~ By Barlow Der Mugrdechian, coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program
“Armenians, Greeks, and Kurds: A People’s History of the Ottoman Empire” will be the topic of a major conference organized by the Armenian Studies Program at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept 22, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23. There will be a reception from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22, with food and refreshments, immediately preceding the first night’s session.
The conference will feature eight scholars from through the United States and Turkey.
Session I — 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, University Business Center, Room 191 Auditorium (5245 N. Backer Ave.), Fresno State
- Keynote address: Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State
- “The Colonization of the Mountains: Sasun, Zeytun and Dersim at the End of the Ottoman Empire,” Owen Miller, Union College
- “The Sojourners of Harput (Kharpert): At the Intersection of the Local, the Imperial, and the Global,” David Gutman, Manhattanville College
- “From Ballots to Barracks: The Conscription of non-Muslims at a Time of Parliamentary Politics in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1912,” Uğur Z. Peçe, Harvard University
Session II — 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, University Business Center, Room 191 Auditorium, Fresno State
- Panel Chair: Dr. Sergio La Porta, Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies
- “Intra-Imperial Space and Anti-Armenian Violence in the Ottoman Empire: The Aghtamar Catholicos Khatchadur III and the 1895 Van Massacre, Emre Can Daglioglu, Clark University
- “The Arwmenian Revolutionary Movement between Ideologies and Paradoxes: A Case Study of the Hunchakian Party Program (1890-1896),” Varak Ketsemanian, Princeton University
- “The Breakdown of a Previously Peaceful Coexistence: The Aintab Armenian Massacres of 1895,” Ümit Kurt, Harvard University
- Coffee Break
- Panel Chair: Prof. Hagop Ohanessian, Armenian Studies Program, “Can One Save the Voices of the “Ordinary” Kurds from “The Enormous Condescension of Posterity?”
- “Thoughts on Writing the Social History of the Kurds in the Ottoman Empire,” Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, Florida State University
- “Armenian Minorityhood in Ottoman and Russian History and Historiography,” Janet Klein, University of Akron
Organized by Fresno State’s Armenian Studies Program, the conference is co-sponsored by Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Social Sciences‘ Department of History.
This event is also supported by The Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation,
The Leon S. Peters Foundation, and the M. Victoria Kazan Fund for Armenian Studies.
The conference is free and open to the public. Free parking in Lots P5 or P6 (no permit required on Friday or Saturday)
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 