CALL FOR PAPERS:
CRITICAL APPROACHES TO ARMENIAN IDENTITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY:
Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transformation
October 7-8, 2016
Istanbul
The Hrant Dink Foundation and the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society are organizing a joint academic conference in Istanbul on October 7-8, 2016, entitled, “Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in the 21st Century: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transformation”.
As new realities challenge traditional conceptualizations of Armenian identity, new interdisciplinary approaches are needed to understand the directions that Armenian identity and scholarship on this identity are taking. The differences in the environments in which each community lives, internal differences within each community, generational disparities, as well as the reconceptualization of the role of collective memory in shaping identity put into question the dominant and monolithic conceptions of Armenian identity. Some of the key questions that the conference will address include:
- The historical background on which Armenians have constructed their collective identity;
- The main characteristics of contemporary Armenian identities and their spatiotemporal dimensions;
- The role of post-genocide “victimhood” and denial of the genocide in maintaining collective identity;
- Vulnerability;
- The role of Armenian institutions such as churches, political parties, schools, museums, and the role of Armenia as a state regarding issues related to identity;
- The politics of class, religion, gender, sexuality, and age in the shaping of identity;
- The patterns of assimilation, denial, inclusion-exclusion within diaspora communities and in Turkey;
- The ways in which the violence in the Middle East – from deportations and massacres to the current migration and refugee crisis – affects Armenian identity;
- Forms and use of art, literature, language, and aesthetics in the development, change, maintenance, and expression of the Armenian identity;
- The concerns and issues pertaining to Armenian identity; the new research venues that are needed for and the new terms and parameters emerging as part of the future Armenian identity, such as the Islamized Armenians.
This conference is organized with the purpose of studying the various approaches to Armenian identity today and the ways these approaches connect to identity studies. Therefore, the conference organizers strongly encourage critical, comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives on Armenian identity. Additionally, proposals that focus on current dynamics, with a view on possible future directions, of scholarship on Armenian identity, are particularly welcome.
The working languages of the conference will be Armenian, English, and Turkish. Simultaneous translation will be provided. Proposals can be submitted in all three languages. Presentations will be20 minutes in length, followed by a Q&A session. The conference will be broadcast live on the Hrant Dink Foundation website: www.hrantdink.org, and papers will be published in the form of conference proceedings by Hrant Dink Foundation Publications. Transportation and accommodation expenses of participants from outside Istanbul will be covered if their affiliated organizations cannot provide coverage.
Researchers who would like to contribute to this conference should submit a 250-word abstracttogether with a short biography to karunozcelik@hrantdink.org. The deadline for submitting proposals is June 15th, 2016.
Scientific Committee
Hülya Adak (Turkey)
Aida Boudjikanian (Canada)
Khatchik DerGhougassian (Argentina)
Ferhat Kentel (Turkey)
Ohannes Kılıçdağı (Turkey)
Haroutiun Kurkjian (Greece)
Lalai Manjikian (Canada)
Ardaşes Margosyan (Turkey)
Khatchig Mouradian (USA)
Anna Ohannessian-Charpin (France)
Günay Göksu Özdoğan (Turkey)
Razmik Panossian (Portugal)
Rubina Peroomian (USA)
Vahé Tachjian (Germany)
Arman Yeghiazaryan (Armenia)
Arus Yumul (Turkey)
Organization Committee
Hülya Adak
Sibel Asna
Delal Dink
Lilit Galstyan
Nayat Karaköse
Ferhat Kentel
Vahakn Keşişyan
Ohannes Kılıçdağı
Karun Özçelik
Viken Tufenkjian
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http://www.hrantdink.org/Index.php?Detail=1407&Home&Lang=en