Gould, Professor of Islamic World and Comparative Literature, University of Birmingham

Please register in advance for the webinar here: http://myumi.ch/zxMb0

After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

The Caucasus and its adjacent regions have long been conceptualized as a meeting place of many scripts, peoples, societies, and empires. The history of the Caucasus in general, and Armenia in particular, is replete with examples of individuals and groups reworking – or resisting – artistic, social, and religious elements from their neighbors in a complex and ongoing process of cultural negotiation, transcending any single language or territory.

This workshop will examine the history of the Caucasus from a long-neglected site of encounter – the combination and recombination of multiple media and forms of cultural production. In what ways might, for instance, medieval Armenian ballads, heterographic wonder tales, or modern filmmaking mediate different histories of shared, fraught space? How do the past and present meet and negotiate the meaning of the other in various forms of cultural labor? Or, more simply: how might a history of this space and its shared regions morph and shift across different media?

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

Image caption: A convergence of scripts: the Armenian and Georgian alphabets in a Syriac manuscript.

Image credit: Saint Mark’s Monastery, Jerusalem, 295, digitized by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 12 Oct 2020 07:59:33 -0400 2020-10-16T14:00:00-04:00 2020-10-16T16:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual A convergence of scripts: the Armenian and Georgian alphabets in a Syriac manuscript.
CAS Webinar | Life Extempore: Trials of Ruination in Armenia’s Soviet Factories (November 4, 2020 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76664 76664-19735024@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 4, 2020 5:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance for the webinar here:
http://myumi.ch/MERKz
After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

The factory ruins that litter Armenia’s urban outskirts constitute a colossal agglomeration of what Ann Stoler calls “imperial debris”. In the wake of the Soviet collapse, they are remnants of a process of aggressive industrialization that thrust Armenia headlong into the age of high modernity. Like other modern ruins, from a distance, these industrial carcasses stand as poignant allegories of failed utopian projects, both socialist and capitalist. But up close, they are sites of improbable livelihood practices that defy familiar critique. Based on archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in decommissioned Soviet factories across Armenia, this research examines deviant projects at the margins of global capitalism to retain industrial lifeways and make a living under conditions of ruination. ‘Trials of ruination’ refers to the struggle to unlock or forgo the salvage value of Soviet machines and factories undergoing slow, irreversible decay. These trials enlist people into acts of constant improvisation. A ‘life extempore’ is one in which the primary tactic for capturing or forestalling salvage value is perpetual extemporization, doing things one never planned or was trained to do. This talk focuses on the improvisational practices of two extemporists in the cities of Yerevan and Yeghegnadzor, and their efforts to revalue the anachronistic but persistent material world of Soviet industry, a massive accumulation of displaced socialist things out of proper time.

Lori Khatchadourian is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. Her research centers on the relationship between imperialism and the vast world of material things. As both an archaeologist of Armenia and the Near East, as well as a scholar of the Soviet and post-Soviet Caucasus, Dr. Khatchadourian pursues this concern with the materiality of empire across temporal and disciplinary boundaries—ancient and modern, archaeological and ethnographic. She is the author of “Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires” (UC Press, 2016). Her current book project centers on the ruins of modernity in Armenia. Dr. Khatchadourian is co-director of Project ArAGATS and directs the Afterlife of Socialist Modernity project.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:47:22 -0400 2020-11-04T17:00:00-05:00 2020-11-04T18:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Lori Khatchadourian, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University
CAS Webinar | The Lebanonization of Armenians (November 18, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/78270 78270-20002853@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance for the webinar here: http://myumi.ch/51Gxd

After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

This talk tells a post-genocide history of power. Dr. Nalbantian discusses how an absence of a national homeland accepted by all Armenians did not translate into a lack of political life. Focusing on the Armenian Diaspora of Lebanon, Dr. Nalbantian shows how by the 1950s, Armenians were firmly part of and ensconced in Lebanese politics. Armenians’ (re)-positioning vis-à-vis Lebanon’s imminent post-colonial independence in the mid-1940s included a fair share of double-entendres, tensions, and contrasts. Lebanese Armenians were divided along the right-left fault lines that divided Lebanese politics and society in general – they, Nalbantian argues, were Lebanonized. At the same time, the Lebanese state was somehow Armenianized, as it started to pay more attention to Armenian matters than before. For example, the state directly intervened with military force in Armenian neighborhoods to end the internecine Armenian confrontation in December 1958. Armenian parties participated in and contributed to the considerable political tensions in Lebanon, simultaneously, they used their position within the Lebanese political system to jostle for power within the Armenian community. Dr. Nalbantian’s talk aims to register Lebanon as a space of both Armenian fashioning and belonging and challenge the tendency to read Middle East history through the lens of dominant (Arab) nationalisms and Lebanon through sectarianism.

Tsolin Nalbantian is Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History at Leiden University working on the social and cultural history of the Middle East. She is the co-editor of Critical, Connected Histories series (Leiden University Press) and has published articles in Mashriq & Mahjar, MESA Review of Middle East Studies, and History Compass. Nalbantian is the author of "Armenians Beyond Diaspora: Making Lebanon" Their Own (Edinburgh University Press; 2019).

The following text will be included on all II events unless you indicate otherwise:If 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.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:27:03 -0400 2020-11-18T12:00:00-05:00 2020-11-18T13:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Tsolin Nalbantian, Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History, Leiden University
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (November 27, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788472@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 27, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-11-27T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-27T23:59:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (November 28, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788557@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Saturday, November 28, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-11-28T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-28T23:59:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (November 29, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788558@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Sunday, November 29, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-11-29T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-29T23:59:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (November 30, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788559@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 30, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-11-30T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-30T23:59:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (December 1, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788560@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-12-01T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-01T23:59:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Screening | Village of Women (December 2, 2020 12:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77015 77015-19788561@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 12:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:32:20 -0500 2020-12-02T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-02T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Film Screening | Village of Women
CAS Film Discussion | Post-Screening Q/A with Filmmaker Tamara Stepanyan (Village of Women) (December 2, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77017 77017-19788562@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the streaming link and to attend the Q/A session with the film director: http://myumi.ch/0W1oY.

The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2nd.

We will send the film link to everyone who has registered via email on November 27, so make sure you register in advance! The film will be available for you to watch on your own from November 27 to December 2.

A village where women, children, and elderly reside. Men leave nine months of the year for Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass, and store for the winter. Fruits are canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence, women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start early to welcome men. Waiting is long and tiring.

Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tense. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad but needs to find the strength to take care of the children.

Tamara Stepanyan was born in Armenia. During the breakdown of the Soviet Union in the early '90s, she moved to Lebanon with her parents. After studying and working in Lebanon, Stepanyan pursued her studies at The National Film School of Denmark (creative documentary) under the supervision of Arne Bro. Stepanyan made a number of films that were shown and primed in prestigious festivals like Locarno, Busan, and La Rochelle. She is also busy teaching cinema courses at schools. Her last work, the "Village of Women," won the award for best direction at Sole Luna Documentary Film Festival in Palermo, Italy; prize from the Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense in memory of Piero Piazzola and Mario Pigozzi for the best film by a young director at Della Lessinia International Film Festival, Italy; and "30 Stars" (Étoile) award for the best documentaries of the year at Étoile de la Scam, France.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at armenianstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:30:57 -0500 2020-12-02T12:00:00-05:00 2020-12-02T13:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Tamara Stepanyan, film director and producer
Webinar | Artist Spotlight Stories: Oksana Mirzoyan (March 10, 2021 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/82635 82635-21147756@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 10, 2021 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

Please register in advance to receive the short film links and to attend the discussion:

https://myumi.ch/r8gD2

For nearly a decade, the art of Oksana Mirzoyan has been exploring the social and cultural experiences of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. The territorial engagement, which began in the 1980s and unfolded across Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabagh was the catalyst for a sequence of pogroms leveled against Armenians living in major cities of the former Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, from Sumgait to Kirovabad (Ganja) and in 1990, the capital city of Baku.

