Translating Armenians, Armenians Translated: Rethinking Methodologies for Armenian Studies - conference announcement
In recent years, the notion of translation has acquired a new currency while becoming invested with a new urgency, in particular for “marginal” programs within area studies, such as Armenian studies, which are often called to engage with translation in their efforts to position themselves within broader critical conversations that extend beyond their disciplinary scope.
In an effort to expand on such conversations, including those that took place during the last Armenian Studies Graduate Student Workshop at the University of Michigan in the spring of 2015, this workshop wishes to continue the conversation on this topic with a two-day event.
The organizers are interested in hearing the different experiences related to the challenges brought forth by the necessity of translating broader theoretical and methodological conversations to tailor them to the specific needs of Armenian studies and/or translating the findings of work within the field into a critical language that can be incorporated in larger contemporary conversations.
The workshop is sponsored by the Armenian Studies Program and is organized by Ali Bolcakanand Etienne Charrière, both PhD candidates in the Department of Comparative Literature.
10:45 – 11:00 Welcome message
Kathryn Babayan, Director of the Armenian Studies Program, University of Michigan
Ali Bolcakan and Etienne Charrière, Workshop organizers
11:00 – 12:30 Armenian Literature in Translation, Armenian Literature as Translation
Alex MacFarlane, Oxford University
"This servant gave a reply:" Translating Linguistic Registers in the Kafas of the Armenian Alexander Romance"
Christopher Sheklian, University of Chicago
"Armenian Hermeneutics as a Method for the Social Sciences"
Deanna Cachoia-Schantz, Sabancı University
"Deviation and De-domestication: The Politics of Translating Shushan Avagyan's Book-Untitled"
Discussant: Michael Pifer, University of Michigan
12:30 – 2:00 Break
" A Catastrophe in the Translation Zone: Zabel Yesayan for the Present"
Jennifer Manoukian, Columbia University
"Translating the Colloquial Armenian of Late Nineteenth Century Constantinople in Zabel Essayan's Gardens of Silihdar"
Duygu Dalyanoğlu, Istanbul Şehir University
"Translation as Performance: Zabel Yesayan's Gardens of Silihdar on Stage"
Discussant: Mehmet Fatih Uslu, Istanbul Şehir University
3:30 – 4:00 Break
4:00 – 5:30 Keynote address
Prof. Hervé Georgelin, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
"Translating Western Armenian Literature: What is at stake?"
11:00 – 12:30 Transnational/Translational: Perspectives on Armenian History in the Long Nineteenth Century
Veronika Zablotsky, University of California, Santa Cruz
"Colonial Modernity and the Liberal Art of Government in The Life and Adventures of Joseph Emin, An Armenian, Written in English by Himself"
Neveser Köker, University of Michigan
"Narratives of Nativeness, Decline and Progress: A Transnational Perspective on Politics of Historiography in The General Tableau of the Ottoman Empire"
Ararat Şekeryan, Boğazici University
"Translating Post-Genocidal Armenian Nationalism into Poetry: The Rebirth of the Nation and the Eight Lost National Anthems of Western Armenia, 1919"
Discussant: Devi Mays, University of Michigan
12:30 – 2:00 Break
"Translating Literacy and Citizenship in Early Soviet Armenia"
Tamar Shirinian, Duke University
"Does "Queer" Translate to "Perverse"? Temporality, Nostalgia, and Post-Hope in Post-Soviet Armenia"
Milena Oganesyan, University of Montana
"Translating Ethnic Boundaries: Inter-Communal Marriages in the South Caucasus in the Post-Soviet Period"
Daniel Ohanian, Bilgi University
"Narcissism, Assimilation, and Lezvin Srput'iwn: On Using Armenian as a Diasporan Researcher"
Discussant: Vahe Sahakyan, University of Michigan
4:00 – 4:30 Break