MIT hosts conference on America’s response to the Armenian Genocide

2-22-mit-hosts-conference-on-america-s-response-to -the-armenian-genocide
Published: Monday February 22, 2010

Cambridge, Mass. – On March 13, 2010, a one-day conference entitled
"America’s Response to the Armenian Genocide: From Woodrow Wilson to
Barack Obama," will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in Building 10 Room 250 from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

The conference is co-organized by Profs. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT)
and Christopher Capozzola (MIT) and sponsored by the Faculty of
History, the Center for International Studies (CIS), the Office of the
Religious Affairs, and the Program on Human Rights & Justice (PHRJ).

The goal of the conference is to discuss and examine America’s
evolving policy toward the Armenian Genocide from the earliest years
of World War I through the present day.

Although the Armenian Genocide is increasingly recognized as one of
the foundational events of the twentieth century’s painful history of
political and ethnic violence, scholars who have examined its impact
on United States foreign policy have concentrated almost exclusively
on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. But the legacy of the Armenian
Genocide shaped U.S. policy through the twentieth century-as Americans
confronted the meaning of "genocide" itself in the wake of World War
II; as they confronted Armenia’s pivotal place in the tense Cold War
conflict; as Armenian Diaspora voices pressed Congress for
recognition; and as geopolitics shifted again with the unification of
Europe and U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

The one-day conference will bring together specialists in U.S. foreign
relations, along with historians of ethnic conflict, genocide, and
humanitarian intervention more generally. By bringing together experts
on Armenia with those whose interests range somewhat further afield,
the conference seeks to incorporate Armenian histories more fully into
historical and social scientific disciplines and to foster dialogue
between area studies specialists and U.S. historians.

Panels will discuss three major historical phases that shaped U.S.
policy towards the Armenian Genocide: World War I, the Cold War, and
the post-Cold War era. The latter two periods remain particularly
understudied periods.

Confirmed speakers at the conference include: Prof. Roger Petersen
(MIT), Prof. Richard Hovannisian (UCLA), Prof. Christopher Capozzola
(MIT), Prof. Simon Payaslian (BU), Prof. Dennis Papazian (University
of Michigan-Dearborn), Mr. Michael Bobelian (Lawyer, Author, and
Journalist), Mr. Gregory Aftandilian (Independent Scholar), Dr. Rouben
Adalian (ANI), Mr. Marc Mamigonian (NAASR), Dr. Suzanne Moranian
(AIWA), and Prof. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT).

A keynote speech will be delivered by Prof. Richard Hovannisian, the
holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian
History at UCLA.

bedross@mit.edu