PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian
LECTURE AT NAASR ON POST-1915 ARMENIAN DIASPORAN CULTURAL IDENTITY
Zeynep Turan, a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Psychology at the City
University of New York, will give a lecture entitled "Objects of Legacy:
Material Culture and Post-1915 Armenian Cultural Identity in Diaspora"
on Thursday, October 26, at 8:00 p.m., at the National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center , 395 Concord Ave.,
Belmont, MA.
The displacement and involuntary resettlement of the Armenians of the
Ottoman Empire from their ancestral lands created the need to rebuild
identities based on lost landscapes, nostalgia, and collective symbols.
Having been displaced from one’s homeland, one might make one’s new
dwelling in language, in stories, or in personal objects. An identity
based on being from "there" but living "here" encourages a sense of
place maintained as much by stories and memories as by the topography of
one’s homeland.
Material Objects Provide a Link To Lost Homeland
Since the experience of forced migration destabilizes a person’s
relationship to the environment, a collection of personal objects may
allow one to form a safe area from which one can reclaim (or disclaim)
personal and cultural identity. For Armenians originally from Asia
Minor, as well as Greeks and displaced Palestinians, the personal
objects brought from their homelands provided a sense of cultural
identity and security that has been taken for granted. These objects
took on the roles that family, friends, and a familiar ancestral
environment would have played had the 1915 genocide, the population
exchange, and the displacements never happened. These material objects
enable their owners – the displaced persons and their descendants – at
least to imagine a security that has been lost.
Turan is in the final year of a doctoral program in Environmental
Psychology at the City University of New York (CUNY). A native of
Izmir, Turkey, she is focusing her research on the effects of
displacement on Armenians, Greeks, and Palestinians, as well as others
forced to flee their homelands, and their descendants. She holds
Masters degrees in Psychology and Architectural History and Theory.
The NAASR Center and Headquarters is located opposite the First Armenian
Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available
around the building and in adjacent areas. The lecture will begin
promptly at 8:00 p.m. More information about the lecture is available
by calling 617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or
writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