The conflict had a massive influence not only on the cultural and political geography of the South Caucasus but continues to shape the everyday experience of people living in the region today as well as generations of displaced Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Among the millions forced to evacuate the region, thousands arrived in the United States, concentrating in urban and suburban communities, including in Detroit and surrounding Southeast Michigan. Born in Baku, Mirzoyan arrived in Detroit with her family as a result of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.

Mirzoyan’s research into the war starts with her passport photo as a refugee being granted asylum in the US in 1991. This discussion will include a screening of her short experimental works that use archival family footage (“Baku 1977”) and capture sceneries or people's lives in the city of Shushi (Swallows flying in the city of Shushi; "Barber of Shushi"). Her intimate knowledge of the region comes from her first-hand experience of walking on its minefields with Halo Trust, teaching filmmaking to students in Stepanakert (the capital city of Artsakh), and collecting the stories of its citizens. Much of Mirzoyan's art is an exploration of the filmmaker's personal trauma tied to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh/Artsakh and presents a journey of healing her past through her relationship with the country.

Oksana Mirzoyan is an Armenian-American artist focused on narrative filmmaking as a writer, director, and producer. Mirzoyan’s films have screened and been awarded internationally at festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Camerimage, and Locarno. Her short film“140 Drams" was an honoree of the Cinematographer’s Guild of America and won Best Short Film at Izmir Film Festival. Mirzoyan is based in Detroit where she is a Kresge Artist Fellow. Her experimental and narrative short films "140 Drams," "Sonnet," and "Susanna" were screened in a solo exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Currently, she is working on her first feature, "Abysm" which explores the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh. The film has won Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Prize, along with support from the George Foundation. Mirzoyan has been recently experimenting with sculpture and installation work.

If 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.

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:26:43 -0500 2021-03-10T12:00:00-05:00 2021-03-10T13:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual Oksana Mirzoyan, artist and filmmaker
CAS Workshop | Trauma, Memory, and the History of Mental Health in Armenian Studies Past and Present (April 8, 2021 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/83313 83313-21338291@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, April 8, 2021 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

By invitation only. Full participation requires the reading of pre-circulated papers. If you are interested in joining the meeting, please contact armenianstudies@umich.edu.

Full workshop schedule at: https://ii.umich.edu/armenian/news-events/all-events/workshops/april-2021-workshop.html

In recent years, the history of trauma, memory, and mental health, as well as the literary, anthropological, and sociological studies of madness have gained a remarkable momentum internationally. Still, there have been virtually no substantial studies of a premodern and modern understanding of trauma, memory, and mental health in Armenia and its Diaspora. This interdisciplinary workshop aims to interrogate the stories of both medical and psychiatric sciences as well as that of the concepts of trauma and madness in Armenian political, historical, literary, and cultural discussions in the past and present. The workshop will focus on the histories of medicine, trauma, and psychiatry and the portrayals of madness as a form of behavior, marker of difference, and tool of body politics across periods and geographies. The workshop organizers are interested in the broader history of medicine, but they would like to draw particular attention to the historical and contemporary landscapes in which medical professionals sought to exercise their authorities over mental illnesses and the mind itself.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tools and theories have provided medical professionals with renewed opportunities to intervene in the social, political and cultural spheres with the shared objective of devising and implementing therapies of madness. In this, the workshop will initiate an interdisciplinary conversation about the concept, diagnosis, treatment, “The Genius and the Crowd” (1909) by Yeghishe Tadevosyan (1870-1936) and social construction of “madness.” The goal is to consider new perspectives, methodologies and crossdisciplinary frameworks that will put Armenian Studies in conversation with, among others, the growing fields of history of medicine, science, and technology studies. We are also interested in a comparative study of genocides and trans-generational transmission of trauma by underlining both parallel mechanisms and unique features of the legacies of various historical and social traumas, such as the Holocaust, the historical oppression and colonization of native peoples in America and African-American slavery. As such, an examination of the loops between various forms of colonial, structural and ethnic violence, socio-political discourses and embodied individual experiences are of interest for our discussion.

