UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MARKING GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

Monday, February 9th, 2015

University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host a major international
conference to mark the centennial of the Armenian Genocide

LINCOLN, Neb.–On the occasion of the Centennial of the Armenian
Genocide, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will host a two-day
conference from March 19-20, 2015 entitled “Crossing the Centennial:
The Historiography of the Armenian Genocide Re-Evaluated” at the Wick
Alumni Center – Great Hall, 1520 R Street.

Organized by Prof. Bedross Der Matossian from the Department of History
at UNL, the conference is sponsored by the Norman and Bernice Harris
Center for Judaic Studies, the National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont, Mass., the Society for
Armenian Studies (SAS), the Department of History, the Faculty Senate
Convocation Committee, the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
Program, the Women’s and Gender Studies program, and the Institute
of Ethnic Studies at UNL.

The conference will focus on four under-researched themes that
have recently gained scholarly attention and analytical depth:
a) humanitarianism and humanitarian intervention in the Armenian
Genocide; b) women and children in the Armenian Genocide; c)
comparative dimensions of the Armenian Genocide; d) and the impact
of the Armenian Genocide on society, politics, literature, and culture.

Twenty-two scholars from Armenia, Cambodia, Canada, Holland, Hungary,
Israel, and the United States representing 17 different academic
institutions will participate in five panels of the conference.

The conference will start at 2:00pm on Thursday, March 19, with
welcoming remarks by Prof. William G. Thomas III, the chair of the
Department of History at UNL, and opening remarks by Prof. Bedross
Der Matossian from the Department of History.

The first panel, entitled “Humanitarianism and Humanitarian
Intervention” will be moderated by Prof. David Forsythe (UNL),
who is widely regarded as being among the first scholars who have
established the study of human rights and humanitarian affairs in the
disciplines of political science and international relations. The
panel will feature the following speakers and topics: Dr. Hilmar
Kaiser (Phnom Penh, Cambodia), “Humanitarian Intervention and
Ottoman Opposition to Extermination: A Neglected Aspect”; PeÃŒ~Ater
PaÃŒ~Al KraÃŒ~Anitz (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), “Armenian
Refugees, Humanitarian Assistance and Hungary”; and Prof. Mark
Toufayan (University of Ottawa), “Between Intimacy and Alienation:
Armenian Property, Denationalization and the Passions of ‘Protection’
in French Mandated Cilicia, 1918-1923”.

The second panel, which will be the featured one of the Conference,
will be moderated by Prof. Jean Cahan, the director of the Harris
Center for Judaic Studies and will include three speakers: Prof.

Richard G. Hovannisian (University of California-Los Angeles),
“The Centenary of the Armenian Genocide: What Have We Learned?”; Prof.

Michelle Tusan (University of Nevada-Las Vegas), “Humanitarian Empire:
Britain’s Response to the Armenian Genocide,”; and Prof. Keith
Watenpaugh (University of California-Davis), “Armenia, Armenians,
The League of Nations and Modern Humanitarianism.”

The second day of the conference will start at 9:00am and will feature
four panels. The first panel entitled “Women and Children during
the Genocide” will be chaired by Prof. Patrice McMahon, an expert on
international security, conflict, and human rights, and will feature
the following speakers and subjects: Prof. Benny Morris (Ben-Gurion
University), “Women and Children in the Turkish Ethnic Cleansing
of Armenians and Greeks, 1919-1923”; Prof. Carina Karapetian Giorgi
(Pomona College), “Critical Examination of the Historiography of Women
during the Armenian Genocide”; Anna Aleksanyan (Clark University),
“‘Neutral home’ and the Issue of Identity of the Surviving Armenian
Women and Children”; and Tugce Kayaal (University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor), “A Critique of the Concept of the “Genocide Survivor”:
Armenian Orphans in Aleppo Between the Years of 1915-1918.”

The second panel entitled “The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust”
will be chaired by Prof. Ari Kohen, the director of the Human Rights
and Humanitarian Affairs Program at UNL and will feature the following
speakers and subjects: Umit Kurt (Clark University), “‘Legal’ and
‘Official’ Plundering of Armenian and Jewish Properties during the
Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust within a Comparative Perspective”;
Prof. Stefan Ihrig (Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem), “From the Armenian
Genocide to the Holocaust – A Connected Perspective”; and Prof.

Harutyun Marutyan (National Academy of Sciences of Armenia), “The
Institute of Righteous Among the Nations in the Armenian and the
Jewish Cases.”

The last panel of the conference entitled “Aftermath of the Genocide:
Politics, Culture, Society, and Literature,” will be chaired by Prof.

Chantal Kalisa, an expert on the Rwandan Genocide and director of
the Women’s and Gender Studies program at UNL, and will feature the
following speakers and subjects: Prof. Tsolin Nalbantian (Leiden
University), “Armenian Nation Building through Sport: The Armenian
Olympiad Before and After the Armenian Genocide”; Prof. Heghnar
Watenpaugh (University of California-Davis), “Art, Heritage, and the
Armenian Genocide: Toros Roslin’s Zeytun Gospels between 1915 and
2015”; Prof. Talar Chahinian (California State University-Long Beach),
“Impossible Testimonies: Literature and Aesthetics in the Aftermath of
the Armenian Genocide”; and Dr. Seyhan Bayraktar (Historical Seminar
of the University of Zurich), “The Armenian Genocide and the Politics
of Denial: on Turkey, Civil Society, and EU Recognition Politics.”

Closing remarks will be delivered by Prof. Lloyd Ambrosius from
the Department of History. “It is a great honor for the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln to hold the largest conference in the Midwest
to mark the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide,” said conference
organizer Prof. Der Matossian. “It is not only that we are bringing
scholars from various disciplines to discuss different aspects of the
Armenian Genocide but that we also should think of this Conference as
a unique opportunity for the University community at large to benefit
from the expertise of top scholars in the field and understand better
one of the first genocides of the modern period.”

The poster of the conference was prepared by Ruben Malayan, a renowned
artist from Armenia. The poster displays Malayan’s expression of the
experiences of the Armenian nation (represented by women and children)
on the death marches of the Genocide. The white auras around their
heads symbolize the sanctity of the victims. The stark contrast of
black and white background represents the inhuman suffering people had
to endure before perishing. The work was inspired by a real photograph
of an Armenian family taken during expulsion and extermination of 1915.

The event is open to the public. For further information, please
contact Prof. Der Matossian at bdermatossian2@unl.edu or (402)
472-2417.