PRESS RELEASE
The Armenian Center at Columbia University
P.O.Box 4042,
Grand Central Station,
New York, NY 10163-4042
Contact: Anny Bakalian, conference organizer
Tel: (212) 817-7570
E-mail: ABakalian@gc.cuny.edu
Website: web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac
September 7, 2004
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A Century of Armenians in America Conference
Features Seven New Scholars and Seven Pioneers
The one-day conference, “A Century of Armenians in America: Voices
from New Scholarship,” is a unique gathering of scholars who have
contributed to the birth and development of Armenian American
Studies. A major objective of this conference is to introduce
to the general public seven new scholars who wrote their doctoral
dissertations on Armenian Americans in the last decade. Seven pioneers
in the field will share the platform with them. This conference is
presented by the Armenian Center at Columbia University and hosted
by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC),
in the Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center,
CUNY, on Saturday October 9, 2004, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Conference participants hail from Yerevan, London, California, Ohio,
New England, and New York City. Historian Robert Mirak, whose book
Torn Between Two Lands: Armenians in America 1890-World War I (Harvard
University Press, 1983) forged Armenian American studies, and Arpena
Mesrobian, Director Emerita at Syracuse University Press and author
of “Like One Family” – The Armenians of Syracuse, (Gomidas Institute,
2000), will be the honorary chairpersons of the day. The conference is
organized by sociologist Anny Bakalian, author of Armenian Americans:
>>From Being to Feeling Armenian (Transaction Publishers, 1993).
Bakalian is Associate Director of MEMEAC and serves on the Advisory
Board of the Armenian Center of her alma mater Columbia University.
The morning panel is devoted to historians. The first speaker,
Knarik Avakian, is Staff Researcher at the Institute of History,
National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan and Editor at the Armenian
Encyclopaedia. She received her doctorate in 1995 specializing in
Armenian American history. Avakian is the author of The History of
the Armenian Community of the United States of America – From the
Beginning to 1924 (published in Armenian in 2000) and over 50 articles
and book chapters.
The next presenter will be George Byron Kooshian, Jr., a native of
Pasadena, CA. His doctoral dissertation (UCLA 2002) examines the
struggles of the earliest Armenian settlers and their children’s
generation in Fresno. Since 1975, Kooshian has been a teacher in the
Los Angeles Unified School District. He is married with three children
and lives in Altadena, California.
The third historian on the morning panel will be Ben Alexander, who
is currently completing his Ph.D. at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His
dissertation focuses on the changing face of Armenian ethnic identity
in the United States from 1915 to 1955. Ben teaches U.S. history as an
adjunct at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He is also a playwright,
whose work has been produced at Off-Off-Broadway venues.
Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, Professor of Modern Armenian and
Immigration History at California State University, Fresno, will
critique the morning papers. She has written extensively on Armenian
immigrants in Canada and the U.S.A. Her most recent book, Like
Our Mountains: A History of Armenians in Canada, by McGill-Queen’s
University Press, will be released soon.
The afternoon session features clinical psychologist Diana Vartan
and family specialist Margaret Manoogian. Vartan emigrated from Iran
as a teenager. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Southern
California in 1996. She has worked in a number of community mental
health settings as a clinician and training supervisor, and has
taught graduate and undergraduate psychology. Her psychodynamic,
family systems, and multiethnic focus has helped her address the needs
of many Armenian families, couples, teenagers, and children. Diana
Vartan has relocated to New York City in the last year.
Manoogian is Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at
Ohio University in Athens. She obtained her Ph.D. from Oregon State
University specializing in family gerontology. Her current research
explores family well -being after the 1996 federal welfare reform
act. Margaret’s father encouraged a strong interest and pride in
Armenian culture, a legacy she is currently sharing with her two
children.
The discussant for the psychological panel will be Aghop Der
Karabetian, Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University
of LaVerne and Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Outcomes
Assessment. He is the author of numerous articles on Armenian
identity and creator of the much-used Armenian Ethnic Orientation
Questionnaire. Recently, he translated into English and published his
and his wife’s grandfathers’ genocide survival memoirs, “Jail to Jail,”
and “Vahan’s Triumph,” respectively.
In the last panel of the conference, two sociologists, Claudia Der
Martirosian and Matthew Jendian, will examine generational changes.
Der Martirosian escaped the Iranian Revolution with her parents at a
young age. She studied at UCLA, earning a B.A. in Applied Mathematics
and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1996. She has co-authored chapters
discussing the Iranian and Armenian experiences in Irangeles and
Ethnic Los Angeles. She currently works as a Statistical Consultant
with UCLA Public Health Dentistry and Southern California University
of Health Sciences (SCUHS).
Matthew Ari Jendian is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director
of the American Humanics Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management
and Leadership at California State University, Fresno. He received his
Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2001. Matthew is
an active member of the Armenian Church and an ordained deacon. He
is the proud father of Joshua and Nicholas, two of Fresno’s native
fourth-generation Armenian Americans.
The discussant of the last panel will be Susan Pattie who will
compare and contrast the Armenian experience in the U.S. with the
diaspora. Pattie is the author of Faith in History – Armenians
Rebuilding Community (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997). She is
a Senior Research Fellow at University College London. Recently,
she was instrumental in the founding of the Armenian Institute in
London, which is dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a
living experience.
Concluding remarks will be offered by Khachig Tölölyan, Chair of the
English Department at Wesleyan University. Tölölyan is the founder
and editor of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. This
award-winning publication is in its 12th year of continuous publication
by the Zoryan Institute and Toronto University Press.
Thanks to the generosity of the benefactors who established the
outreach efforts of the Armenian Center at Columbia, this conference
aims to jumpstart new research projects on Armenian immigrants and
their descendants in the United States not only by energizing the
scholars who are presenting papers on October 9, 2004, but also
inspiring graduate students to pursue studies in this area. Most
of the new scholars had to read Mirak’s or Pattie’s books for their
dissertations, some borrowed Der Karabetian’s Armenian identity scale
for their research, and probably they all aspired to emulate Tölölyan’s
academic achievements. However, few have had the opportunity to meet
the pioneers in person. It is hoped that mentoring partnerships,
scholarly networks and even friendships will result from this historic
gathering, eventually yielding a burst of new research and publications
on Armenian immigrant and their descendants in America. The day will
be structured in a way that will give the audience an opportunity to
engage conference participants on topics of their own interest.
Do not miss this unique opportunity to learn about Armenian
American history and the issues affecting this community today. The
Graduate Center, CUNY is located at 365 Fifth Avenue, between
34th and 35th Streets. For more information contact Anny Bakalian,
ABakalian@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-7570. The conference program and
other information can be found on
or web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac.