Boston University Hosts International Symposium on the Legacy of the
First Republic of Armenia, 1918-1921
PRESS RELEASE
Charles K. & Elisabeth M. Kenosian Chair
in Modern Armenian History & Literature
Department of History
Boston University
226 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Contact: Professor Simon Payaslian
phone: (617) 353-8313
email: payas@bu.edu
(Boston)?Boston University will host an international symposium on the
LEGACY OF THE FIRST REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA, 1918-1921, on Saturday,
September 27, 2008, from 10:00am to 3:30pm at the School of Management
Auditorium, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 105. The conference will
probe the long-term impact of the Republic on the Armenian people both
in Armenia and the diaspora. It is open to the public, and admission is
free.
The conference is sponsored by the Charles K. and Elisabeth M. Kenosian
Chair in Modern Armenian History and Literature at Boston University
and is co-sponsored by BU?s International History Institute, the
Department of History, and the Department of International Relations,
and by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research in
Belmont, Massachusetts.
Professor Simon Payaslian, Holder of the Kenosian Chair, commented that
this conference is a celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of the
re-emergence of Armenian statehood in 1918 as well as the Republic?s
independence after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. This
conference brings together some of the best scholars with different
perspectives to share their analyses with the public. Since the final
collapse of the first Republic in February 1921, the issues surrounding
its rise and fall have been too politicized and too often colored by
ideological predilections. As a result, we have no more than a handful
of serious scholarly studies on the first Republic, and we do not have
any serious works on its legacy. This conference promises to begin to
close that void in our understanding of the long-term political and
cultural significance of the first Republic.
Payaslian thanked Professor Cathal J. Nolan, Executive Director of the
International History Institute at Boston University and Associate
Professor in the Department of History, and added that this conference
would not be possible without generous contribution of time and advice
by Professor Nolan. Professor Nolan received his M.A. and Ph.D. from
the University of Toronto and is the author of several publications in
international history, American diplomatic history, and military
history, including (co-editor) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF U.S. PRESIDENTS AND
FOREIGN POLICY (2007); AGE OF WARS OF RELIGION: 1000-1650, VOLS. I AND
II, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD WARS (2006), (editor) GREAT POWER
RESPONSIBILITY IN WORLD AFFAIRS (2004); GREENWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 4 volumes (2002); (editor) NOTABLE U.S.
AMBASSADORS SINCE 1775 (1997); (editor) ETHICS AND STATECRAFT: THE
MORAL DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (1995, 2nd ed. 2004); THE
LONGMAN GUIDE TO WORLD AFFAIRS (1995); PRINCIPLED DIPLOMACY: SECURITY
AND RIGHTS IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY (1993); (editor) SHEPHERD OF
DEMOCRACY? AMERICA AND GERMANY IN THE 20TH CENTURY (1992); in addition
to numerous articles and book chapters on U.S. foreign policy and
international relations.
Professor William R. Keylor, Director, International History Institute,
will serve as Program Chair. Professor Keylor has numerous
publications, including A WORLD OF NATIONS: THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER
SINCE 1945 (2nd rev. ed., 2008); THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORLD: AN
INTERNATIONAL HISTORY (5th rev. ed., 2006); THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT
WAR: PEACEMAKING, 1919 (1997); and JACQUES BAINVILLE AND THE
RENAISSANCE OF ROYALIST HISTORY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY FRANCE (1979), in
addition to numerous book chapters and articles in scholarly journals.
Professor Keylor received his B.A. from Stanford University, and M.A.
and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has been a Guggenheim,
Fulbright, Earhart, and Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and has been named
Chevalier de l?ordre national du mérite by the French government. He
has been elected to the International Institute for Strategic Studies
and has served as the president of the Society for French Historical
Studies. At Boston University, he has received the Metcalf Award for
Excellence in Teaching and the Methodist Scholar-Teacher Award.
Professor Keylor served as Chairman of the Department of History at
Boston University between 1989 and 2000.
The speakers in the morning session (10:00am-12:00 noon), in addition
to the opening remarks by Professor Payaslian, are Professor Erik
Goldstein, Chair of the Department of International Relations at Boston
University; Professor Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn; and
Dr. Victoria Rowe, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom.
Professor Erik Goldstein?s paper, titled GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
RE-EMERGENCE OF ARMENIAN STATEHOOD, discusses the British fascination
with and involvement in the Eastern Christians, how British engagement
in the region became a popular cause. The paper then focuses on the
extent to which the pro-Armenian groups in the British government
influenced foreign policy in the First World War, and finally why
British support for the Republic collapsed.
Professor Goldstein has been Chair of the Department of International
Relations at Boston University since 1998. Also a professor of History,
his research interests include diplomacy, formulation of national
diplomatic strategies, the origins and resolution of armed conflict,
and negotiation. Professor Goldstein is the author of a number major
works, including WINNING THE PEACE: BRITISH DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY, PEACE
PLANNING, AND THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE, 1916-1920 (1991); WARS AND
PEACE TREATIES (1992); THE FIRST WORLD WAR?S PEACE SETTLEMENTS:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 1918-1925 (2002, Italian translation, 2004);
and POWER AND STABILITY: BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1865-1965 (2003). He
has published in numerous journals, including REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS, MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, EAST EUROPEAN QUARTERLY, HISTORICAL
RESEARCH, HISTORICAL JOURNAL, THE HAGUE JOURNAL OF DIPLOMACY, AND
BYZANTINE & MODERN GREEK STUDIES. He has co-edited THE END OF THE COLD
WAR (1990); THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE, 1921-1922: NAVAL RIVALRY, EAST
ASIAN STABILITY, AND THE ROAD TO PEARL HARBOR (1994); THE MUNICH
CRISIS: NEW INTERPRETATIONS AND THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR II (1999); and
GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY (2002). Professor
Goldstein is also the founder-editor of the journal DIPLOMACY &
STATECRAFT and he has served on the editorial board of BYZANTINE AND
MODERN GREEK STUDIES. Professor Goldstein received his B.A. from Tufts
University; M.A., and M.A.L.D. from Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy; and Ph.D. from University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of
the Royal Historical Society of Britain. He was previously Professor of
International History, Deputy Head of the School of Historical Studies,
and Deputy Director for the Centre for Studies in Security and
Diplomacy at the University of Birmingham (UK) and has held
appointments as Secretary of the Navy Senior Research Fellow at the
Naval War College and as Visiting Scholar at the Centre for
International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He is the
President of Phi Beta Kappa, Epsilon of Massachusetts. He has been the
recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Wardrop Fund
Grant at the University of Oxford, a grant from the Smith Richardson
Foundation, the Bane Fund Grant from Cambridge University, and a Hoover
Presidential Library Fellowship.
Professor Ara Sanjian, Director of the Armenian Research Center at the
University of Michigan-Dearborn since 2006, will present a paper titled
CONTINUING THE ALL-RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY 1917: THE CHALLENGE
OF LAND REFORM. His talk covers the attempts to introduce land reform
in Eastern Armenia from 1917 to 1920, during the periods of rule by the
Provisional Government in Petrograd, the Transcaucasian Federation, and
the Republic of Armenia. The paper sheds light on social and economic
program of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Hay Heghapokhakan
Dashnaktsutiun), the ruling party in the Republic of Armenia, which was
heavily influenced by the ideology of the Socialist Revolutionary Party
in Russia. It also examines the approaches of the other political
parties active among the Armenians in Transcaucasia.
Professor Sanjian is the author of two books, TURKEY AND HER ARAB
NEIGHBORS, 1953-1958: A STUDY IN THE ORIGINS AND FAILURE OF THE BAGHDAD
PACT (2001), and THE NEGOTIATION OF ?THE CONTRACT OF THE CENTURY? AND
THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND TO THE REVIVAL OF AZERBAIJAN?S OIL INDUSTRY
(1997), as well as numerous articles on a variety of topics in Armenian
history and culture. Dr. Sanjian received his Ph.D. in modern Middle
East history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the
University of London, and an MA degree in Armenian History from the
Faculty of History at Yerevan State University in Armenia. Dr. Sanjian
was the Chairman of the Departments of Armenian Studies, History and
Political Science at Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon, from 1996
to 2006, where he also served on the editorial board of the HAIGAZIAN
ARMENOLOGICAL REVIEW. During the fall semester of 2003, he was
appointed as the Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan Visiting Professor in
Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno.
Dr. Victoria Rowe (University of Greenwich, United Kingdom) will
present a paper titled WOMEN AS POLITICAL ACTORS IN THE FIRST REPUBLIC
OF ARMENIA AND IN THE CREATION OF INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS OF REFUGEE
RELIEF, 1918-1925. Her paper examines the political status of Armenian
women in the first Republic of Armenia and activism by women on behalf
of the Republic at the League of Nations. She then discusses the
resulting legacy of political participation of women in the Armenian
diaspora.
Dr. Rowe is the author of A HISTORY OF ARMENIAN WOMEN?S WRITING,
1880-1922 (2003) and has translated a series of short stories by Inga
Nalbandian (1917) on the Armenian Genocide as YOUR BROTHER?S BLOOD
CRIES OUT (2007). She is currently co-editing a volume on Ottoman women
and print culture, as well as completing a chapter on Armenian refugees
in Aleppo for a volume on REFUGEES AND THE END OF EMPIRE. Dr. Rowe has
published numerous articles in Armenian studies and has edited
translations of the works of Shushanik Kurghinian and Zabel Yesayan.
She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and has taught
Armenian literature and gender history at universities in Canada and
Japan.
The conference will resume after a lunch intermission from 12:00 noon
to 1:00pm. The speakers during the second session (1:00pm-3:30pm)
include Dr. Benjamin F. Alexander, Towson University, Maryland; Dr.
Razmik Panossian, Montreal, Canada; and Dr. Robert Krikorian, George
Washington University.
In his paper, titled THE THOUSAND-DAY REPUBLIC AND THE ASSASSINATION OF
ARCHBISHOP TOURIAN, Dr. Alexander examines the connection between
contested memories of the first Republic of Armenia and the polarized
perceptions of the Tourian affair, 1933-34.
Dr. Benjamin F. Alexander teaches History at Towson University in
Maryland and is the author of CONTESTED MEMORIES, DIVIDED DIASPORA,
which appeared in the JOURNAL OF AMERICAN ETHNIC HISTORY (2007). He
holds a Ph.D. in history from the City University of New York Graduate
Center. Dr. Alexander is also preparing a chapter for a forthcoming
volume on American immigrant anti-Communism edited by Ieva Zake. He is
working on the book version of his 2005 dissertation on
Armenian-American immigrant experiences.
Dr. Razmik Panossian will present a paper titled THE IMPACT OF THE
FIRST REPUBLIC ON ARMENIAN IDENTITY IN THE 20TH CENTURY. His paper
explores the extent to which the first Republic shaped subsequent
Armenian political thought both in Soviet Armenia and in the Armenian
diasporan communities.
Dr. Panossian is the author of the critically acclaimed THE ARMENIANS:
FROM KINGS AND PRIESTS TO MERCHANTS AND COMMISSARS (2006). His Ph.D.
dissertation on Armenian national identity and nationalism, submitted
at the London School of Economics, won the Lord Bryce Prize for Best
Dissertation in Comparative and International Politics in the United
Kingdom. He received his M.A. from York University (Toronto) and B.A.
from McGill University (Montreal). Panossian has published numerous
articles on Armenia and the diaspora and given many lectures and
academic conference papers on the subject internationally. He has also
participated in the Turkish-Armenian workshops, as well as the
Armenia-Diaspora conferences. Currently, he is the Director of Policy,
Programmes, and Planning at Rights & Democracy in Montreal. He oversees
its international work which focuses on human rights and democratic
development.
Dr. Robert Owen Krikorian will present a paper titled THE LEGACY OF THE
FIRST INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA AND THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET POWER.
His study explores the historical paradigm shift which occurred in
Soviet Armenia during the democratic movement and analyzes the
competing historical narratives and their political implications in
Armenia as the Soviet era approached its end. Memories of the Armenian
Genocide (1915-1923) were rekindled following the 1988 anti-Armenian
pogroms by Azerbaijani Turks, which in turn shattered the tacit social
contract between the Soviet State and the Armenian people. The social
contract, up to that point, had exchanged loyalty to the Soviet State
for the physical inviolability of the Armenian nation. In this paper,
Dr. Krikorian focuses on the memories of the first Republic of Armenia
and how these memories acted as a competing narrative and undermined
Soviet legitimacy.
Dr. Krikorian earned a Ph.D. in History and Eurasian Studies at Harvard
University, where he was an associate of the Davis Center for Russian
and Eurasian Studies. He is currently a Professorial Lecturer at George
Washington University (GWU), where he teaches courses on the modern
history and politics of Transcaucasia and Eurasia in both the History
Department and the Elliott School of International Affairs. He is also
an Associate of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian
Studies at George Washington University. Dr. Krikorian has lectured and
written on the modern history and politics of Eurasia including the
co-authored book, ARMENIA: AT THE CROSSROADS (1999). His articles and
reviews have appeared in the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST
STUDIES, MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL, JOURNAL OF COLD WAR STUDIES, ANNUAL OF
THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF CAUCASIA, GLOBAL DIALOG, and ARMENIAN
REVIEW.
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