In the course of the workshop, the hope is to call into question what was and is culturally defined as madness as well as medical and societal interventions to “cure” madness and “contain” the mad. Therefore, this meeting will situate the notion of madness at the intersection of politics, medicine, literature, sociology, and anthropology and seeks to explore the changes in its definition and the underpinnings of perceptions of mental illnesses at critical junctures of history in Armenia and amongst its diasporic communities across the globe.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:35:24 -0400 2021-04-08T09:00:00-04:00 2021-04-08T11:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Workshop | Trauma, Memory, and the History of Mental Health in Armenian Studies Past and Present
CAS Workshop | Trauma, Memory, and the History of Mental Health in Armenian Studies Past and Present (April 9, 2021 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/83313 83313-21338292@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 9, 2021 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for Armenian Studies

By invitation only. Full participation requires the reading of pre-circulated papers. If you are interested in joining the meeting, please contact armenianstudies@umich.edu.

Full workshop schedule at: https://ii.umich.edu/armenian/news-events/all-events/workshops/april-2021-workshop.html

In recent years, the history of trauma, memory, and mental health, as well as the literary, anthropological, and sociological studies of madness have gained a remarkable momentum internationally. Still, there have been virtually no substantial studies of a premodern and modern understanding of trauma, memory, and mental health in Armenia and its Diaspora. This interdisciplinary workshop aims to interrogate the stories of both medical and psychiatric sciences as well as that of the concepts of trauma and madness in Armenian political, historical, literary, and cultural discussions in the past and present. The workshop will focus on the histories of medicine, trauma, and psychiatry and the portrayals of madness as a form of behavior, marker of difference, and tool of body politics across periods and geographies. The workshop organizers are interested in the broader history of medicine, but they would like to draw particular attention to the historical and contemporary landscapes in which medical professionals sought to exercise their authorities over mental illnesses and the mind itself.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tools and theories have provided medical professionals with renewed opportunities to intervene in the social, political and cultural spheres with the shared objective of devising and implementing therapies of madness. In this, the workshop will initiate an interdisciplinary conversation about the concept, diagnosis, treatment, “The Genius and the Crowd” (1909) by Yeghishe Tadevosyan (1870-1936) and social construction of “madness.” The goal is to consider new perspectives, methodologies and crossdisciplinary frameworks that will put Armenian Studies in conversation with, among others, the growing fields of history of medicine, science, and technology studies. We are also interested in a comparative study of genocides and trans-generational transmission of trauma by underlining both parallel mechanisms and unique features of the legacies of various historical and social traumas, such as the Holocaust, the historical oppression and colonization of native peoples in America and African-American slavery. As such, an examination of the loops between various forms of colonial, structural and ethnic violence, socio-political discourses and embodied individual experiences are of interest for our discussion.

In the course of the workshop, the hope is to call into question what was and is culturally defined as madness as well as medical and societal interventions to “cure” madness and “contain” the mad. Therefore, this meeting will situate the notion of madness at the intersection of politics, medicine, literature, sociology, and anthropology and seeks to explore the changes in its definition and the underpinnings of perceptions of mental illnesses at critical junctures of history in Armenia and amongst its diasporic communities across the globe.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:35:24 -0400 2021-04-09T10:00:00-04:00 2021-04-09T13:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for Armenian Studies Livestream / Virtual CAS Workshop | Trauma, Memory, and the History of Mental Health in Armenian Studies Past and Present